Sotres Sojourn

By the time we hiked over to Sotres the weather was gradually improving. Good. We were to have 3 days of trekking from this new location.  Although the fog lingered, at least it was not raining as we made our way on farm tracks and cattle trails from Espinama through the Aliva valley.

Ermita de Aliva.  This lonely trail-side chapel is only open on holidays.

 

No fertilizer/fertilizer?  We decided that these are grazed and ungrazed fields.

Sotres is the highest village in the Picos.  We trudged uphill on a tarmac road and found the tiny town perched on a cliff, overlooking a valley.   The main street seemed to consist of nothing but a few bars and hotels clustered around a recycling centre and a public laundry/wash-house. 

 Sotres is perched cliffside (stock photo).

Our hotel, Hotel Sotres, was on the edge of town but easy to find.  No GPS required. 

Looking down the main street from our hotel.  The single storey wash-house is surrounded by SUVs..

We had all our meals at the hotel, and they even made us lunch.  This was just as well since there appeared to be no grocery store. (One souvenir shop sold cheese, t-shirts, and scratchy hand-knitted woolen socks.)  We asked about the lack of amenities and were told that supplies were available at an outdoor market once a week.  Bread was delivered daily.   We confirmed this at breakfast as we watched the arrival of the bread truck from the dining room window. It came and left in about 5 minutes.  Had we wanted a loaf of pan we would have had to be very quick.

A farm on the outskirts of Sotres appears to have arranged for bread delivery

We walk back into Sotres after a day on the trail.

Although the main street offered very little, the village itself was pretty with small houses and apartments on the nearby streets.  I walked around the town and formulated a few generalities:

1. New or old, all village houses look alike with stone/stucco walls and tile roofs. (There must be municipal guidelines that enforce this rustic consistency.)

Stone walls, tile roof and flower boxes: check, check and check.  

This house had a solar panel, and a pretty garden. Extra points.

2.  Most residents are male and middle-aged, and at 6:00 pm they are all in the bars having beer and tapas.  Where were the women?  My friend Roz thought she knew.  They were at home preparing the unnecessarily large, multi-course dinners that would be consumed at 9 o'clock!

3.  Most residents own SUVs.  For such a small town there seemed to be an overabundance of vehicles, but I suppose people need to have a way to get to work or school, or just visit the dentist or get their hair cut.  Visiting hikers are surely the only ones hoofing it in and out of Sotres.   

When our S-scape representative Marie  dropped in to the hotel I asked her what Sotres was like in the winter.  Was there enough snow to support ski tourism?   There are very heavy snowfalls, she told me, but Sotres is close to the coast and the snow melts so quickly that it can be dangerous. There is very little skiing.

In fact, she and her family will be moving to Arenas for the winter so that her children are not at risk from avalanches as they are driven home from school.  She added that many people leave for the winter. If they are lucky they find seasonal work in Bilbao or other towns on the coast. Only about 60 residents remain behind.

I hope that weekly market is year-round;  I hope the bread truck has winter tires!