Alex, Pura Aventura's star guide in the Picos de Europa
Day Seven
Hotel change day so we packed, had breakfast and said our goodbyes to Javier and set off to Cangas to walk around the Sunday market. There was lots of local produce and especially hams, beans and cheeses. We bought a couple of presents and a fun tablecloth for the kitchen. We sat and had a coffee to watch the world go by. Then we drove off to find our new hotel, 3km south of Llanes.
We drove cross country rather than the main north coast road. When we reached our village La Pereda there was a lot of people roaming around in traditional Asturian costume, celebrating the local saint’s day.
We drove straight to the hotel where we were greeted by a charming long bearded man who spoke English and showed us to our suite. Wow! What a suite….it was huge and beautifully furnished. Probably the finest hotel room I have ever stayed in.
We then walked around the hotel gardens which were also large and very beautiful and examined the pool, which wasn’t so great.
After we unpacked it was down to the village to look at the fair and saw the local dancing accompanied by a bagpipe player and drummers. Yes, it is very Celtic around here. This was fun and we have a hot dog and a couple of beers in the beer tent. The locals (apart from those in Asturian costume) all seemed like they could have easily been transposed into Hove Rugby Club. I felt quite at home.
We came back to the hotel where I slept for a couple of hours and Hill read her book in the garden until we went down for dinner.
There were three or four families with young kids and the room and service was beautiful. We both had Asturian onion soup to start (not as good as French) but lovely nevertheless. Hilary had chicken and I had meatballs which was delicious. I then had ‘sweet milk’ ice cream with berries and I have to say that was a fantastic taste so that’s one to have again tomorrow.
At 11ish we went to bed but could hear live music at the saint’s day festival. We should have gone but we were tired…the music went on until after 4am!!! A restless night was had by all.
Day Eight
Managed to sleep late and had a later breakfast than usual which was splendid with a vast choice. Had a little kip before setting out to find a beach – we plumped for one and duly took our towels down and hoped that the sun would fight its way through the clouds. It didn’t.
We left the beach and had some water in a beach bar then went to the other side of Llanes to find another beach, which we did – but it wasn’t so nice. We decided to come back to the hotel and chill out/sleep…all the previous days’ walking had taken its toll on me.
Had a terrific dinner again and met a farmer (John) and his wife (Mary) from North Wales. They were in their 70s, were keen golfers and could talk the hind legs off a donkey. In fact, he used to breed donkeys. We sat and chatted until 12.30 then went to bed.
Day Nine
It was dull again so we decided to drive to Santander and have a look around. It was over 100km away and we got there fine but it was impossible to park in the centre so we drove to the beach as the sun had come out.
We had a walk along the prom and sunbathed on the lovely but crowded beach for a couple of hours until it got overcast again.
Back to the hotel and our beautiful suite in which to relax. Had another splendid meal and chatted again to Mary and John.
Day Ten
It had rained overnight and was dull. Decided to do an easy two hour walk down a river valley flanked by chestnut trees.
So got ready and jumped into the car for what was advertised as a two hour walk. We bought a few items in a local village and drove off to find Rio Casano. The walk started in a tiny village quite high up. We walked down a track to the riverside. It was a beautiful walk to start, with large trees and a fast running river. It was overcast and the walk was quite easy until we came to the tree trunk bridge over the river.
Hill went first as she didn’t want to turn around to close the gate at the start. She walked across slowly and carefully without any problem but I didn’t like it, especially as the log was a bit damp. I got some of the way across then lost my bottle and scampered and ran across the rest….I made it but it wasn’t very stylish or safe. When we got to the other side the walk took a bit of a downturn.
The path became much less pronounced and we found ourselves walking through ferns over head high in the now pouring rain. We got to a clearing and ate our crisps, chocolates and nectarines and decided to go back.
When we got back to the tree trunk bridge Hilary once again negotiated it perfectly but I decided to take my chance crossing the river at a shallow bit further along. I got slightly wet feet but it was well worth it. The trip took almost 4 hours.
We drove back to spend our last evening in our beautiful hotel and suite. Lovely bottle of wine and a meal of black paella.
Day eleven
Home we go after an absolutely wonderful holiday.
Read part one of Michael’s Picos diaries.
Read part two 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.
- Looking out over the Vilcabamba mountains
A client called in recently to say she was getting in a bit of a flap about the prospect of hiking up to 4,600m on the lodge to lodge walking holiday to Machu Picchu. I completely understood as I had got myself in a similar flap a few months earlier when I did the trek. Yet the actual day I was dreading turned out to be one of the most beautiful, challenging and enjoyable days hiking I have ever done.
I really enjoy walking and that is essential on this holiday. You don’t need to be a marathon runner or a mountaineer but you do need to enjoy hill walking to get the most form this holiday. I like to get out and about at weekends as much as possible but a particularly harsh winter had kept me indoors in the months leading up to this trek and a last-minute preparation trip to walk in the mountains of northern Spain was cancelled due to the volcanic ash cloud. So I have to admit that I arrived in Peru utterly unprepared and unfit. I was feeling rather daunted about the days ahead.
The two days I spent at the first lodge walking in the area around the base of Mt Salkantay meant I was acclimatised and getting used to walking at altitude but I had never stood at 4,600m, let alone hike up there.
We set off early from the lodge and as I tied up the laces on my boots I remember wishing I had opted for a beach holiday instead. It was mainly flat for the first part and the pace was very slow which I was very happy about. The next hour or so meandered slowly and gently up and down on a lovely path along the valley with Mt Salkantay as a permanent backdrop.
It was a beautiful sunny morning and I soon started to think I was actually going to enjoy this walk! After a couple of hours we reached the dreaded switchbacks which our guides had been telling us about for days. About 30 – 45 minutes of steep uphill along a series of switchbacks. Most people agree this is the toughest part of the whole five days. We stopped at the bottom to refuel on nuts, chocolate and lots of water and gawped up at the top. I was no longer nervous as I was enjoying the landscapes so much that my mind was focused on other things. Our guide advised us to just keep going on the next section and not to stop - the best option was to just get a rhythm going and stick to it.
I set off and started counting in blocks of ten to get a rhythm. I soon got impatient with how long it took me to get to ten ( at this altitude the pace is very slow indeed), so I switched to blocks of six. I kept going up and mentally crossed off each layer of the switch backs as I went. Some of the group stopped for a break and it seemed to take them ages to start again so I kept going and kept counting. I got to the last two sets of switchbacks and by this stage I think the counting had been replaced with swearing but on I went to the top.
At the top of this section we continued on a flat ridge and then went round a bend where a big platueau opened up with the entire Vilcabamba mountain range surrounding us. It was simply stunning. We stopped for a break and this is where this photo was taken. It was one of those rare moments when you know you are looking at something and experiencing something that you know you will treasure for a long time. I love the sounds of nature but the silence of the high mountains is very special. The group sat in silence and lay down looking up at the condors circling high above us. The mountains towered above in all directions. We persuaded the guide to let us stay a while longer than planned.
We then had the last push to the top of the pass. The last ten minutes of this section are tough as your pace almost grinds to a halt with the altitude but you can see the top of the pass the whole time and knowing how close it was kept us all going. On reaching the top the pain of the previous ten minutes was immediately forgotten as a sense of achievement took over. Not surprisingly the views were amazing and we had them all to ourselves as we did not come across any other groups on this trek.
After plenty of rest time and photos we started the descent. It was a few hours downhill where our porters were waiting with a hot lunch. The clouds came in fast over lunch and the mountains disappeared as we walked the last section. Our lodge slowly came into view – an amazing sight in such a remote lonely part of the world. A hot shower and delicious food was waiting. I was feeling on top of the world … and we hadn’t even seen Machu Picchu yet.
Find out more about our Peru holidays or this walking holiday to Machu Picchu.