The Sierra de Guara is limestone country, and it behaves like it: the rivers have sliced through the rock in deep canyons, the villages sit on crags, and the sky is full of vultures. Cueva de Malifeto is in the foothills of the range, eleven kilometres from Alquézar, a village that grew up around a hilltop collegiate church above the gorge of the Río Vero. The name has a slightly sinister ring in Spanish, and shepherds in these hills have always had stories about odd and shadowy places.
The riding is memorable. The roads in this part of Huesca wind between stony ridges, drop into river valleys, climb again and run along ledges with views across the plains towards the Ebro, and each season gives them a different character. Spring brings flowers and swollen streams, autumn gives crystal air, summer is hot and lively with canyoners and climbers, and winter is quiet. Gravel is common near the canyon heads, so ride with a bit of caution. The road to Aínsa, nineteen kilometres away, is a classic: Aínsa's arcaded plaza and walled old town are one of the most beautiful in Aragon.
Alquézar deserves a stop. The Collegiate Church of Santa María la Mayor, begun in the eleventh century on the site of a Muslim fortress, looks down on the river from a rocky spur, and below it the Vero is crossed by a footpath of wooden walkways bolted to the canyon wall. The village is a good place for coffee, with narrow streets of stone houses and several terraces. The Vero canyon also holds painted rock shelters that belong to the same UNESCO listing as the Valencian ones.
Fuel is important here. Alquézar and the other small villages have no reliable pumps, so fill in Barbastro, twenty-eight kilometres away, a lively town and the capital of the Somontano wine district, where you can also buy supplies and see the cathedral. Griffon vultures are almost always overhead, and with luck you may spot the larger bearded vulture, once nearly extinct in Spain.