Advertisement
Published: April 9th 2008
We got up early, ate breakfast, packed lunch and headed out to the ‘Piedras Preciosas’ mines of Wanda (yes, a town called Wanda). Our tour guide was fairly informative but I really had to probe to get him to spill the beans on where most of the real mining gets done. There was only one miner in the cave we went into, so we knew there must be some other mines hidden. He said they were in the jungle, but all the miners were on a Tereré break (a cold form of maté). We let it go at that, tipped the guide, and went in to look at the very shiny, overpriced gift shop. They had some geodes for sale that were taller than me (yeah, make your short jokes)!
A side trip through the small village leading up to the mines gives you a whole new view of Argentina. I drove down the bumpy dirt roads as children raced after me with whole plates of geode pieces, promising the whole plate for just 5 pesos. They had perfected their deprived voices, but as hard as it was to just keep on driving, I didn’t want to stop and get their hopes up (I also didn’t want any of their geode pieces…). Every ‘house’ is surrounded by Papaya trees accompanied by other assorted vegetables. Stopping anywhere leaves you prone to hopeful children running out to you with a tacky gem tree or plate of mediocre quartz crystals…
We got back on the main road and headed further down Ruta 12 towards Posadas. We stopped in a small city that may have been called Montecarlo and turned out to be real city-sized. We went ona wild goose chase to a ‘vegetable maze’ and found a well-educated orchid farmer to give us a tour of his garden. We checked out a couple interesting detours and found a cool, little waterfall just a couple kilometers off the road. I happily jumped in.
I love driving. I knew I loved it before, but I didn’t realize how much I missed it until a little bit behind the wheel driving down Misiones Province. It also might have something to do with the fact that the speed is in kilometers so it’s easy to go 120, 140 or 160 (when you’re in a hurry).
We got to San Ignacio at about 2 and were immediately approached by a ‘blind’ man who managed to find some of the only tourists in the town quite well…
The Jesuit ruins in San Ignacio are the most well-preserved of the 14 sites in the area, but after a visit to the less-renovated Loretto, we all agreed that there was much more mystique present in the overgrown living quarters than the ones that have been cleaned between the cracks constantly for the last decade. At one point, over 4000 people lived in the San Ignacio mission and about 2500 at the Loretto location. They were comprised almost entirely of Guaraní (the indigenous population), with few Jesuits acting as a the educators and police force. The missions themselves were completely constructed by Guaraní. When the Jesuits were forced out of South America, life in the missions was obliterated and the missions themselves were left frozen in time. However, over the last 400 years, they have been overgrown and parts smashed to pieces by the quickly growing jungle. Walking around the San Ignacio ruins, I saw a different type of tucan high up in tree. It was smaller and maybe even cooler than the ones in Iguazu National Park.
That night we stayed at La Familia Cabañas…the only place in town with a pool. The pool was a natural spring that had been dammed. Our cabaña was a 2-story A-frame and it worked perfectly as shelter for the night. At 80 pesos, it was also much cheaper than the hotel we had been staying at in Puerto Iguazu. After a quick trip to check out the stars, we were all out like lights. Keep in mind that we are very far from our departure city (Puerto Iguazu) as I begin to talk about departure Day…
Advertisement
Tot: 0.111s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 10; qc: 49; dbt: 0.076s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
ya boi!
non-member comment
a bit confused
i think i'm a bit confused about how you got a car and who exactly you are with in this blog but no worries. sounds like you had a killer time at the concerts. too bad lenny didnt make it. later short stop.