Travel diaries

Slight hitch in my travel plans when I’m denied entry into Brazil for lack of a visa. I made it as far as Brazilian immigration, which I had to leave immediately, then cross the street and wait for the bus back to Argentina. Border security was light, to say the least, and I considered just crossing without the stupid visa and sneaking back to Argentina when the time came, but, in the end, I was a law abiding citizen and went back peacefully. Who cares about Brazil, anyway?

Rather than go back to Puerto Iguazu, I decided to head to San Ignacio, 5 hours southwest, a day early. It had been a really hectic week and a half of travel, so I gave myself permission to do nothing and that I did! After pitching my tent, I proceeded to lie down in a hammock, eat an ice cream and take a nap.

Next day, I was off to visit the ruins of the three nearby Jesuit missions. The missions were set up in the 1600’s by the Jesuits to convert the indigenous Guarani people to Christianity. Rather than being imperialist about it, the Jesuits went for the soft sell, resulting in these self-sufficient communities where the Guarani were educated and protected from local baddies, the arts were highly valued and everyone took care of everyone else.

San Ignacio is the most intact of the missions. Some of the larger walls of the cathedral have remained standing and more of it is being restored. There were some cool carvings in the cathedral walls done in a mixture of the Christian and indigenous Guarani styles, but I preferred to wander around the peons quarters and unrestored areas that were crumbling into the jungle. Plants and trees were growing out of the walls and I pretended that I was the first person to discover the ruins.

I planned to continue living in my little fantasy world with a visit to Santa Ana, a less restored mission that was a few kilometers away and reached by a very confusing local bus. It was a disappointment, though. The place was in this awkward sort of adolescent phase of not being restored enough to be interesting and not wild enough to be fun. Also, they are in the process of restoring a biggish section of the cathedral, so there were construction workers and ugly scaffolding everywhere. There was a cool cemetery, which I liked wandering around until I started smelling putrefaction and got creeped out.

The missions redeemed themselves with Loreto, the least visited and least restored of the missions. I almost didn’t go because I was so hot and sweaty, mosquito bitten and annoyed, but I hung in there like a trooper and was duly rewarded. Loreto is awesome.

It was once the most important of the three missions, but is now in shambles. It’s a magical place and, wandering around it, I feel like I’m on Fantasy Island. There are a few walls that remain half intact with trees and bushes growing out of them, but most of the ruins are no taller me. The area is dominated by the jungle. I’m the only visitor and so I lay down in the tall grass of the former living quarters and imagine how this abandoned place was once teeming with life.

Later on that night, I’m lying in my tent and I hear pumping music and people cheering. It sounds like it’s coming from the nearby park and, after an hour or so, I decide to get off my butt and see what’s going on. I leave the campsite and see lines of teenage girls in the street, illuminated by the streetlights, doing a dance routine to the music. I watch for a while, wondering what’s going on, when I realize that they’re probably preparing for Carnival. It looks like fun and I feel like dancing, but instead I go back to my tent and fall asleep feeling lonely.