Wildlife Preseve, Jesuit Ruins and Off-the-map towns

---

On my way from Iguazu Falls to Paraguay, I stopped in Argentine border town of Posadas, across the river from Encarnacion, Paraguay, to go to the Paraguayan consul there and to catch a bus to the nearby Jesuit ruins in San Ignacio. I found in Posadas, however, a great city, off the beaten track, of about 300k inhabitants with a great university nightlife. There I met a group of foreigners who were there doing volunteer work at an underfunded wildlife shelter outside of town. They invited me to come see it, and it was clear that although it seemed to be doing allright now, in the near past before their organization had started sending its volunteers the place was in disrepair. It was managed by ex-poachers and staffed by rangers, who were technically part of the police dept (you can guess how hard they worked).

San Ignacio is one of the best preserved ruins of the Jesuit mission which came to South America in the 1500´s with the goal of civilizing the indians. These ruins are a testament to what a very small group of highly motivated people can accomplish. This mission at one point had 4000 indians living there, until the Jesuits were forced to abandon all of their settlements in the entre rios (between river) areas and move farther into Paraguay because of raids by brazilian slavers (known as bandeiros, who were based in a small camp which later became known as Sao Paulo). They later had to leave South America entirely when the Spanish crown decided they were getting too powerful and outlawed them.

Also in San Ignacio I visted the home of Horacio Quiroga, one of Argentina´s most famous (and crazy) authors, whose book Tales from the Jungle (sort of a book of fables) was the first I read in Spanish.

---

Photos

Roar!
Jaguar

Emu showing off
well, he´s a relative of the emu

curious hawk
he´s lame so he gets to hang outside

male jaguar
more chilled out than his girlfriend

puma
they found her living in an elementary school

Jesuit Ruins
San Ignacio, Ar

living areas of ruins
San Ignacio, Ar

model of ruins
San Ignacio, Ar

Comments

[anonymous]

i want a baby monkey