Seonun-sa with Pedro

Recently I went on a trip with a few friends to Seonun-sa, about an hour and a half drive from Gwangju. We met a few other travelers and hopped into a van with Pedro, a very friendly Korean man who is working on starting his own travel company. He's done quite a bit of traveling, but right now is focused on showing his country to people. He finds places that most people don't know about or wouldn't know how to get to. As a foreigner it's often difficult to get to certain areas to see or do things. There have been numerous times were I have gone with friends to a beach or festival and had almost no way to get back to Gwangju. Traveling with Pedro was a great experience, he familiarizes himself with the area before taking people to the destination and either provides transportation or knows how to get transportation back.

Seonun-sa was a beautiful place, being in nature is such a relaxing thing. We saw an old temple, some gravesites of monks and had a lovely picnic by a stream. After our picnic we were off on a hike. The hike proved to be a little more difficult then Pedro led on. We arrived to the intended location, a giant Buddha carved into the side of a mountain. It was really very cool to see! After several pictures of the giant Buddha carving, we continued the hike to the top of the mountain. Once to the top we had a beautiful view of the surrounding mountains and changing leaves. We stayed at the top for a bit to relax and enjoy the view and then decided to head back to the van. After we finally made it back to the van we were off to the beach to watch the sunset. Once we got to the beach we all sat down to enjoy a picnic by the ocean. The beach was a little more crowded, which meant Koreans were videotaping us eating, talking to us and even asking for some food! The sun was slowly setting and let me tell you, it was absolutely gorgeous! We had beautiful weather all day, made new friends and watched the sun set over the beach. It couldn't have been a better day!

Buddha carved into the side of the mountain

Beautiful sunset

glorious

pretty nature