A Mirada Máxica, Parada de Sil

We had planned to visit the monastery of Santa Cristina de Ribas de Sil. From Os Peares onward, the road toward the monastery became noticeably more scenic, winding along the hills with the river appearing and disappearing below us. We had not expected the drive itself to be part of the experience, but it was, and we ended up stopping far more often than we intended.

The first stop was a viewpoint we had not planned for, just a wide spot in the road where the canyon opened up unexpectedly. A little further on, we came across a waterfall, small but worth pulling over for. Then, somewhere past that, we reached a large dam that neither of us had read about beforehand. We stopped there for a while, looking at the scale of it and the water below, before continuing on. Each stop meant getting out of the car, taking a few photographs, and telling ourselves it would be the last one before we finally reached the monastery.

By the time we arrived, it was later than we had planned, and the monastery had already closed for the day. We stood there for a moment, a little annoyed at ourselves for losing so much time to viewpoints and a dam, but there was not much to be done about it. Just before the entrance, we noticed a small sign pointing off to the side, marked A Mirada Máxica. We almost skipped it. We had already spent most of the afternoon stopping at other places, and the disappointment of missing the monastery was still fresh. But we decided to walk over anyway, mostly out of curiosity.

The path to the viewpoint runs along a dirt track next to a campground, about a hundred metres from where we parked. It is an easy walk, flat and short, and we reached the platforms within a few minutes. From there, two wooden walkways extend out over the canyon of the Sil, far enough that standing on them gives a strange sensation of hovering above the river. The gorge stretches out in both directions, with steep granite walls dropping almost straight down to the water. It was, without question, the best view of the entire afternoon, better than any of the stops we had made on the way there.

The viewpoint is on private land connected to Camping Canón do Sil, so it is worth checking access with them directly rather than assuming it is open. There is also a sign near the platforms limiting them to three people at a time, which makes sense once you are standing on them.

We never did get inside the monastery that day. Instead we drove home with photographs of a dam we had not known about, a waterfall, a few unplanned viewpoints, and A Mirada Máxica, which turned out to be the one we remember most.