On a mission through Northeast Argentina

  Posadas and Puerto Iguazu, Litoral, Argentina
Wednesday, November 26, 2008

History, Nature
Putting it in perspective
We are merely specks

Fire Tree, Posadas

This week we concentrated our attention on two attractions: ruins and waterfalls. To accomplish this goal we managed to visit 4 cities in 2 countries in just 5 days. After our adventure on El Gran Capitan train, we settled in Posadas, Argentina at the Hotel Tia, which to Eli's delight was across the street from a basketball court with an active and constant pickup game. Eli got in a couple hours with the neighborhood fellows, Bron took some nice runs on the waterfront, and we enjoyed some delicious Arab food (we never did figure out why there was so much Arab food in Posadas). We even managed to catch 007 Quantum of Solace at the mall cinema. All in all a very pleasant little city.

Crossing back from Paraguay

Posadas is on the Rio Paraná, just across the water from Encarnacion, Paraguay. Little lancha boats scurry people over to Encarnacion and back a dozen times a day, where the main visitor activity is shopping for cheap goods. We decided to day trip to Paraguay (after securing the necessary visa of course). We skipped the waterfront bazar and instead took a bus out to the Trinidad Jesuit Reducciones, ruins of vast Jesuit missions from the 1600s which were home to thousands from the native indigenous population. A little off the beaten path,

Church structure, Trinidad

we had the whole place to ourselves, which gave us the slightly eerie sensation of being the only people on earth to see the ruins that day. Saturday we continued our Mission mission with a day trip to San Ignacio (an hour from Posadas) where the reduccion San Ignacio Mini sits impressively in the center of town. Bron, never one for ruins, has changed her tune after being blown away by the advanced building methods, artistry, and sheer size of these 400 year old creations.



Next we bid adios to comfy little Posadas and took the bus to Major Tourist Destination Iguazu Falls,  a massive group of waterfalls at the northeast tip of Argentina, right where it borders Brazil and Paraguay.

View over the falls

We spent a long day at Iguazu National Park, an extremely well designed and organized place with networks of paths and bridges through the jungle surroundings and around and over the falls. The photos cannot do justice to this place - breathtaking, mesmerizing, powerful, humbling. The park is populated with wildlife: huge lizards, coatis (which look like raccoons), whirlwinds of butterflies. After hours of strolling through and staring into the falls we took a jungle trail to a natural pool, where we had a delightful dip and a quick sit under a (much smaller) waterfall. Super refreshing in the 95 degree muggy heat.


Having experienced the wondrous constructions of both humans and mother nature in this little corner of the world, we are setting out to see what Paraguay has in store for us.

Anybody in here?

Road to San Ignacio

Mother and child behinds the ruins

Dos Hermanas (Two Sisters) cascades

Natural swimming hole

Lovely for a dip

Bron and Eli and the Falls

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