Advertisement
Published: February 24th 2011
Edit Blog Post
Buenos dias chicos!
The overnight bus journey from Uruguay to Argentina was to be honest a little long and not particularly comfortable - but we made it, we saw a dead body on the way out of the bus stop on our arrival, a man who had been knowcked off his bike just laying in the road with a sheet on top, not like at home where police and ambulance cars are used to shield everything - it was morbid! Apart from that crossing the border was completely uneventful!
We arrived at our hostel in San Ignacio at about 11am and it was raining and miserable so what do we decide to do, rent bikes to ride around town on of course! We were abcolutely covered in red mud after about 10 minutes, not to mention that the pair of us get lost if we turn around in a circle let alone navigate a foreign town - it was a blast riding around in the mud all day in our rain coats, mine is not so yellow anymore though!
The town is most famous for the ruins founded by Spanish Jesuits and the local Guyrani people. In a
nut shell; the Spanish Jesuits settled initally elsewhere in Argentina in 1610 but due to conflict with the Portuguese were moved three times between 1610 and 1696. The site in San Ignacio where the ruins are was their last settlement, it´s world heritage listed. The Jesuits made life and peace with the local Guarani people and lived in harmony as, well basically, communists. Art and music were really important and the local museum showcases the instruments made and you can listen to the music, which is particularly different because it is a combination of like the traditional Spanish church choir music with instruments made by the Guyrani people. The ruins are really well preserved and the society basically functioned around a big suqare which off it had the important things like the church, cemetry, local houses, shops etc etc. It´s hard to explain but I have some great photos!
Another small town so we didnt get up to too much in the evening, dinner with the group and then back to the hostel to play pool and ping pong over a few Quilmes (the local beer). The hostel staff were pretty cool and they had a dog! I love
Lunch
Beef +++ dogs!
Next day we were up early again for our day at the Ranch! We arrived at Las Mercedes which in Spanish means the blessing, just in time for campfire Argentinian style huge meat lunch, where they cook the meat in the ground over hot coals on huge sticks, delicious! They breed cattle and (this ones for you Dad). The Bhraman cattle are the most common but they also have Herefords and Angus. They can only breed with the Brahman bulls because apparently the other kinds of bulls are too lazy in the Argentinian climate to bother with all the other business! I dont blame them - it was really humid!
We finally got to try the local tea the people drink, known as mate, which we have seen people doing all over Argentina for the past week, it´s like this little bowl with a metal spoon and you fill it with these leaves from a Yerba tree which they grow all over the ranch. It was different, bitter but I liked it!
After a stroll around the farm was horse riding. I had forgotten how much fun it is riding a horse. I had a fat
little old granny horse named Jaquin, but she was very placid and I gave her lots of attention se we got along fine - not everyone else can say the same. Within 2 minutes of our leader telling us to keep distance John´s (our token Kiwi member) horse had a tantrum and kicked poor Nicole´s horse in the face, a great left hook with the hoof! It was funny - after I´d ridden another 5 or 6 metres away from the situation. The landscape was beautiful! It was a valley and it was just so nice trotting along in the fresh air and the long grass with the farm dog running along beside! Very peaceful!
Tomorrow is a huge day for us - which can only mean one thing - Iguazu Falls! Can´t wait to write about it!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.07s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 11; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0323s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Jackie
non-member comment
Pics??
Hey Kel! Am loving the blog! Very jealous! Great stories and very pleased to see you tried mate! I would love to see some pics please! xoxoxo