Parador de Santa Estevo to Parador de Corias

Tuesday we visited Las Médula’s where the Romans mined gold. First they did relatively small scale mining with panning and small digs. But eventually they built long canals and an extensive tunnel system and washed away a massive quantity of the hills to find the gold. What was left was rocky outcroppings now called Las Médulas.

First we visited the Las Médulas visitor center where we watched a movie and saw a description of the people in the area and how the Romans mined the gold.

Next we went up to the Las Médulas overlook. It was raining and very foggy when we parked. It is about a .25 mile walk up to the overlook. Although it seemed very likely that we wouldn’t be able to see anything we put on our raincoats and hiked up anyway.

We have been seeing a lot of Chestnut trees in this area

Initially when we got to the overlook we could only see the nearby cliff face with signs of the old tunnels and an overlook where you end if you go down into the galleries (the Roman tunnels).

But luckily a few minutes later the fog lifted a bit and we could see the view and the landscape created by the Romans.

From Las Médulas we drove to the Parador de Corias where we spent the night. It is another stunningly beautiful Parador in an old monastery.

For dinner we ate in a he parador restaurant. We had Venison and Sea Bass.