Blogs from San Ignacio, Misiones, Argentina, South America - page 3

ITA - San Ignacio Mini, Santa Ana Dopo la solita prima colazione argentina, con caffè, spremuta e medialunas (cornetti) ritrovo i due ragazzi danesi con i quali avevo condiviso la stanza, e andiamo a visitare le rovine della missione gesuita di San Ignacio, nel centro dell'omonima città. Coincidenze della vita.. uno dei due ragazzi, dopo questo viaggio, andrà a lavorare per Vestas, primo costruttore mondiale di turbine eoliche, e conosco quindi alcuni suoi futuri colleghi.. Il museo all'entrata spiega il contesto nel quale i gesuiti sono venuti nel XVII secolo a construire queste "riduzioni" in un'area qui si ricopriva parti di Paraguay, Argentina e Brasile. La missione di San Ignacio, prima fondata in Brasile è poi stata trapiantata dove si trova oggi, quanto i preti, con 10.000 indigeni sono scappati di fronte alla furia portoghese, imbarcadosi ... read more

One of the main indigenous tribes of the area, other than the Incas, were the Guarani people who became closely aligned with the Jesuits. They were periodically relocating their towns and built this massive and relatively well preserved site from about c1770 having been ousted out of there previous home by the invading Spanish conquistadores. Its an impressive World Heritage site in the middle of absolutely nowhere!! ... read more

Decided we would get up and go to San Ignacio to see the Jesuit ruins today. Caught a lavish coach to the sight and watched the weather turn sour. The coach dropped us at the side of the road in what looked like a completely deserted town. The rain was pouring, and we were dressed in shorts and flip flops again, however we did managed to remember our waterproof jackets. We walked for about 20 minutes up a hill to get to the sight, but it wasn´t exactly obvious where anything was, or what we supposed to be looking for. We managed to find what looked like a very humble entrance to the ruins, and walked in without paying, only to realise later we had gone in the back, avoiding the ticket office out front. ... read more

After awaking and leaving the decrepit little hovel that called itself a hostel, we caught perhaps the slowest bus in all of Argentina, which would take us 300km south to a small town outside of the capital of Misiones, called San Ignacio Mini, home to one of the best preserved ruins of the Jesuit Missions that dot this spectacular jungle landscape. After taking what in effect was a milk run, stopping at over 31 different stops, not including the machete wielding campesino at the side of the road who waved the bus to stop, we made our way to the ruins after 6 hours of agonizingly slow and bumpy bus service. I do not exaggerate when I say that we literally saw, visited and stopped in every tiny town between Puerto Igazu and San Ignacio Mini, ... read more

Leaving behind the pleasant little city of Puerto de Iguazú, I caught a bus out to the small town of San Ignacio. I been told that Argentine buses were cheaper and a lot nicer than Brazilian buses, but for the majority of the 5-hour bus ride, there were so many people on the bus that the aisle was full almost completely with people standing, including me for an hour or so (although, I did get to see Shanghai Knights and Annapolis). There's really one reason to come to San Ignacio: the ruins of the Jesuit mission San Ignacio Miní. Jesuits were all over the place in this triple border region (Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil) in the 17th and 18th centuries, but these ruins (not rediscovered until 1897) are the best preserved of all of the 30 missions ... read more