Blogs from Posadas, Misiones, Argentina, South America

Pessime notizie per gli argentini: l'incredibile svalutazione del Peso, la moneta locale, rende la situazione economica interna alquanto precaria. Ottime notizie per noi viaggiatori squattrinati: l'incredibile svalutazione del Peso rende la nostra permanenza in questo paese sorprendentemente facile ed appagante. Il "segreto" sta nel non prelevare contanti dai bancomat, che utilizzano il cambio ufficiale di circa 200 Pesos per ogni Euro, ma di arrivare in Argentina con una buona scorta di contanti ed affidarsi per il cambio ad uno dei numerosi (ed onesti) cambiavalute che si trovano comodamente appostati nelle strade principali del centro, casualmente il più delle volte proprio appena fuori dalle banche. Il tasso di cambio sale così magicamente a ben 400 Pesos per ogni Euro! Tutto viene quindi a costare la metà, con gli unici inconvenienti di non poter pagare con la carta ... read more

Day 105 Tuesday 24th January To Paraguay or not that is today’s decision from Posadas we can get a day tour to the Jesuit missions just across the border, but the only problem is we need a visa. First thing this morning we went to the small Paraguay consulate two blocks from our hotel to investigate the costs and the procedures. The consulate was near the shops and just looked like a small house with a door near the footpath, and it was so nondescript that we actually passed it before we realised. There were no guards out the front and when we gingerly opened the door we were greeted by a young woman sitting behind a small desk. She couldn’t speak English and had to go out the back and get a guy ... read more

Hello friends and family! I know its been a little while since our last blog entry but hopefully thats given the slow readers group a chance to catch up with our last three mega-entries. If you´d have sat me down before I left and said that I would write one blog entry of nearly four-thousand words, I would have given you a gentle slap on the face before wiping away the tears of laughter rolling down my cheeks. Anyway I diverge from the subject...where are we, what have we been doing and (probably my biggest question) what the hell are we doing here? The answers are simple; 1) Posadas, north-east Argentina 2) Trying to teach something resembling English to a mixture of 10, 11, 12 and 13 year olds, 3) I have know idea, and apparently ... read more

…..and now you understand why I am currently writing to you from Argentina!!! Did not expect to be here at this point, or really to visit Posadas at all (which is, of course, just across the border from Encarnación) but it’s been nice! We stayed with a sweet older lady and her family, who run Residential Misiones, a no-frills but clean and very pleasant guest house. Her son was nice enough to give us a free ride to the bus station, speaking slowly so we could understand him, and sharing his maté with us (everyone down here carries a cup, filter-type straw, and pitcher and drinks it all day). Posadas is also a friendly town, a little heavier on the begging, especially with the children who come right up to your table and ask if they ... read more

Ah, the romance of train travel. Many had warned me to take the faster 13-hour, luxurious bus ride replete with wine and meals, from Buenos Aires to its terminus in Posadas. But no, I needed to stretch my little pot of gold, so that it would last three years. At 11 pm, the impressively named, but quite ancient Gran Capitan, packed to the gills, chugged off on its supposed 24-hour journey to Posadas. I was seated next to a broken window that admitted a stream of freezing night air and amidst a gaggle of adolescent brothers off on a holiday. After our introductions, the boys settled in for a festive night of joking around and playing footsie with me in our cold, tight quarters. The respiratory affliction that had been creeping up on me in the ... read more