The Mission

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The journey from Pelligrini to Posados (our next port of call) was a bumpy one to say the least. We had one fellow travel companion aboard our truck/bus - JUAN PABLO, a lovely Chilean guy who was taking the same route as ourselves, the idea was to spend the night in Posados and then head straight to Puerto Iguaza. Low and behold there was no accomodation to be found because the city was hosting a rally tournament. So it was with great help from our saviour JP that San Ignacia was chosen to rest our heads, he had called ahead and booked us a room so it was off our truck/bus and onto another bus for the 1 hour trip to San Ignacio. Unfortuntaly JP was now going to go on straight to Iguaza as he was pushed for time.

So, whats in San Ignacio? According to my travel companion "feck all". But i thought it had its charms. With a population of just 10,000 it has a very small town feel to it but it is one of the biggest tourist attractions in Northern Argentina. The Gurani/Jesuit Missions. These missions flourished in the 16th/17th Century. They were large communities of Gurani indians who had been rounded up into a Jesuit Mission of about 4,000 inhabitants. The idea was to convert them way from their Pagan beliefs and towards a more enlightened way of life. The ruins of san Ignacio Midi are the best preserved of these Missions. Well thats the History lesson, if you didnt catch it you could try renting The Mission from your local Xtra Vision!!

So off to the ruins we went, 10 mins down the road from our hostel lies the entrance.They usually have a sound and light show in the evenings but it was cancelled due to a bad weather warning! And bad weather is what we would get, our first rain of the trip and it poured all night. We had pizza, San Ignacio has the worst pizza in the world. Off to bed early as there isnt a whole lot going on in terms of nightlife.

We got up the morning of the 24 June to make the 4 hour journey to Puerto Iguaza. It was great to have the time in San Ignacio as we hadnt expected to make it here. Its nice to see something different ... CHURCHES!!!

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