A straight line is not always the shortest distance between two points, at least in the Picos de Europa. The Ruta del Cares, between Asturias and León, connects Caín with Poncebos, two villages 12 km apart, but where a car ride from one to the other takes about a hundred. If you have time and you want to change the hard shoulders for chalky gorges and the petrol stations for galleries cuts in the mountain, visitors can choose to go in a straight line and do the 12 kilometres that maybe are not the shortest, but are much prettier. La Ruta del Cares is the busiest route in the most frequently visited nature park in the peninsula. A true ‘Mall’ in the Picos de

Life ends at 2,700 metres, or so it seems. Gone are the beech, pine and fir and almost all green vegetation. It is when you overcome this barrier when you can admire the Ordesa National Park and Monte Perdido (Lost Mountain) in all their grandeur in the Pyrenees of Huesca. But the way here starts much earlier, and much lower. The route begins at the meadow. From here there is three-hour walk through the valley, climbing approximately 500 meters. An easy path for anyone with comfortable shoes and a light backpack. Thick forests line the river, the remains of the quaternary glacier gave this so characteristic 'U' form left by the action of ice on the rocks. At the end of the