The N-260 is the long road that strings the Spanish Pyrenees together from west to east, and the stretch around Bonansa is one of its quieter and more satisfying sections. Here it crosses from the valley of the Isábena and the Ésera side of Aragon toward the Noguera Ribagorzana, which marks the border with Catalonia at El Pont de Suert. The road climbs over a pass at around 1,400 metres in a series of tight bends through pine and oak forest, then drops toward the river with views across a jumble of wooded ridges to the high peaks of the central Pyrenees.
Bonansa itself is a tiny village of about a hundred people, perched on a slope above the road with stone houses, slate roofs and a church tower. It belongs to the old county of Ribagorza, a mountain territory that was once an independent county in the early Middle Ages before being absorbed into the Kingdom of Aragon. This history shows in the scattered Romanesque churches of the area, small, plain and solid, built in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. A short ride east, in the Vall de Boí, a group of such churches with painted interiors is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it makes a fine detour from El Pont de Suert.
The riding is excellent if you like technical roads: tight corners, gradients that change constantly, and a surface that is generally decent but can be patchy after winter. Traffic is light most of the year, apart from logging trucks and the occasional slow camper, and you may meet cattle on the road. Watch for gravel washed onto the corners after storms. The landscape is wild and empty, with few villages and plenty of birds of prey: griffon vultures and golden eagles are common, and the area is one of the best in Europe for seeing the lammergeier, the bearded vulture.
For fuel and food, the nearest options are Castejón de Sos to the west, in the Ésera valley below Benasque, and El Pont de Suert to the east, both small towns with filling stations, bars and shops. For anything bigger, Tremp and Graus are further away. Water from the mountain fountains in the villages is usually drinkable and very cold. Summer storms build over the Pyrenees most afternoons, so the morning is the best time to ride this stretch, when the air is clear and the light is crisp on the mountains.