Blogs from San Ignacio, Misiones, Argentina, South America

The only tourists, a European couple and I, found ourselves completing a two-hundred-and-thirty-eight year late mission to the mission. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, we had the ruins of the Jesuit mission, and the atmosphere at least of their later master, the brave jungle, all to ourselves. Argentine coaches run on luxury and faith: seats recline bedlike, there’s onboard service, coffee and dinner; and we played bingo at a ludicrously unsafe speed. The Virgin guides, neatly cut in plastic and dangling in the middle of the windscreen or three dimensional and blue-tacked, dashboard-centre. When dangling she leans through curves and she stands steadfast when blue-tacked. The only thing Argentine coach-people don’t do is lift your luggage in and out of the undercarriage, as there are, what might be called in Spanish, bagpickerupistas for that. Self-appointed, they ... read more

San Ignacio Red dirt roads sparsely populated by skipping children, sleeping dogs, tethered horses and an occasional horse and cart or scooter--my kind of town. It seemed far from the European-like bustle of Buenos Aires and more like the rural, subtropical Latin America that I love--houses in a riot of colors, brilliant flowers everywhere, pink azaleas in this case, palms and flowering native trees lining the streets, tiny kiosks selling the same treats on every block, and a toucan perched in a loquat tree outside my dorm room window. The cacophony of barking dogs, unfettered by human chastisement, was the only sound punctuating the nights. I spent a lazy week reading, walking to the Parana River, exploring trails (where I saw my first capybara--a cute, furry, roly-poly rodent the size of portly retriever), visiting the jungle ... read more

Well, we decided after spending a couple of days in Puerto Iguacu to head for the Jesuits ruins in San Ignacio Mini. We took a bus early in the morning (0800) and arrived only three-four hours (mas y menos) later.. The towns (was it a town ?) main draw is the ruins which was build in the end of 1600. These ruins are decleared as a world heritage site on UNESCO's list, and are quite impressive! For the moment, there was not much else to do in this city. During the summer, or at any other normal winter... there are said to be alot of adventures in the area. We stayed at "San Ignacio Adventure Hostel", which is a very pleseant and nice hostel. When the temperature is warm, this must be a fantastic place to ... read more

Today we began our journey toward Puerto Iguazu as well as Iguazu Falls. We got out of class early to prepare for our departure as it was going to be an extremely long bus ride. And the bus ride was indeed extremely long, nearly 20 hours after all the stops were included. Luckily, I had my Ipod to keep me entertained, as well as several movies that the group was able to play over the dvd player we had one the bus. Along the way, we stopped at one of the Jesuit ruins that lie along the road. The one we stopped at was called San Ignacio. While here, we were able to take several beautiful pictures of the ruins, despite that they were cleaning much of one side of them at the time. The only ... read more

Misiones Province - Christians and American Indians fight against Europe The region of Misiones in north east Argentina is most well known for the waterfalls of Iguazu - a river over a mile wide falling several hundred metres into the basin of the valley below. The area is sub-tropical rain forest on the border with Brasil, and contains an extraordinary variety of animal life - butterflies, monkeys, birds of prey, lizards. OVer 400 species can be found in the national park around the falls. Much less well known, however, is the history of the Jesuit missions which were built in the region - and the impact they had on the lives of the Guarani Indians in the years of the Spanish conquest. In the years between 1625 and 1767, thirty of these missions were built in ... read more

Misiones is a region of red sand, palm trees and hot hot heat. Everyone takes a bus through it to see the world renowned and mightily touristy Iguazú falls, which i decided not to do. Instead i headed for San Ignacio (not exactly non touristy, i admit, but at least not disneyland), known for its ruins of Jesuit missions. Nearby, there's more ruins at Santa Ana, which i visited with the ticket of a friendly frenchman. There's not a lot left of the missions: the outline of the town is still visible, some impressive walls stand and the stairs of the old cabildo are very nice. The most impressive part - to this man - was the old graveyard: Almost all the graves had collapsed, showing open holes leading into the dark ground. The mausoleums had ... read more