In a privileged and breathtaking location, it is the only Spanish Pyrenees Nature Park, bathed by the lake of San Mauricio. Presumably the reader cares little about what happened in the Quaternary. Until they get to Aigüestortes, of course. Once there, you will marvel and wonder how it is that this mountain was carved with such dizzying peaks over 3,000 meters high, almost cut with a knife. The blame lies with the Quaternary. At that time, glaciers cut stone like a knife through butter and nothing stopped them. They made way for the streams and reservoirs that have later given the park the name of Aigüestortes, meaning no more than "crooked water", thanks to the t

Autumn’s arrival brings the forest into flower. This is a silent explosion, much less brilliant than the arrival of spring time, but much tastier too. The first wild mushrooms of the season begin to appear in the shade of the trees. There are many ideal places to look for this earthy food, but few have the surroundings of the like of the Aracena range of hills. This forest, declared a nature park in 1989, is full of Roman roads, Muslim fortifications and ancient abandoned watermills. Horse chestnuts, poplars and walnut trees offer their ochre shadow where the wild mushrooms grow. From mid-October, the mushroom routes begin to blossom, offering a stroll and a meal with the harves

Spain has a smaller scale replica of the Tower of Pisa. The original took 177 years to build, but its Spanish version took a million years and so maybe we should say that Pisa has a version of the Valporquero Tower. The author of this small work of art is nothing but water, which has produced other curious shapes such as a reproduction of La Piedad and a ghost. All of these lie in a special underground museum, the Valporquero cave. In Vegacervera in the region of León there is a small village called Valporquero de Torío. A few dozen houses line the road in no particular order. There is nothing that makes you think that we are before one of the most important natural phen

On the AS-255, near the town of Somiedo, there are two road signs you don’t get on your driving test. A yellow plate says WARNING on a drawing representing two bears crossing the road. We are coming to the realm of the King of the mountains, the Somiedo nature park just 80 km from Oviedo. Declared a biosphere reserve in the year 2000, Somiedo was the first park in Asturias to achieve the European Charter of Sustainable Tourism. And this is what has always been pursued here, to encourage visitors to enjoy nature while causing the least possible impact. This mentality, along with incredible geographical surroundings, has enabled the proliferation of a species which seemed condemne

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

There are places in our country that do not know stifling hot nights in the summer. Corners sleeping at the foot of the mountains, which serve as a gateway to the areas where people go skiing, mountaineering or hiking. They are a usual passing route, but also a treasure in themselves. A treasure built under slate roofs to withstand the snow and cold when the winter comes. The Pyrenees in Huesca hide little secrets across the map, just before the roads are no longer displayed in the guides. The best known is Panticosa, a place of pilgrimage for skiers thanks to the Panticosa-Los Lagos resort. But besides skiing, there is a well-known spa resort and rivers flowing strongly when the t

Cádiz is famed for its brown hills and white houses, but there is one place where the two elements come together and result in a unique village. Setenil de las Bodegas is famous for its Easter processions, its steep streets and its whitewashed walls. Setenil is famous for many things, but above all for its houses built under the shelter of the rocks. These are not dug out houses, but rather houses that have made use of the erosion to use the rocks as a mountain rooftop. It is quite an experience to walk down these worn streets. On either side, the endless typical white houses of the area and above us the sky disappearing intermittently to give way to a rock rooftop protecting the s

  For those not accustomed to contact with nature and getting by with just what they need, camping may be the synonym of uncomfortable holidays. However, forget this image of camping because it is changing and now even the most delicate of tourists can feel at home in some of the most unspoilt corners of Spain.   In Spain, the camping boom occurred in the 1970s largely because of the European tourists, who were much more accustomed to going around with their homes and camping where the fair winds blew. Much time has passed, and although the sector is still in good shape, many people who decide to spend their free time in a tent are more and more demanding. And this &

  “Atapuerca? Oh yes, that village where so many old people live”. The joke, a classic in Burgos, the provincial capital closest to the most important archaeological and paleontological site in the world in the north of Castile, is justified with a single figure: the 1.2 million years of the remains of its first inhabitants, the oldest Europeans we yet know of. Their names and surnames? Homo antecessor, Homo heidelbergensis and Homo sapiens.    As in any good village, the villagers’ nicknames are everywhere: Miguelón‘s skull (in honour of the five times champion of the Tour de France Miguel Induráin) and Elvis the pelvis (fr

Entre montañas rocosas, aparentemente ajena al trasiego constante de turistas, aparece pétrea y encantadora la aldea de Camarmeña, en Carreña. A priori parece inhóspita, pero en las casas que se encaraman en la ladera habitan algo más de una docena de personas y se ha construido un pequeño hotel rural y un bar restaurante. Se accede por una vía estrechísima, que en coche da vértigo y a pie sofoca por sus curvas cerradas y sus cuestas casi verticales. Eso sí, el ascenso de apenas un kilómetro y medio desde el Punto de Información de Los Picos de Europa (en Cabrales) regala unas vistas increíbl