In the 1600s the Jesuits created a large number of missions in the lowlands of contemporary Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay with a view to evangelising the local Guarani Indian population. Most of the missions were destroyed in the wars between those countries in the early 1800s by which time they had fallen into disrepair anyway due to the expulsion of the Jesuits in the 18th Century. San Ignacio is home to the best preserved mission of them all. Interestingly Misiones province is so called because of the missions.
Our guide had mentioned a quirky place to stay which we wanted to try – it was an artist's house where they rent out rooms, have a pool and “an interesting bathroom”. For that reason we turned down the guy touting the local hosteling international (HI) hostel. A couple waiting for the bus came over and said they had been staying at the hostel for a few days, that it was lovely, with a great pool and most importantly that there weren't really many other options in San Ignacio. We mentioned the artist's house and they said they had been there and they had stopped renting out rooms. That saved us a whole lot of time so, enticed by the concept of swimming in the 35 degrees heat, we went off to the HI place.
They weren't joking – it was fab – everything spotless and brand new, lovely pool etc etc but to get the discount you had to be a HI member, which of course we weren't. Claire, having been a member while in Oz had gotten no value out of it so we were reluctant to sign up. We did a bit of research on the internet (on new laptop – they had wi-fi!) and decided that for the princely sum of US$16 that it would probably make sense in the long run, especially as they have discounts with a lot of bus companies and is valid globally. So we are now members of HI and I have decided to keep my beard (for at least another few weeks) in honour of that fact.
We chilled out at the pool and decided to get some groceries to take advantage of the ample kitchen in the hostel. Nice big steaks fried in red wine & onions and salad for dinner were bought in a general store of the type where you can buy a big sack of flour, half a cow, some flip flops, a Barbie doll and tinned everything, all in the size of a petrol station shop.
Once the temperature had dropped to something a bit more bearable we headed on to up to the ruins.
They had a very good recently built interpretive centre which set some context for the ruins themselves and gave a bit of the history of the period (unfortunately I haven't got that far yet in the penguin history of latin america). The ruins themselves are very atmospheric with nature having had the run of the place for such a long time ... there is one tree called the tree with the heart of stone as it has grown around and completely encompasses a stone pillar so it does actually have a stone centre.
As we had gone quite late in the day we had the place to ourselves for the most part so it was very peaceful – I don't think you get a world heritage site to yourself that often. We sat down and drank some mate in the cemetery to pass the time until the “son et lumiere” show at dusk. When it came along the guide apologised saying that many guidebooks called it a “son et lumiere” but in fact it was more like a guided tour at night.
They put some very pleasant piped period choral music on to accompany the night lighting of the main areas as the guide walked us through the theological objectives and anthropological importance of the Jesuit's missions and their impact on the indigenous Guarani. They converted 150,000 Guarani there over about 150 years, making it one of the most successful endeavours in South America. One of the secrets of success was the Jesuits ability to unify indigenous values, for language, creativity and artisic endeavours, with Christian virtues. They took the trouble to learn the Guarani language and allowed it to be used in the mission for all but the most important economic and religious activities. They incorporated Guarani pantheistic beliefs into the visual representations of God in the baroque architecture. It was intersting to compare some of the Inca's beliefs, in animal and mountain gods for example with the Guarani beliefs in water and tree gods, the kings of which were the great waterfalls. They seemed a pretty wise race, one of their central concerns being the ecological imbalance caused by man in th disappearance of various species from the jungle. Sort of like ancient ecowarriors....
It was all pretty tough going in Spanish though, and the fact that we were being completely savaged by mossies and had forgotten to bring any repellant or DEET made us practically run home.
We came back to the hostel, cooked dinner and had a good old chat with Juan, the owner about how he could set up the bar in the hostel properly to make cocktails, and a profit! He booked us our next few nights in the next destination (Hosteling International of course, and our last in Argentina before we hit Buenos Aires - the mighty Iguazu Falls.
