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Published: February 5th 2016
This post is about two separate day trips I took in December to other sights in Galicia. One of my friends, who’s also in my program, lives in Monforte de Lemos. In fact, we met over Facebook because we both were thinking about living there, and we were talking about being roommates. Monforte is a city of 20,000 (for comparison, Ourense’s got around 110,000), which is about half the distance from my school (20 minutes compared to 40 minutes from Ourense). So I was considering living there, but in the end, after being assured that there are teachers at my school who could drive me from Ourense and that it is (incorrectly) 30 minutes away, I decided to live in Ourense. But my friend did settle in Monforte, so I went to check it out.
It was interesting to kind of imagine an alternate reality if I had decided to live there instead. It’s not as if it’s dead, but it’s certainly much smaller than Ourense, and much quieter. My friend believes he’s the only auxiliary who lives there. We know 3 others who work there, but they all live in Ourense and commute. Luckily he speaks Spanish,
and he’s been able to communicate well with his roommates, but he doesn’t deny that it’s been hard to meet people there. There aren’t a lot of young people, and on his own, it’s kind of difficult to go out and ‘meet people’. So recently he’s come to Ourense to hang out with people here.
My overall opinion of Monforte is that it’s more charming that I expected. It was a bit like a bigger Allariz. Like Ourense, it’s got some creeks running through it. It’s a good size to walk around, and there are certainly bars and cafes to hang out in. One of the more interesting things is that in the middle of the town, there’s a hill with a parador (historic hotel) and monastery, which is surrounded by the old city. I’m glad I decided to live in Ourense. Monforte is a fine town, but I think I would have felt more alienated and probably also bored there. I would also still have to rely on teachers to drive me to school, because as far as I know, there’s not a bus between Monforte and my school’s town.
The other trip
I took is near Monforte, an area called Cañon do Sil (ie. Sil River Canyon). It forms part of a well-known wine area called Ribeira Sacra (of which Monforte is the ‘capital’). They’ve got vineyards carved into the mountains, along with some scenic views. It's the kind of place where you wonder why, hundreds (thousands?) of years ago, people thought those steep hills were ideal places to settle on. We stopped in the town of Parada de Sil, which is a pleasant town to start a hike from, but once we realized we wouldn’t really get good views from the hike, we decided to try somewhere else.
In the end, we went to hike along a smaller river called the Mao (we parked near the Fábrica de Luz). It's a neat trail with a wooden path (pasarela) built along the canyon. Then you can keep hiking through a village and up a steep hill for pleasant views. Cañon do Sil is nice, and would probably be better either stopping at wineries and/or taking a boat ride on the Sil. However, I will mention that I think my drive to school (along the Miño River north of Ourense,
passing Os Peares) is prettier. But there aren’t a lot of places there to pull off either.
Both Monforte and Cañon do Sil are good day trips from Ourense, or combined, good for an overnight or weekend trip. Monforte is accessible by bus or train from Ourense, but the Cañon do Sil is really only accessible by car. San Pedro de Rocas is an ancient monastery also in the area that would be cool to check out.
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