Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
NORTHEAST ARGENTINA - TRAVELLING DOWN TO BUENOS AIRES... PART 1
Sunday 12th July
Before getting down to Buenos Aires, Rich and I wanted to get a feel for Argentina from other towns and cities. However, they weren´t the only places that we´d get to know Argentina a little better from. The 5 hour bus journey from Puerto Iguazu to San Ignacio Mini felt more like 5 minutes; after Rich insited I should stop reading and take a look at what was on the otherside of the window, I was hooked and encapsulated by the scenary and views (I didn´t return to the book I´d previously been engrossed in!). The forests looked like the ones from home - except every now and then a cluster of palm trees would appear and the rainforests of Paraguay would come into view. With a road the Romans would have been proud of producing, I truly felt like I was travelling through South America.
San Ignacio Mini doesn´t have much to do or see in the town itself. However, the archaeological ruins that sit just ouside the town were the reason we visited. Over 3 centuaries ago, the Jesuits came over to South America with the aim to spread Evangelicalism. They also bought with them their European traditions, artefacts, art and music. The area that they settled in was occupied by the Guarani people but, after being offered jobs and homes (I say homes - they were given a room that slept 4-5 people and was only about 2.5m X 2.5m), the Guarani people were incorporated into the new community. A hospital, town hall, jail, work shop, housing blocks and a large church with cloisters and a cemetary were built and used by the community. Years after the initial mission, however, the area was abandoned and the site destroyed by the Paraguayans who were angry that they couldn´t get hold of the land.
What´s left of the Jesuit mission are ruins that are still in a pretty good condition. The foundations of the large housing blocks still feature around the site and they give a pretty good idea of the scale of the area (the population was 4,500 people). The large red-sandstone church still has some of the original wall stones, floor tiles and structural beams in place. Restoration was taking place in the cloisters, the work shop and some parts of the church to give a better depiction of what the area would have looked like. The 20 minute tour was very informative (hence all the facts above!!) and the guide gave a clear idea of how the community functioned then.
Visiting San Ignacio Mini was a perfect way to start our adventures through Argnentina; we got a good idea of the history of the area as well as a basic understanding of some of the cultural shifts that took place which, consequently, has gone on to shape Argentina into what it is today.
- comments