The Sierra de Guara is the first big wrinkle of the Pyrenees north of Huesca, a block of limestone sliced into deep canyons by rivers like the Vero, the Alcanadre and the Mascún, and the Cueva de Pacencia sits in that broken country. The shelters along the Vero hold prehistoric paintings in several styles, from the lively Levantine hunters to much more abstract schematic signs, and they are part of the UNESCO Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin. The area is managed as the Río Vero Cultural Park, with an interpretation centre in Colungo and guided visits to the best-preserved shelters, which is the sensible way to see them.
Alquézar, fifteen kilometres away, is the postcard: a village of ochre houses piled on a cliff above the Vero canyon, crowned by a collegiate church inside the walls of an old Muslim fortress. It has become a hub for canyoning, and in summer the narrow streets fill with people in wetsuits. Look up anywhere in Guara and you will see griffon vultures circling, and with luck the bearded vulture, the great bone-breaker, gliding along the crags. The lower slopes are olive and almond country, part of the Somontano wine region centred on Barbastro, whose reds and whites have earned a good name.
On the bike, Guara is a treat if you enjoy narrow, twisting tarmac with little traffic. The roads looping around the massif, through villages like Bárcabo, Lecina and Rodellar and over to Boltaña on the Ara, are full of blind bends, short climbs and changing surfaces, with loose stones in places and the odd fallen rock after rain. Distances look short on the map and take twice as long as expected, which is exactly the point. Spring and autumn are ideal; July and August can be scorching in the valleys, and snow is possible on the higher roads in winter.
Services are thin on the ground. Alquézar has bars, restaurants and guesthouses, Boltaña has a few more, but for reliable fuel plan around Barbastro or Huesca, the latter about thirty kilometres away. Fill up before you head into the sierra. Ternasco, roast young lamb from Aragón, is the dish to order, and a bottle of Somontano will be waiting for you once the bike is parked for the night.