Exploring Picos de Europa National Park (Day 5)
We woke up to the wonderful smell of high alpine mountain air at the Picos de Europas and got ready right away to watch the sunrise from outside the hotel, in their backyard. After admiring the view from down below, we made our way to the cable car entrance (we had pre-booked tickets for the 2nd ride up at 8:30 am), and hopped on to get to the top- completely mesmerized with the view going up. The ascent to El Cable Viewpoint encompasses a journey that takes less than four minutes ( 2470 ft or 753 m vertical climb)and leaves behind some of the best possible views of Liébana. Each cage holds 20 passengers and at peak times it is advisable to reserve seats as they are quickly sold out.There is a cafeteria and a gift store at the top with essentials and coffee, food and wine.
Although taking El Cable is almost mandatory, choosing to go down on foot is some experience that is undertaken by some. It is a hiking route of just over 14 kilometers and takes full advantage of this spot in the Picos de Europa. From the 1,823 meters of the upper station you will follow a path that is mostly downhill - the difficulty level being marked as “easy to moderate”. We, unfortunately did not have the time to hike down, as we wanted to do some hikes on top of the mountain and we had some other plans later in the day. We took the trail departing north from the “Mirador del Cable” or the cable car station to Horcadina de Covarrobles pass (1933 m) with amazing views of the limestone mountain at every turn. At the pass the trail splits into two, the left trail leads to the summit of Horcados Rojos, while the right trail leads to Áliva and the back to Fuente de from the other side of the mountain. We explored a little bit of each of the trails and spent around 3-4 hrs breathing in the scenery. There is a hotel in Áliva that can only be accessed by either hiking or a car pickup from the cable car station. It was a little bit annoying to see the 4x4 sharing this part of the trail system, but there were not too many of them , at least when we were there.
We agreed to come back and do the trip “of going up the cable car, hiking to and then staying in Aliva Hotel and finally hiking down to Funte de the next day” for the next time.
After our hike, we made a quick stop for local vermouth at the cafe and took the cable car down to our hotel. Our plan was to end the day in Cangas de Onis, which is on the other side of Picos de Europa en Asturias. Picos de Europa is located at the intersection of the three states of Cantabria, Catillio de Leon and Asturias and to access each section you have to go around the mountain range. We decided to take the longer but scenic route via the south from Potes and the beautiful picturesque town of Riano. Before going south, we decided to go north from Potes looking for small towns dotted along the mountain sides, famous for cheese, vinegar and wine. On our way we stopped at the “Sotama” Visitor Centre and got a lot of information that was useful in planning the rest of our day.
As per the recommendation of the Visitor center attendant, we went to Bejes village in the Valley of Liébana where the traditional cheese Bejes Picon is made (under the appellation of origin Bejes Tresviso). It is a blue cheese with a very intense flavor and made from raw milk from either cows, goats and sheep or a mixture of all three. The drive to the village is quite picturesque but rugged and confusing as GPS keeps taking you through these impassable single lane narrow roads that even the locals have gotten weary of and put sign boards up.
When we got to the village, we luckily found one cheese maker's store to be open. We were excited and relieved to finally be able to try it directly from a cheese maker. One of us, who is not a fan of blue cheese, commented how buttery it was, while the other who is a big fan could not contain her happiness after tasting some. We bought two kinds of cheeses along with some local jabali (wild boar) chorizo and cider. The cheese maker was super kind to give us a whole lot of tostadas and slice up the cheese and sausage. We made a picnic out of that delicious food right in front of his store, overlooking the incredible and sweeping views of the village and the valley. On the way back to Potes we decided to take another detour and visited the village of Mogrovejo, another picturesque small village on the foothills of the Picos. This is a community made up of 8 small neighborhoods that can only be accessed by walking along in a loop which takes around 4-5 hrs.
Eventually we took a longer scenic route via N621/N625 stopping at two viewpoints Mirador del Corzo and Collado de Llesba. These viewpoints are frequented by hikers, mountaineers, cyclists, motor bikers and naturalists because they offer an exceptional viewpoint of the eastern and central peaks of the Picos de Europa. Wish we stayed another day here to explore the southern region of the Picos
We reached the Parador de Cangas de Onis at about 9 pm and inquired if there was any availability of any room with a view (At the Paradores hotels it's recommended to always make sure to get the superior room just for the view) which unfortunately we could not. The standard room that we stayed at was cozy but it was not in the original monastery section of the parador but in the new annex.
The Parador de Cangas de Onís sits on the banks of the river Sella, surrounded by the spectacular Picos de Europa. It is located in the Benedictine monastery of San Pedro de Villanueva, one of the oldest in Asturias and closely linked to the lineage of the first kings of Asturias. Since it was kind of late and raining, we decided to have dinner and save time for hanging out at the hotel for the next day. Dinner was a typical Asturian meal accompanied by cider. At least one of us was really excited to drink all the local cider to his fullest!
