Phil´s travels in the north of Spain

I´m writing from Oviedo, Asturias. We got here last night and are couchsurfing here a couple of nights here with a lady. Last Friday I picked Daniel up in Lerida, Cataluña, and we left early afternoon. We made it to Bilboa, Pais Vasco, that night and stayed with Joe, another language assistant. (On the way, we stopped in Logroño, Rioja and explored the town on bikes, and at a natural park in the Basque country and hiked around a bit). We explored Bilboa a little the next morning in a light mist and headed into Cantabria doing a little climbing at a town called Ramales de la Victoria. We drove into Santander in the dark and parked along the harbor for the night. The coast along this stretch is very beautiful. We visited several towns the next day on the way to the Picos de Europa. It is very, very green up here.

We arrived in Las Arenas de Cabrales in the Picos de Europa and ended up staying in the parking lot there two nights. Day one we drove up to Covadonga and saw a very beautiful santuary where there had been an important battle against the moors. This part of Spain never really fell to the Moors with the natural mountain fortress and was where the reconquest started. In the afternoon we started a hike in the mountains along a canal on the cliffs through the Cares Gorge, a very impressive hike, 3 hours to another little town, where we bought cider and made sandwiches and watched the rain start. When it stopped we headed back and made it halfway before it started raining again, we got back around 9 pm in the last light of the day, completely drenched.

The next day we drove up the to the same place and being a beautiful day we had a wonderful view of the famed Pico Urriello, or Naranjo de Bulnes, a big mountain of steep rock, 2,519 meters at the top. I will have to come back this summer to climb it, it is like El Cap for us in California... (trad climbing and a big commitment, it is about a 3 hour hike in) We then spent a good chunk of the day driving across the mountians to get to another climbing spot, Hoces de Vegacervera, Leon. I am climbing easy routes and the arm is feeling good. We got into Oviedo last night, late. Today we climbed another spot (Concejo de Quiros or El Llano) near here in a beautiful valley and now we are going to check out the city sights. We are fortunate to be having perfect weather at the moment. Next up Galicia. Pictures upon my return.