The Follow-up (Part 5) - The Countdown
Trip Start
Feb 10, 2006
1
19
32
Trip End
May 31, 2006
Ituzaingó, Corrientes,
Argentina
Sunday, April 2, 2006
Since I was the co-pilot I was in charge of the maps. I never told Ed how incompetent I've always been at reading maps, yet I surprised myself this time around and was able to guide my pilot in the right direction at all times
01 Amethysts
. Our first stop were "Las Minas de Wanda" (the Wanda Mines). As we entered the long dirt road that led to the mines, we encountered a bunch of kids that were no more than 6 years old. Since Ed was driving very slowly, they started chasing the car trying to get us to buy the rocks they had. These were obviously rocks with a very small amount of quartz. We politely said no thanks, but not content with that, the kids chased us down the dirt road hanging on to the side view mirrors. We politely told them to let go cause they were going to get hurt. The kid that was on my side of the car started getting really aggressive and threatened to throw the rock at my face, which he almost did. I tried to close my window but he put his hands inside. He continued to threaten to hurt me if I did not give him money. Then he got really angry and started hitting the car with the rock. That was when Ed reacted, stopped the car and got out really angry, of course the little kids ran away then. This was a rental car and if there was even a scratch on it when we returned it, we'd have to pay the US 650 for the insurance.
With steam blowing from our ears, we drove to the mine where we were greeted by a tour guide. I had no problem in telling him the way we had been treated on our way to their site and if that was how all tourists were treated there
02 Trying to make lunch
. He did nothing more than smile at my anecdote which infuriated me even more while Ed squeezed my hand (his way of telling me to chill out). I decided I was not going to pursue the issue any further, but lord help me if those kids were out there on our way back from the Mines.....This was a natural reserve of all sorts of precious and semi-precious rocks and stones. We took the quick tour around the mines in open air with the young tour guide born and raised in Misiones. It was a real spectacle of color and luminescence. The crystals embedded in the rocks, as we were told, were concentration of minerals such as calcium, that thousands and millions of years ago were melted and crystallized over time, creating the amazing colors and translucency of the precious quartz, which, in turn, gave it its value. Agates were the more translucid crystals while jaspers were the opaque crystals usually red, yellow, or ochre in color. We also learned of crystals that cooled over long periods of time. These are commonly known as amethysts and topaz. The value of the stones were determined by their color and translucency, and of course by the amount of flaws in it. I could hardly believe that something so beautiful was perfectly engineered by nature over so many years. They were not only geometrical in every sense but very smooth in appearance, and this was how they were found in the rough...almost perfect
03 Gruta del Indio
. Ed and I were fascinated by the mathematics and the chemistry of the explanations given to us. Poor guide, we tortured him with very technical questions which he struggled to answer. The name given to the mines found in 1976, Wanda, was after a Polish princess, since this town apparently had been a Polish settlement. The digging of these stones is done underground and in open air and they are destined to local and international trading. As the tour guide told us, Japan was one of the major buyers of the stones. I secretly wished that other crystals sleeping in these rocks would remain untouched by man's greedy hand. It also saddened me that this heavy exploitation of the stones was to one day seize. It made me mad that we would probably have to wait thousands of years of the same natural circumstance to breed these crystal formations of melted rock.
At the end of the tour we were of course led to the souvenir shop where jewelry and other decorative ornaments made of the semi-precious stones were sold. Ed and I quickly looked around and were on our way back to the road. Fortunately the little delinquents were not waiting for us on the road, but the one who wanted to attack me was sitting by the side of the road. As we passed, he looked at me with revengeful eyes, and it occurred to me that even though he was very young, the expression on his face was that of one pertaining to an adult
04 Pool of water
. I was instantly filled with pity and compassion. The child did not know any better. Our next stop was the sleepy town of El Dorado where we were determined to buy something to eat. When I say it was a sleepy town, I mean it literally. This was the "siesta" hour so trying to find anything open was impossible. It was a ghost town. We somehow managed to find a small rural grocery store where we bought bread, cheese, tomatoes and mayo for sandwiches. Ed found me a cardboard which I could use as an improvised plate so I proceed to make the sandwiches which his army knife in the moving car which Ed refused to stop, or drive any slower, or try not to zig zag the road, or at least not laugh at me. So while he was having a blast making my life impossible, I ended up with tomato juice and mayo all over my clothes and Ed ended up stopping to take a picture of me (yes, for THAT he stopped).
We had our lunch in the car with our not-so-cold beers and headed over to Garuhapé. This was yet another quiet town in the middle of Misiones which really didn't have any attractiveness except La Gruta India (The Indian Cave)which was what we were on our way to see.
Apparently, in an unknown time in prehistory, a group of hunters and gatherers settled in these huge caves
05 View from inside the caves
. They left behind tools made of rock and bone and other archeological proof of their stay in these parts of the River Paraná. Upon the entrance of the Caves lay a fairly big pool of water being fed by a small but powerful cascade of water. This pool was filled with small and medium sized fish, as Ed discovered when he went for his swim. I imagined how comfortable the aborigines must have been in making a home here. They had the warm shelter of the caves and right outside their doorstep a delicacy of a lagoon where to bathe and catch their meals, while at the same time protected by a lush forest. No wonder this site was turned into a camping park for tourists.
Ed explored the freezing water as I lay in the rocks sunbathing. We later went inside the caves to explore and were sadly disappointed to find loose garbage left behind by tourists. We did not venture too deep in the caves as it was very dark and we had to head back shortly. We did however go hiking around and over the caves for about 30 mins before packing up and jumping back in the car.
Our next destination was unknown. We did not want to stay in the city of Posadas that night as there was nothing there to do or see
06 View from Inside the cave 2
. We had heard however of a beautiful fishing spot in the province of Corrientes, close to the border with Misiones, which was widely visited by tourists not only for the fishing but for the beaches. These of course where not sea beaches, but river beaches which made it all the more intriguing. We asked for directions and off we were.In order to get there we had to pass Posadas so yes, the drive was long. We got to the town of Ituzaingó at around 10pm that same day. We were dead tired so our next chore was to find a cheap place to stay for the night. We decided to try the camping and fishing cabins available all along the coast of the town. We found a cabin for 50 pesos the night with air conditioning, a small kitchen and a decent bathroom. The landlady told us we were the only people staying in her cabins that night, but that during the weekends she has to put up her No Vacancy signs.
Once we had accommodated ourselves in our new room, I rushed to take a quick shower before Ed claimed sovereignty of the bathroom. As I was drying off I heard a loud crash. Not surprised, I rushed our to see what Mr. Butter-Fingers had broken. The poor soul had dropped a glass beer bottle on his toe and was in total agony. We inspected his toe and although he was in great pain, he could still move it and it did not seem broken
065 Inside the Cave
. We put some ice on it and proceeded to clean up the glass and liter of beer on the floor.After our 8am wake up call we packed the car and checked out of the cabin, looking to hit the beaches. After trying to find a gas station that accepted debit card, we found a tourism office where we were given a map and advice on what beaches to go to. After some driving and exploring, we found a deserted beach which was clean and seemed pleasant enough to camp out for the rest of the day until our drive back to Posadas.
The sun was stronger than ever so I worked on my tan while Ed snorkeled on the deep waters of the Parana River. He befriended a huge school of small silver fish that curiously came to him. He then had the bright idea of taking bread into the water to feed the fish. That huge school of fish turned into 5 enormous schools of fish, big and small. So from that point on, whenever I wanted to get in the water to cool off, I had fish attacking me. I could feel hundreds of little pinches on my skin by spoiled, hungry fish. Ed however, was really happy with his fish, and while I spent the afternoon sunbathing, he spent it trying to create a fish trap in the sand. The cutest.....
07 Luli please hurry up!
After a few hours, a small bar opened on the beach where one-litre cups of beer were being sold. We drank our beer on the sand while we watched a storm approach. The cloud formations were quite a sight and fortunately the storm didn't hit us, but we could see the torrential rain far away upon another town. Eventually the sun slowly started to come back out, and since we had to leave to return the car and catch our bus in a couple of hours, we took a quick walk on the beach.
I regret not having walked along those shores earlier that day considering the lovely picturesque spots we could have stayed in. Only a few meters of sandy beach rose out of the waters when tall grasses and small green hills up-sprung from the sand. There was no one else there and we found ourselves alone closed in by the hills and the quiet river.
As we walked amid the tall grass, I found a small animal skeleton which I thought, for some reason, was a fish. I enthusiastically picked it up and showed it to Ed who slowly told me it was a rat skeleton, as it had a long skinny tail. The smile in my face quickly disappeared as I dropped it back where I found it and moved on to find a real fish skeleton this time
08 Ed Snorkeling
. Still not sure if it was a fish or what, but it was pretty big and had the consistency of rock rather than bone. It smelled hideously too. We were having a great time, but as in any countdown, it was time to head back. We were scheduled to return the car at 19 hrs and then catch our bus back to Buenos Aires at 20:30 hrs. I begged Ed for us to stay a few more days, making up all kinds of excuses and justifications, just like a junkie might for one last hit, but even I knew we had to go back. I hadn't even arrived back home and already I was suffering from my travelling comedown. I truly despise the trip back home.
Luckily, we were able to upgrade our bus tickets to more comfortable seats so we would get a good night sleep during the 12 hour ride back. Ed and I slept like babies and woke up back in Buneos Aires, back to our routines, back to our lives. This time, with a strong feeling this was not going to be our last trip together.
