From Cabo: Slope Soaring for the Mind

I've been watching pelicans a lot this week.

One of my three favorite birds - kingfishers and hummingbirds are the others, if you must know - these goofy guys are so ungraceful that they give me hope that even I might be able to burst into spontaneous flight one day.

They are clever, though, on at least one level. They know how to maximize their flight with minimum effort. I've been watching them catch the updraft from waves, a technique that's also known as "slope soaring".
Wikipedia says that slope soaring is "a gliding technique used to maintain altitude by flying in the updraft produced by wind blowing up the face of a steep slope". This requires a "a hill, ridge, escarpment or ocean wave, and a wind that is blowing against the slope".

That got me thinking... when it comes to creativity, what is your hill and wind?
For me, travel is my hill or ocean wave, and conversation is the wind.
When I travel and talk about it, my creative juices flow and new ideas come smoothly and fluidly - like a pelican coasting down the beach.

Without travel (even virtual travel works, checking out new magazines or websites) I'm stagnant. I have few new ideas.
But without conversation, I'm unable to get any real lift from the ideas.
Give me both, and I'm slope soaring.

What works for you?

Triple Your Spanish Vocabulary! Guaranteed or your Money Back!

We fly today to Cabo San Lucas (pictured to the right) for a little RnR at the Hilton Los Cabos Resort.

I love the collision of desert and ocean that occurs in Baja, so I'm really looking forward to this.

Ceviche, chorizos, chipotle, and chiquitas!

Time to start rolling my r's...

Speaking of which, I can triple the average Spanish vocabulary in one easy step.

I learned this in Mexico in 1991.

We were in Loreto, watching a parade of some type.

It looked like an election, so I asked an older Mexican man who was standing next to me.

Me: "Election?"

Him: "No comprende"

Me: "ELECTION?"

Him: "No comprende"

Me: "E... LEC...TION?"

Him: (shakes his head)

Finally, the proverbial light bulb appears above my head.

Me: "Eleccion?"

Him: as if discovering a dog could talk, "Si! Si! Eleccion!"

I realized that if I took every english word that ends with '-tion' and turned it to '-cion', I was now a master of Spanish.

I could go to the estacion and have a conversacion with the populacion of Mexico!!!

Viva '-cion'!