San Ignacio Miní & Salta

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Hola a todos!

We followed our visit to the falls at Iguazú with a visit to another town in Misiones Province, San Ignacio Miní. San Ignacio Miní has some of the best preserved ruins of the Jesuit missions in South America. The ruins here and in three nearby towns have been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Admission tickets are good for a period of 15 days, allowing for one visit to each mission with guided tour.

The Jesuits set up some 30 missions in what was the Virreinato de Paraguay, covering parts of modern day Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil. These missions were abandoned for about two hundred years from the expulsion of the Jesuits to their rediscovery in the mid-1900´s. According to our guide, the purpose of the settlements was for the Jesuits to learn the local language and to teach the Guariníes (natives) Spanish and Catholism. The settlements functioned like socialist societies with all work being done for the benefit of the whole mission.

At San Ignacio Miní, there were between 700 (at the founding) to 4,500 (at the high point) Guaraníes with a stable population of 2 Jesuit priests. Another 4 or 5 priests would travel from other population centers to the missions to teach the Guaraníes things like music, construction techniques, farming techniques, etc. The reason only two priests were needed to oversee such a large population is that the stay on the mission was voluntary. Also, the mission had a small (5 or 6) governing body elected from the local population. You might also be wondering, "How did the Jesuits manage to convince so many Guaraníes to live on the mission?" Well, they didn´t have to convince the local population one by one. The Jesuits only had to convince the cacique (chief) and he would bring his people to the mission.

We stayed in San Ignacio for only one night. The town was very small. The next morning when we wanted to leave, we had to walk to the main highway and wait on the side of the road for the next bus to come by. We had planned on moving on to a town called Resistencia, but we decided to make our day really long by continuing on to Salta in northwestern Argentina. Our day started at the bus stop at 9:15 am, got a bus at 10:00 am for the hour-long journey to Posadas (the nearest city). We had a 2 hour wait (With lunch break) before our 5 hour bus to Resistencia. When we got to Resistencia at 6:15pm, we opted to get on the 6:30pm overnight bus (14 hours) to Salta. Needless to say, it was a long journey. On top of all this, the buses in this area are not as nice as the ones we had in the beginning of our trip. Many of the buses allow standing passengers even on long distance buses. Our overnight bus was also the worst we have had yet. The lady at the ticket counter said we would be served food, but we never even saw anyone from the bus company come through the cabin. They also felt it was unnecessary to run the air-conditioning in the evening when the bus was very stuffy and uncomfortably warm. However, at 5:00 am, suddenly it was time to put the AC on full-blast. It made no sense.

We are currently in Salta, one of the principle cities in northwestern Argentina. The city is surrounded by mountains of the Precordillera Andina (mountains before the Andes). The northwest of Argentina has a larger population of indigenous peoples than other areas of the country.

We slept most of Tuesday, May 4, the day we got here. It is easy to be lazy when you have TV with movies in English to keep you occupied. Yesterday, we took a chairlift to the top of Cerro San Bernardo,the small mountain next to the town. We enjoyed some hazy views of the town and surrounding area. Also, an artificial waterfall that was perhaps more interesting than Iguazú. Just kidding. Later we went to the Museo Antropológico. It had artifacts from the pre-Inca and Inca societies, including a mummy, a board-flattened skull, and large collection of funerary urns.

Tomorrow we have tickets for the Tren a las Nubes (Train to the Clouds).

Until next time,
Ana & Ryan/Ryan & Ana

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Photos

Ana in a doorway
Notice how low the doorway is. The Guaraníes were about Ana´s height.

Ryan in a one-family unit
The living quarters were set up in long buildings housing 7-11 families.

The original seal of the Jesuit company
The inscription means "Jesus savior of man"

Arbol "Corazon de Piedra"
This species of tree (common name "higuera brava") only grows around either walls or other trees (suffocating them). This particular tree has engulfed one of the columns that used to support the roof of the gallery (covered walkway).