Discovery of a hidden place: Gerês

The national park of Peneda Geres is a gigantic nature reserve with a protected area for flora, fauna and geological special interest.The national park of Peneda Geres is a gigantic nature reserve with a protected area for flora, fauna and geological special interest. 

1-waterfalls

Popular for its amazingly beautiful waterfalls coming directly from inside the mountains, Geres has been a place of interest for both tourist and local inhabitants as it hosts many campings and relax places. Poeple can also exerce their enjoyable hobbies like for example climb the mountains since Geres is full with rocky mountains all arround a big area of green herbs, amazing sound of rivers flowing across the fields and the beautiful flowers making it a really splendid natural place to discover. 

Arriving there, we decided to climb all the hill by foot, poeple can also use bicycles especially that the roads are well established until the highest point of the mountain. By climbing we really were witnesses of the amazing landscapes boarding the waterfalls and the rocky mountains , some squarrels appeared in the trees searching for their food and many people say that this reserve could host wolves but of course inside the big northern Territory. 

Arriving in the top of the hill appeared the most splendid view ever, the Lima river crossing two big mountains and decorated with amazing boats that poeple can also use to discover the place by trips of 10 euros for one hour, the ferries also transport poeple coming from the other side of the river, the whole landscape is just a masterpiece.

2- canoes

The canoes also appreared from far away with some little boats and inside the woods were places destined for poeple to do picnics in nature and be in total harmony with this amazing landscape.The espigueros of soajo were used by early settlers to protect the food and could be seen inside of the reserve.

The cascada do arado could be also observed with natural fresh water creating a natural lagoons where poeple can refresh themselves especially in the summer times, swim and take amazing time to lay down in the grass and enjoy mother nature. I then decided to try a totally new activity that I never tried before which is doing a trip by the canoe to discover the Lima river.

Trips for 7 euros per person are available along side the river part where people were using different means to enjoy that part. The fact of not knowing how to swim made me a bit scared about this experience because the river was waivy and a bit windy, I tried to go inside the canoe and it was doing movements as the river was a bit waivy then it was the Real adventure ! After rowing in good movement synchronised and with force against waves we could do a wonderful depart from the cost to the deep water, it is an amazing sport that allows many muscles to contract, we arrived until a big bridge where we crossed water under it was immenseand huge ! the jet ski were also crossing the water of the river in very fast way that's why it created even more waves and it was impossible to be up inside because otherwise we would fall.

This experience helped me a lot to discover new skills of rowing, facing stressful situation with loughs and singing, dare to cross very deep water with risk to fall down while not even knowing how to swim, i would recommand really this destination even though the best way to reach it is the car but public transportation could as well be used. i really lived the most amazingly beautiful experience ever and hope poeple could learn from this the importance of preserving nature, the plants and the river to be able to lve well in the futur in total harmony with nature.

3- original characteristics

In terms of flora the most characteristic species are oak, holly,  The cherry from  Portugal, and the Pine that we had the chance to admire a lot in this national parc. The green herbs is really of very good quality that most of the poeple were camping or doing family picnics especially in the mountains.

In another hand, the fauna benefitting from abundant water, and a dense forest, was able to adapt and thus create a natural habitat. Wild boar, deer, badger, snakes  are found in the National Park area and are the natural inhabitants of this territory. water, the water lizard, the salamander, among others we could also observe while walking especially towards the water fall place. Besides the natural north beauty, it is an area of traditions and customs. Since the Neolithic period, the small villages knew with a certain philosophy, to fight the yard of the time. The inhabitants of this region survived mainly through agriculture, pastoralism and livestock farming.

There are several routes prepared and correctly identified to better enjoy the natural and amazing beauty of this park. With or without a guide, long or short distances. As walking remains the best way and in any case the most peaceful, to discover the nature, landscapes, fauna and flora, it can constitute for ome poeple the best circuit of excursions.

Also the most striking as we were walking in groups was that we saw Geres under the rain and it was the most incredible view ever, the landscape offered to us natural swimming pools of a blue-green and natural lagoons very tempting but the water was so much fresh there for our hot bodies that were walking for a good part of time .. It is the most isolated Cistercian establishment, implanted in a valley surrounded by mountain peaks, near the border of Galicia. To get there, poeple have in general to walk to it from the village not very far from the main avenue of the city, but the unique magic of the place makes us speechless and without effort to resisit such an amazing landscape. It's hard to imagine that it has been home to monastic life since the previous centuries. as the park seem really inhabited by poeple and it hosts only animals, its natural beauty atually came from the fact that nature is attracting humansThe rest of the complex is near a stream.A church has a Romanesque structure, although the chevet has Gothic frescoes. On the stone of the main facade stands the most amazing and beautiful landscapes ever.