The Jesuit Missions

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Posadas

Posadas is placed at the shores of the Parana river and has a nice Costanera. I didn't spend too much time here. Instead, I used it as a base point from which to visit San Ignacio. If you follow the Costanera you will eventually get to the Puente Internacional which connects with Paraguay, right across the river. It's a very large, impressive bridge.

San Ignacio

The whole area around San Ignacio and Posadas is famous for the jesuit missions it holds. These not only in Argentina, but also in neighbouring Brazil and Paraguay. Of these the most well-known and well-kept is in San Ignacio. The bus dropped us off at a tourism agency where the people were very kind in giving us all the info we needed and some more (they had to sell SOMETHING). They were offering a surprisingly cheap tour in jeep and kayaks, with some trekking thrown in. So I bit the hook and went off to the nearby National Park which flourishes around the Parana. After a long jeep ride down roads of red dirt (the dirt here is flaming red!) we arrived at a paradisical spot from which we took a hike into the forest, up to a series of lookouts. The vegetation is quite varied: here I saw my first wild yerba mate tree, there were pines, cacti, and then more common jungle trees. I certainly didn't expect pines and cacti. Along the way we saw a huge spider that had woven a web over the trail in hopes of catching an unsuspecting tourist. No tourists were found on the web. Then the views, the descent, and finally kayaking. It was a gorgeous day for an adventure.

After my exercise I visited the Jesuit "reduction" of San Ignacio Mini. Twice. The first time it was light outside, so I took a guided tour of the complex. I never thought of ruins that were built after Columbus. But what happened is that this once peaceful village of Guaranis, two priests, and travelers (architects, engineers, other priests, Spanish government officials...) one day received notice that they were going to have to vacate. Otherwise they would have to deal with the anger of the far-away Spanish king. Years later, citizens of the small city that formed around the reduction realized that the reduction was a source of a large amount of very good building material - even of sculptures that would look very nice in the garden! So they tore the place down, ignoring the cultural value of San Ignacio Minimi. Since then it has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage site and large amounts of effort were poured into its reconstruction. One portion of those efforts led me to the reduction later on, at night. A light show!!! I arrived 5 minutes after the function started, so I walked in on the spectacle. As I approached the audience (about 30 people), I saw what looked like something out of a sci fi movie. Have holograms been invented already??? I didn't think so... but there were definitely lifelike figures walking on the grass, with a ghostly glow about them! I found out that the method used is to create a mist "wall" and project onto it with an LCD projector. The mist wall then catches the light, and the thickness of this wall creates a certain depth that tricks the eye enough to give the projections a 3D nature. After 5 minutes of watching this part of a reenactment of life in the jesuit mission, we were asked to move on to a new station where a new chapter of their life was either projected onto a mist wall or an actual wall of the mission. Music accompanied the show, as well as lights of all sorts of colors which danced in harmony with each other and the music. The best part then came, we were led into a large grassy yard flanked on all sides by convent walls, one of which has a large façade, the jewel of the mission. We were treated to a show which was projected on all the walls that surrounded us plus some mist wall projections which reached its climax with the attack on the guaranis by an enemy tribe. It was truly an incredible spectacle and well worth the entrance fee. The show alone was even enough of a reason to come to San Ignacio.

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Photos

posadas
red dirt!