Jesuits are Everywhere
Trip Start
Jun 10, 2008
1
13
Trip End
Ongoing
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San Ignacio,
Argentina
Thursday, July 10, 2008
We got to the small town (really small. I'm talking some dirt roads, one-story houses, etc.) at around 1pm and walked over to the Jesuit ruins. We walked around the museum, which was actually very well-made and adapted to tourists (the translations were actually good! better than most museums in BsAs), listened to some native Guarani music, watched a video on the history of the Jesuit missions in that part of Argentina (the province is actually called Misiones).
The Jesuits got there in the early 1600's and were able to create these communities because Guaranis were seeking protection from the Spanish and the Portuguese. The Jesuits also made sure to learn the Guarani native language and try to maintain a lot of the culture that the natives were used to. After the museum, we took a guided tour of the ruins. The introduction of the tour lasted WAY too long, but we saw a lot of the residences of the people before making our way to the plaza where the church was.
The community was really impressive. It housed thousands of Indians. What's interesting is that all the buildings and structures are reddish because the land in that area is red. The church was really impressive -- though not a lot of it has survived, the parts that have are incredibly detailed.
Museum of Jesuit Ruins at Misiones
The ruins were definitely worth the visit. After we got bored of the tour, we sat in the old cemetary of the ruins (that didn't have any markers or anything) and ate apples and cereal bars and just hung out. Once everything was over, we walked around a bit and found a place to eat. We sat there for a few hours, waiting for our bus, but still got bored and decided to leave. After walking down one of the "main" streets of the town (which lasted about 2 blocks and whose main attraction was a casino, Casino Yen (why a Japansese name? who knows?)), we sat by the bus stop, which ended up NOT being the bus stop after all. It was pretty chaotic, but 10 minutes before our bus was to come, we realized that we were in the wrong place and ran to the right bus stop, down the road. Once we found it, it was ok, but those were a stressful 10 minutes.
We talked to the old man at the bus stop, who told us of other ruins nearby and was just very nice, and once the bus came, we hung out and played 20 questions with famous people. After dinner, I took some Nyquil because I wasn't feeling to well and passed out for the remainder of the 15 hour bus ride. We got stopped at some point for a few hours because of "fog" but I heard people behind me talking about roadblocks from the campos strike again. We got to the city at around 12:30, and once I got home, I drank some tea and fell asleep until 8pm. I still feel preetty sick, but it's mostly just stuffy and a head cold... Nothing serious, I hope!
Tomorrow is my last day with Road2Argentina, and then I'm on my own. It's also Mark's last day tomorrow, and a bunch of people are leaving Saturday. It's gonna be sad without them, but at least I get to hang out with most of them in NY!
