Off to a slow start

All the blogs said get to Fuente De early otherwise you can wait in line for 2-3 hours to take the gondola to the beginning of the trailheads in the Picos De Europa. The other option is to walk which takes you 3 hours vs. a 3 minute and 40 second cable car ride. I got there at 7:50 am and I was the only car in the parking lot. I walked around. No employees. No signs of life. No signs in English. I was hoping it wasn’t some holiday and closed. So I walked over to the Parador (pictured below) and had breakfast. Around 9:00am I wondered back to the Gondola and there were about 30 people around lined up for tickets. Turns they open the Gondola and ticket office around 10am. Turns out “early” by American vs Spanish standards means something different. Stood in line talking to a couple from Ireland, we were moving in opposite directions as they had just hiked the Cares Gorge the day before and the Lakes of Covadonga the previous day. As I stood in line looking at the mountains covered in clouds it was reminiscent of Poon Hill in Nepal and our 4 am hike to the top of a mountain to catch the sunrise over the Himalayas only to see clouds. I was already shifting my mindset to and expectations and figured I would just have a quiet day hiking around the area, and would forego the idea of getting to Horcados Rojos. My jaw dropped during the last 30 seconds of the gondola ride when we broke through the clouds and were above them. It was indescribable.Read more