Los Picos de Europa

I hopped on the bus in Oviedo with the destination of Arenas de Cabrales in mind but not really knowing the fine details of arranging the Cares-Cain walk along the beautiful Cares River Gorge nor the walk to Bulnes...a small isolated village in the Picos....population 32.  I had researched enough to know that there was even smaller village called Poncebos located at the trail head of the two hikes that interested me.  There were two hostals, but already full as this is the height of the hiking season.  Luckily when I arrived to Arenas, the tourist office was open and gave me a list of pensions and hotels in the area.  Walking up the street I saw a sign for a hotel that interested me......you must check out this link and read the description of the kind of person they are trying to attract and then you will understand why I decided to rest my head here.

http://hoteltorrecerredo.com

Here is a photo taken from the dining room of the Hotel Torrecerredo....

And the food was excellent...salmon cooked to perfection!

I also must mention here.....carrying over from my last entry....three nights with a full size towel!!!
Jim was the perfect host, facilitating my travel to and from the trail head.  The small town of Arenas was lively and filled with restaurants, bars, bakeries and sports equipment stores.  I briefly contemplated buying some new shoes as mine are definitely showing some wear and tear, but decided against it as all the blisters are healed and the toes that are bereft of nails no longer miss them.  I don't want to chance developing a new set of blisters from new shoes.  So unless holes appear in the soles of my current shoes....I will carry on.

The hole is not so much of a bother other than allowing a lot of dust to enter on the portions of the trail where it is quite sandy.  I am attempting a fix with some duct tape!!
Following are some of the photos from the two days hiking in this marvelous area.
First, following the River Cares up a steep gorge to the village of Cain and back again.

And before returning to Poncebos via the route in reverse....it was necessary to fortify myself with some of the local cheese.

The route to Bulnes, although shorter in distance turned out to be more tiring than I anticipated or perhaps it was the accumulation of kilometers on the legs.  The routes were quite different with the Bulnes walk following a much narrower gorge filled with vegetation and always acending rather that acending and undulating as did the Cares-Cain.

In the next photo, if you look in the distance somewhat to the left, you can just catch the famous rock climbing face of Narano de Bulnes with its perpendicular sides or as the locals prefer to use its original name...... Urreillu.

And right in the village of Bulnes, along side a crystal clear stream, a quaint little
restaurant for a refreshing drink before the walk back.

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the moments that take our breath away. - Hilary Cooper