The green path: El Sutu-La Vara (I)

We leave the town of Pola de Laviana and head towards Sutu industrial area, crossing the old iron bridge, used by small coal wagons which a long time ago transported coal to the Langreo railway station. This was the location of the washing place, coal storage park and other sections of the company called Coto Musel. Nowadays the only remains of that period of time (it was active until 1972) the brick chimney. This place was the first to which the inclined plane left the hill.
Bordering this location of old installations (Today everything has been reconstructed), we pass the industrial park, passing the chimney and we place ourselves behind the buildings, where we find a recently constructed path, (where the path begins) which continuous bends and a steep slope, it lifts us to the small recreational area called Cantiquín, a flat una explanade and excellent viewpoint of Laviana, where we can see the ruins of an inclined plane and a landmine, we continue a few metres further and we can see the old mule stable, dressing rooms and offices of the Cantiquín.

We continue climbing up amongst chestnut and oak woodlands etc., it takes us, an effort, along the steep path with its winding bends which take us to another wonderful viewpoint of the Laviana council, with tables and benches, we are in the old area, which with a good path and now difficult to walk takes us to Mardana . This place which belongs to the Laviana parish, is situated at, 500 metres altitude, on steep terrain on the left slope of the Nalón. The railway, which transported coal to el Collau, used to run along our path from where it descends to the Sutu along the "large plane". The transport of the coal was undertaken by the locomotive called La Chocolatera.
At the intersection where we find ourselves, the path on the left descends to the spring called Les Inariegues, the one on the right goes up towards the high houses of Mardana, we go straight ahead (there is a small noticeboard), we continue along the old railway route in the direction of the headquarters, where we can still see the ruins of the working class houses, link between planes. A few metres before we leave a path which goes down directly to Meruxalín.

You can observe along the path some emerging rocks which allow us to see rocks and coal tits. We can verify the difficulty of the route in some places, due to the slope, and which overcomes the contrition of strong retaining walls which today still resist like that of the first day. Once we finish the route, which is completely flat, to our right and continuing the direction of the journey, an ascending path, where we can see the ruins of an old loading centre and if we advance a few metres, to the left we can see the entrance to the Amanda mine, where until a few years ago you could see an engraving with the name and opening date of the mine. From here we can descend to the Meruxalín, going back a little and taking a path which appears on the right and which descends.
El Meruxalín is a small village in the Entrialgo parish, Laviana, it is situated at 480 metres altitude on the right margin of the river Les Cuartes - L´Agüeria. Its small farmhouse near the large coal tip which belonged to Coto Museo and just below it Picu La Vara (942 m). From here we continue our journey along a descending path, amongst chestnut and oak to tree woodlands till we reach Canzana, from where we get a general view of plantations and cattle farms. Canzana is an ideal location from where we can observe Laviana.