My experience in the Aragonese Pyrenees

This year, I spent the first week of my holidays in the Aragonese Pyrenees in a rented apartment with my family (including my little niece). We stayed in San Juan de Plan (or San Chuan de Plan) in the Valle de Gistaín (Bal de Chistau) near Aínsa. It is situated at 1120m above sea level and is surrounded by big mountains and very high peaks. The River Cinqueta passes near the village and is a typical high mountain river, with crystalline water in which you can dip your feet.

This is also the kind of typical village where you can hear the noise of the water when you open the window of your house. And at night you can also see the constellations and the Milky Way with perfect clarity.

The houses have the common high mountain style (even the new ones): dark stone, black roofs and wooden windows and doors. The floor and the stairs of the apartments are also made of wood.

One of the intentions of Rubén, my brother-in-law, and myself was to make some excursions to the mountains. In the rest of this composition I will describe these in detail: the sights and sensations you can see experience in the highest places of the Aragonese Pyrenees.

For our first excursion we went up to the Ibón del Sen. An ibón is a little glacier lake, surrounded by mountains and situated at a very high altitude. (According to the dictionary of the Real Academia Española, an ibón is a lake in the Pyrenees). This name is used only in the Pyrenees and I think only in Aragón.

The excursion was very long and hard, not so much because of its duration but because of the difference of altitude and the very steep slope. Nevertheless it was worth it. The Ibón del Sen is situated at 3250m in a gap surrounded by high stone mountains without vegetation. There is only a narrow path to access it and you have to walk over a great quantity of stones. The water is a very intense blue, and is very cold, even at midday in the middle of August. Once inside the mountains, you have the sensation of being in another world. Normally you are alone or almost since the access is very difficult (on that day we came across only one couple and a family). Very few people go there. It is really very impressive to be in the midst of all those mountains and to hear only the noise of animals once in a while. If you shout, you can hear your echo not once but several times.

We climbed 1160 m and it took us 4 hours and a half to go up and 4 hours and a quarter to go down.

The second excursion was also very interesting. We intended to get to another ibón. This time we went to the Ibón de Plan (or Basa de la Mora). This lake is situated at 1900 m above sea level. The slope to traverse covered a difference in altitude of 900 meters and we took 3 hours to do it. Again, the very steep slope was the main difficulty in getting to our destination. This time the distance was shorter and the slope was much the same but somehow it was even harder than the first excursion.

In the Ibón de Plan, due to the lower altitude of the lake, the landscape is very different. The lake is also surrounded by mountains but it is larger and more open then the other ibón we visited. The mountains only surround a half of the ibón. The rest of the landscape consists of meadows and forest.

There is a legend in relation to this ibón: a Muslim woman arrived in these mountains after fleeing from the fights between Moors and Christians and she got lost. They say that her spirit remains in the ibón and that the only people who can see it are those whose soul is pure, that is to say, good people without sin. The woman can be seen emerging from the water at daybreak on St. John’s Day. According to tradition, the inhabitants of the nearby villages in the valley go up to the lake on the night before St. John’s Day and purify their souls by washing their faces in the water of the lake with the first ray of the sun. The grandmothers of the valley say that if you can’t see the Dame of the lake, you have to think about cleansing your soul. The Dame emerges dancing from the water, and several snakes coil up around her body, which is decorated with jewels.

Once at the ibón, we ate near a little river and then we continued our ascent in order to observe the view from a higher point and to see the lake from above. There are trees until more or less 2000m and they are surrounded by meadows. We quickly went up 200m: several snowy mountains could be seen from the big meadows and a number of peaks were now very close. Once at this point we were relatively near the Colladeta del Ibón [de Plan] situated at 2345m between two peaks, which became nearer and nearer. We had to climb some more until we got to the Colladeta but again the effort was worth it. We reached the collado (a mountain pass) at 4 p.m. We made several stops on the way from the ibón to the collado in order to take in the view and to take photographs. It took us 4 hours to descend 1345m from the collado to the car. The views from the pass were incredible. Two valleys could be observed at the same time, and it seemed that several snowy mountains in the distance were below us. A little snow could also be observed nearby, on the North side of the mountain. There were no trees in this part of the mountains; everything was stone. The sensation of seeing two stone peaks up close was wonderful. This sensation was increased by the sound of the wind and of the animals and birds you could observe: marmots, wild goats, eagles… and the echo of your own voice. The only problem was that we had to go down 1345m to return to our starting point.

In both excursions, there was another thing which is important to emphasize: the changes in the landscape as we trekked. At the beginning there was a very thick forest, where we crossed a river from time to time and saw several waterfalls and big, natural stone walls. Later, there were meadows with trees, little rivers and waterfalls. After 2000m, more or less, you could only see a little short grass and then, at a certain point higher up, there was only stone.

Apart from these two wonderful and painful excursions, we made three more little trips, two of them with the family. The first was a walk along a path in the valley where a very deep stretch of water and a very thick forest could be found; the second was to a viewpoint near the village above us and then to the village itself; and the third was to the Valle de Pineta, a famous valley in the very well-known Parque de Ordesa y Monte Perdido. The same day of the visit to the Valle de Pineta we crossed the French border and we came to another lake, which may have been artificial (a reservoir). This is a route that passes near several lakes like this.

The other visit was to Aínsa, a medieval village which is the capital of Sobrarbe, the region. This is a very beautiful medieval village, and its houses in the historic centre are made of stone and have black roofs. The only problem is that it is very touristic and is very exploited. For example, in the entrance of the church you can introduce a coin to turn on the lights and listen to one minute of Gregorian chants. Nevertheless, the church is very nice, entirely made of dark stone and very well preserved. It also has a crypt under the altar and a tower which you can go up, after paying, once again, one euro. We had a very good meal with all the family under the arches of the main square of the village, in a very good restaurant which had been recommended to us.