Just a Wonderful Hike

73.65 miles hiked, 3 Cultural Events Attended

Today, we had to leave Hotel Terra Bonansa, not because we are moving west in our trip, but because we have run out of words in the thesaurus to describe how wonderful everything is. When all we can do is sit there smiling from ear to ear in deliriousness, and purring. (We do have four cats so have picked up mannerisms from them). Vacations are about experiences and the experiences we’ve had with Alejando, Mirabel, and those marvelous pups will occupy a special spot in our heart. We can’t wait to come back. More importantly, we can’t wait to hear about your visits!

Our next stop is the town of Ainsa, with it’s beautiful old medieval old town it’s a must visit as it’s in between the Ordesa National Park and  Sierra y Cañones de Guara National Park. Since Bonansa is at almost 5,000 feet and Ainsa is at less than 2,000 feet, we are going to get warmer. On our way to the hike today we drove through Ainsa, which gave us a chance to stop and see the new part of town as we hit the grocery store. It also happened to be market day, so we had to see the excitement.

Market days are a loooong tradition in Spain where farmers can sell their goods but have evolved with modern times. We saw the usual vegetable and fruit vendors but also the things that make Spanish market days special. There were numerous clothing sellers and artists. The one in Ainsa was small, but some are huge. Visiting the hometown of my awesome brother-in-law José, Arbo, we went to many markets in the area. The biggest was in Tui, a few towns over with hundreds of vendors that sold everything from farming implements to the freshest fruit ever. If you ever get to Spain, make sure to go to a town’s market day to see the real Spain.

Today was about hiking so we had a schedule to keep. There are some amazing hikes in the Ordesa NP area, so a balancing act was in play. While I want a hike that will push us, we had at least a 1.5-hour drive to the trail head. I also had to account for the idea that Pam has more common sense that I do. We needed a hike that would satisfy my desire for push but not go over Pam’s “John, you are crazy” limit. After a bunch of searching, I think I found the hike for us.

It was hard to pick a hike because in this area all the trails start in a valley and go up, and up, and up, and up. Some of the trails I looked at had 2,000-3,000 feet of up before you saw a single view. Eventually, I found a route that would get us some great views but hopefully not make Pam mad at me. (Narrator with a deep and sexy voice: John did good!)

Our route for the day. Provided you can read a topographical map.

At the market in Ainsa, we could feel the heat. As we made the 45 minutes to Plan, the starting point, we were thinking the heat was going to be high. When we got out of the car, we were surprised how cool it was. It was like an optical illusion. The route seemed flat, but we were gaining altitude to almost 4,000 feet, so the heat lessened a good bit. Additionally, we were driving into a gorgeous Gistaín valley with giant mountains all around.

First views from Plan of the Gistaín Valley.

We looked at Plan (pronounced like flan) a little bit, but it wasn’t that big and figured it was your usual small Spanish town. That is until I looked it up on the internet. In 1985 the mayor of Plan had a plan: women come find a man! Spanish television had just shown the 1951 Hollywood movie Westward the Women about a western town filled with men but no women. At the time Plan had 40 male inhabitants of the town and only one single woman because the rest had emigrated. In a newspaper ad they advertised for “women between 20 and 40 for marriage for the town in the Pyrenees.” Called the Caravana de mujeres (Women’s Caravan), it caused an international sensation with reporters coming from as far aways as Japan. It resulted in 33 marriages! If that’s not a fantastic case of government working for the people, I don’t know what is. It completely revitalized the town. I bet the mayor attended a lot of weddings and never had to buy a beer in his life again.

San Juan de Plan nestled in the mountains.

Just past the marriage capital of 1985 was San Juan de Plan. There were some interesting information points talking about the old ways of living and working. I forced Pam to listen to me translate them for her. In front of the church was a placard that talked about a special Mass tradition only done at this church. Evidentially, in the 1500’s there was a man in town named Juan that terrorized everyone and killed some people in town. The townspeople rose up and “killed Juan with their bare hands.” The Inquisition council investigated but there were no witnesses. That Juan must have been a bad dude because after every Mass they pray for the people who suffered under Juan. Since Juan is the Spanish translation of John, I was a little worried so told everyone my name was José. The whole story made me think that Juan was reincarnated as Ken McElroy.

After conquering the big up for the day, the views were incredible and worth all that sweat, as you can see above. Once we were up, we passed through the town of Gistaín. Where San Juan de Plan had information points and even a museum, which was closed, for visitors, Gistaín was decidedly ambivalent to tourists. Most Spanish towns have a fountain of potable water for travelers, and Gistaín had one, but most of it was dedicated to a trough so cows could drink. That told me what was important to them.

A goat with a drinking problem at Gistaín’s public fountain.

The flat-ish and long downhill across the rest of the walk, combined with breezes and views that went on and on made this a route we want to do again. We didn’t see anyone and had everything to ourselves. This was the kind of walk that soothed my soul. Just being there and making Pam laugh as we walked was the height of life.

Can it get any better than this? (That’s the town of Plan in the valley.)

Even though this was a perfect weather day, we had the donning of the waterproof socks. At this point I firmly believe that Randy Sun socks are the most important human invention ever. Even more important than sliced bread and the internet. A stream took over a half mile section of the trail and with our new superpower the gods were protecting us. Of course, we still worked to keep our shoes dry but taking out that wet foot worry is priceless.

The last three miles of the trail down to the valley was covered in Scotch broom, the nasty plant with thorns that will flay you alive if you wear shorts. It’s very invasive in North America, but native here. About 10 minutes after hitting them my allergies went into high gear. That wasn’t so fun walking through Scotch broom with a faucet for a nose. Weirdly, 10 minutes after getting past the main part of the Scotch broom, my nose stopped running. Massively reproducing, very thorny, and allergy causing must be the trifecta of terrible plants.

As we popped out on the main road back to our car, we couldn’t find the trail after looking for about two minutes. Then trail magic intervened. Behind us a French couple popped out of the trail and told us the trail we were looking for was washed out by a rising river. We had seen no other hikers all day and these people just appeared. We had to laugh.

Our hotel for the next three days is Los Siete Reyes (The Seven Kings) and is on the main square of the medieval part of Ainsa, and it’s beautifully restored. It’s seven rooms are decorated nicely, and it’s gotten wonderful reviews. Our room is on the top floor so it’s in the old attic. We opened the door and were almost knocked down a blast of heat. They had turned off the air conditioning save money, so we opened the very tiny window and turned on the AC.

The view from our room at Los Siete Reyes!

After showers, we headed to Casa Alfonso across the square and it was very good. In Spain many restaurants offer a simplified menu where you pick the starter from a few items, and the same for the main and desert. The servers were hustling, and Pam was in the bathroom when one of them dropped off the bread and a dish with to brown balls covered in nuts. She said something walking away I didn’t catch what it was. I tried a piece of one of the balls and the taste was interesting, but I couldn’t place it. When Pam came back, I offered her one, but she wasn’t sure, so I ate them both. After 10 seconds, I realized I just ate the special butter the restaurant does for bread. Pam laughed at me a lot and now you can too.

For the main course, Pam opted for the local lamb, and I went for their equivalent of surf and turf, shrimp and pig jowls. Both were so good we’d go back for them. We also got a bottle of the house red wine, Viñas de Vero Roble. It’s a blend that’s aged in American oak barrels for four months and is to be served chilled. Since it was warm out, it was very refreshing, and the taste was sublime.

Back in the room, it was still hot and the thermometer on my backpack said it was 80° F. Pam is laying spread eagle on top of the covers as I type. This is going to be a hot night, but not the kind you want.