Pura people: Elisa & Rafa, Hotel El Rexacu

This is the story of Elisa and Rafa, the owners of one of our charming hotels in the Picos de Europa Mountains.

'Rafa, my husband, and I left Zaragoza, our home city, in 1993. We moved to Burgos, where we took over a small rural hotel in the mountains, which we ran for 7 years. The less than wonderful weather (unusually for Spain, it's pretty cold for 8 months of the year!) meant that this was unlikely to last forever though.As Rafa had always hoped to eventually move to Asturias (both his grandmas were Asturian), we took the decision to move to this wonderful corner of northern Spain. We found a little cottage, which we refurbished, and just at the right time we also found the Hotel El Rexacu, which was just about to close down.Some of our relatives have since joined us at Rexacu, to create a real family-run hotel. Today the two of us work in the hotel with my sister in law Patricia, who is in charge of delighting our guests with her wonderful cooking. Patricia's son, Lope is also here each day, taking care of innumerable tasks around the property.We are very grateful to work with Pura Aventura's clients, who appreciate coming to our comfortable hotel to rest and enjoy a quiet and friendly atmosphere. We're proud that these intrepid travellers, after hiking mountains and descending rivers and canons, come home to a warm hotel and recover with a tasty dish from our home cooking!'

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