Michael & Hilary in the Cares Gorge
Day Four
This was a hotel change over day. So Hilary packed up while I took some more photos of what was a most beautifully cared for premises. We had our little pancakes and lovely bread and coffee and thanked the lady owner and paid for our gin and tonics while Hilary worried about how we were going to get to the next place in the western massif.
We had the option to walk the famous gorge on the way (14 miles) but decided to have a rest day from big walks and get to the hotel with my ipod playing my top 300. It was incredibly beautiful everywhere and I cried as the ipod played ‘Tonight’ from West Side Story. I felt I had to compose myself so we stopped at a pretty little village with a small stream running through it for yet another lovely coffee and a stroll around.
We found our hotel high on a hill above the road and were greeted by two chambermaids who were immediately thrown into a complete flap. The place was made up of three buildings in a beautiful location but not nearly so well appointed as the previous one. But the location made up for that and a little later we were greeted by the owner, Javier.
We managed to chat in a mixture of English, Spanish and French. It turned out that he originally came from Madrid but had moved here and spent 10 years demolishing the old farm buildings (such as they were) and rebuilding with his own hands the property as it is now….what bottle…he was extremely friendly which was a change from the more reserved atmosphere of the previous place.
He showed us our quarters in great detail and it was charming to see how immensely proud he was of his achievement. We accepted he offer of supper that night and went off down to the village for lunch just after 2pm.
We decided on a light lunch with chicken soup and a shared salad of red peppers, anchovies, etc while most of the others were having enormous meals of meat and potatoes. We then went off for a well known walk past the cathedral/basilica and up a very muddy road with sheer drops and just enough room for cars to pass if the cattle weren’t standing in the road.
The area was much greener and less dramatic than where we had come from. We eventually got to the parking area at the top which was much busier than we had encountered before, including a coach load of school kids.
We took a walk around and past the two lakes, Enol and Erika, and in comparison to previous days was a gentle stroll for less than two hours. It was very pleasant and extremely beautiful.
We came back to our hotel and yes….2 large gin and tonics and a game of Kalooki. We changed and I had a bath in the huge bath and went for our dinner….we were the only ones and he gave us a tomato and tuna salad which was simple but very tasty and a dish of red peppers and a whole goats cheese which had been cooked in the oven washed down with some delicious red wine….it was enough for us. At this point his wife and three children (2 small girls and a boy of 9) appeared. The boy immediately started kicking a football around.
I couldn’t resist and joined in a kick around with him. Almost at the first kick I ran for the ball but underfoot there were loose limestone chippings….my feet went flying forward from under me and I landed on my back with bleeding elbows.
This must have looked extremely spectacular but fortunately Hilary was still in the eating bit looking the other way so I carried on until it was too dark to play any more. Oh God, how I wish I could still play football – the control was still there, I could kick with both feet – much better than before my op.
There is a little net in the play area, I will test his skills in tomorrow!!!
Day Five
Looking forward to today when we meet Alex, our guide, to spend a full day with him. Breakfast here is not a patch on the previous place but OK and Javier makes up for this with his jolly nature.
At 10am Alex arrived, a striking looking man with thick-set athletic build. He looks like a centre or a wing-forward. We agree to do the Cares Gorge walk. The full walk is 7 miles there and 7 miles back. Hill and I are a little bit nervous as there are sheer drops of a mile into the valley below and the path in some places is only 2 metres wide!!!
We stopped for some petrol then went to get supplies in Arenas where we had stopped for coffee the day before. We made our way to the Cares Gorge and began by walking up…what a surprise….for about 35 minutes until we got to the top of the gorge where the route flattens out.
It is indeed truly spectacular and unlike anywhere I had been before. Hill and I walking not near the edge which was too frightening. We chatted with Alex all the way.
He was absolutely charming. He was a mountain guide who had worked in the Picos, Pyrenees, Andes, Africa and Himalaya. He was an experienced rock climber and in the winter acted as a ski guide in the high mountains. With his girlfriend they had 12 horses in stables and ran them in 100 mile endurance races. He loved the local wildlife, especially the birds. An interesting and kind young man.
We got to more than half way across the gorge and stopped for our lunch, tired but thrilled. The weather was a little dull and it did spit with rain for a while so we decided to walk back. By the time we finished walking we had covered 8+ miles.
I asked Alex if he would like a drink with us so we went back to Arenas where we sat in one of the Sidra (cider) bars and poured bottles of cider from over head high into a glass held in the other hand. You have to try and pour the cider onto the lip of the glass until you have two fingers and then drink it in one go. Everyone shares the same glass.
The pouring is not an easy skill but great fun. We chatted and drank for an hour and then parted company to come back to the hotel which seemed quite lively. I met a glamorous blonde German woman called Anna who lived in Madrid. She told us that Cangas was the place to go for dinner. So after we had rested up a little and I had a bath in the huge bath, we set off for our evening meal.
The town was the largest we had so far encountered, walked around a bit and plumped for a restaurant that looked typical and was quite busy. This was a good move.
Had peas and ham (delicious) to start. Hill had what she said was a superb salad to start. I then had an escalope of veal in cabrales cheese sauce with chips. Hill had salmon. Both were really nice. For postre, we both had ‘flan’ (crème caramel). This was washed down with half a bottle of wine and bottle of water with two huge chunks of bread. It was all splendid and cost a mere £20 for both of us!!!
Day Six
On our walk in the Cares Gorge the previous day Alex had pointed out another path which ran on the other side of the gorge to a small village called Bulnes. Before the funicular had been built, the village could only be reached by walking across the gorge. He said that this was only about an hour’s walk.
We decided that we would do this the next day and have lunch there. We got up and lounged around for a while at the hotel – the weather was overcast so we wore clothing to suit the weather and set off.
We couldn’t park so close to the start of the walk so had a fair walk until we reached the path. Up we went over loose limestone and boulders. The drops were equally severe but the path was much narrower than the Cares Gorge.
The scenery, however, was much prettier with lots of beautiful running water. By the time we reached Bulnes my shirt and jumper were both absolutely saturated with sweat and it had taken an hour and ¾ of hard uphill slog rather than the hour predicted by Alex! The village itself looked ancient and very pretty. We drank beer and coffee. I had fabada, Hill had an enormous salad.
I followed on with rice pudding – cold and solid, probably a mistake. We took it very easy on the way down – some of the paths were a bit hairy – and got back to our hotel at about 6pm.
Yes, two large gin and tonics and a game of Kalooki. I’m ready for my lovely bath now and we are going to eat here. We got ready and came out of our room to see all the kids playing outside so we sat on the wall and watched and listened with a couple of glasses of red wine.
At supper we had thin slices of beef type ham as an hors d’oeuvre and oven cooked dish of whole onions stuffed with tuna which was full of flavour.
Read part one of Michael’s Picos diaries.
Read part three of Michael’s Picos diaries.
Find out more about Pura’s holidays to the Picos de Europa.
Welcome to part one of the Michael Marks diaries! These are reproduced with the kind permission of Michael who travelled in July last year on a tailored Picos self drive holiday. I think this diary captures the essence of our holidays in the Picos. These are effectively unedited excerpts so present a warts and all review of a Pura holiday to the Picos de Europa National Park in northern Spain. Hopefully you will enjoy Michael’s take on the world!
Day One
Landed in Spain this afternoon, picked up our car and followed the north coast road and then south into Picos. Found hotel (Posada San Pelayo) which is very beautiful.
After settling in we walked up to the next village of Lon to find a place for dinner. We were walking so long that we thought we were going the wrong way so walked all the way back to get the car. Of course we discovered the restaurant about 100m further than we had walked.
Ordering was very difficult but had a lovely meal served by Kat from Ecuador.
Had usual ‘car getting stuck in small village’ incident which was quite scary. Hil did well to stay calm throughout.
Day Two
We both slept really well in our lovely bedroom. Breakfast was beautifully served and included fritesia (little pancake things, fried and covered in sugar…yum) as well as really nice bread and coffee.
Then we drove to our first hike, stopping in Potes to buy picnic of ham, bread, cheese, fruit and water. The walk started off steep…and got steeper…eventually after several stops and 2 ½ hours we got to the chapel – our target. Greeted by wonderful views and running water to replenish our supplies.
We sat and enjoyed our picnic with beautiful views and met the only person we had seen on our walk…John from Yorkshire who was looking for work….strangely at the top of a mountain.
Then we came down precisely following our directions. We came to a bit where we weren’t sure and opted for the downhill route. This descent wasn’t very pleasant with difficult steep downhill bits through woodland and lots of flies. We became quite tired but eventually got to a bit we recognised afrom the ascent and realised that we would come to the village where we started & where the car was. Although this was wrong we were very pleased as we were knackered. We’d done the steep shortcut!
Went back to our beautiful hotel and sat in garden where I consumed two huge gin & tonics.
Out to Potes for a meal, we plumped for open air town square meal & we both had some lovely trout just simply fried/grilled. Very yum. Back to hotel and slept like a log.
Day three
Woke very excited about breakfast and yes, the mini pancakes were there again.
Decided to do walk 12, Fuente Dé – Horcados Rojos – got another picnic at Potes – same stuff and drove to Fuente Dé where we got a cable car to the plateau half way up the mountain.
From the top we started walking up and up and up across difficult craggy limestone terrain totally different from the previous day – no woodland, just bare rock. There were more people this time but not too many.
We were sitting down having a rest when I jokingly turned to Hil and said “Busy here ‘innit?” as 2 or 3 people passed by. The man sitting near to us said “Don’t worry, were’ going in a minute.” He and his wife turned out to be Dutch. We exchanged amusing pleasantries for a few minutes. I like the Dutch!
After more climbing and crossing of ice fields (unbelievably) we decided to have our lunch perched on a couple of rocks. No sooner had Hilary made up her beautifully structured ham and tomato sandwich than the big birdies arrived. Hilary went ballistic and I thought for a brief moment that she was going to throw herself off into the blue yonder…..lunch was abandoned at this point.
We carried on upwards for a while but when we had thought we reached the top, we hadn’t. We learned that we had another ¾ of an hour to go. We were tired at this point and still had a long journey back down to the cable car. We decided to call it a day and head back. We had learned from the day before that going down can be just as hard as going up!
On the way down we saw some rock climbers going up what looked to us to be a very scary thing to do. The Dutch couple were also coming down and watched them with us. There followed a tense half hour watching them and discussing the world cup. I told him that the British were only good at sports where we were able to sit down…rowing, cycling and horse riding. I also mentioned that rock climbing probably wasn’t very popular in Holland!
Anyway, none of the rock climbers fell off so we trudged back down and made our way to the hotel where we had more gin & tonics.
Read part two of Michael’s diaries.
Read part three of Michael’s diaries.
Find out more about Pura’s holidays to the Picos de Europa.
Scarlet Macaw on the Osa Peninsula
I’m afraid my photography skills don’t really do this scene justice. What you can’t see is that there are around thirteen pairs of Scarlet Macaw dotted among these almond trees, squawking and squabbling over the nuts.
This must be the macaw equivalent of a coffee morning. Apparently this event is no novelty along this stretch of coast, where almond trees fringe the beach. The sand below is scattered with discarded nutshells, like the floor after a late night poker game.
Playa Carbonera, host to this incredible display, remains a little-visited gem on the very tip of Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula. It’s a good hour away from the tiny airport at Puerto Jimenez and the nearest building is an ecolodge, which has been showered with awards for sustainable practices.
Even that is a good twenty-minute walk down an almost vertical slope, which is actually easier to negotiate on your derriere than by foot in places. Some unfortunate members of my group didn’t really get the choice.
This means the beach itself is usually deserted, as it was on the day I visited. The macaws certainly make their presence felt, however, and a ruckus of beating wings, cackles and splintering nuts fills the air.
After making short work of the granite-hard shells, each bird carelessly flings the remnants to one side, interspersing the frippery with occasional thuds as the ravaged nut hits the sand below.
Only fifty years ago Scarlet Macaws occupied over 80% of the territory in Costa Rica, but due to changes in farming, most notably banana production, and poaching, their numbers have dwindled considerably. Most colonies are now confined to the Carara National Park, on the Central Pacific coast, and the Osa Peninsula in the south.
Even here, it is rare to see such a large group altogether, especially at 11 o’clock in the morning.
This knowledge aside, standing with your ankles in the balmy shallows of the Pacific, watching these majestic birds nattering over their mid-morning snacks, it is clear you are witnessing something quite special.
Our Costa Rica Uncovered Holiday visits lesser known gems of the country such as Corcovado and the Osa Peninsula.
See all of our Costa Rica holidays.
Read our guide to Costa Rica.