Jesuit Missions

After 6 weeks in Brazil we were excited to finally enter Argentina and begin the Spanish-speaking portion of our trip. We certainly noticed the difference right away. It was easier to communicate and Sasha started to notice subtle cultural changes that reminded her of Spain. But with any new change of country there are growing pains and after 6 weeks in Brazil we'd started to get quite comfortable with the system we had going. All of a sudden we had to figure out new prices, how to get money, move around and access the internet. For example, we'd grown very accustomed to having a local sim card and good network coverage in Brazil. We bought a new sim in Argentina but have had more trouble with it and the quality has been comparatively disappointing. In Brazil there is a good website for figuring out bus schedules (buscaonibus.com.br) and planning things in advance. The best sites available for Argentina, quite frankly, suck and are much less comprehensive.
To get a little ahead of myself here, the most frustrating thing with Argentina is dealing with money. For the last 15 years the country has had money troubles, with cycles of bankruptcy, currency crashes and other economic woes wrecking havoc on the population and livelihood of the people. I think I would really like the country if it wasn't for the money. In the last year, the local currency has lost half its value. As a foreigner you could see this as meaning that potentially everything just got a lot cheaper but with the wisdom of unfortunate experience, they have figured out that they need to jack up the prices quickly to compensate. Yes, some things are cheap, but others feel like they are changing price on a regular basis and info gets out of date quickly. Fair enough.
To minimize your losses with fluctuating currencies you either need to change money regularly or use a credit card as much as possible. Because of weird financial restrictions that I still can't figure out or are perhaps inconsistently applied, credit cards are not loved, they are picky about what US bills they want to change, and the ATMs have very low withdrawal limits and the highest fees in the world as a percentage. For the first time in a long time I actually worry about running out of money and running into problems. To avoid this we've gotten to a point where we are avoiding restaurants that don't accept credit cards and are trying to find more airbnbs to stay at because you pay in advance. But again, everything is inconsistently applied. The bigger bus companies take a credit card, small regional ones often won't. Some restaurants will and you never know which until you ask. Some shops and all supermarkets we've seen will but most hostels and budget hotels won't. If a hotel does, they charge you a huge (as much as 10%) fee to accept a card. At the same time paying by card in the supermarket or bus station has often gotten us a big discount. I think it has to do with the local taxes. Maybe it is just a random lottery but it is unpredictable enough to make me a little crazy. In any case, I think our time in Argentina will actually come down to how long our little stash of US cash lasts.
Moving on.
Unlike most visitors to the falls who fly in and out, we caught the bus south a few hours to San Ignacio, a very quiet little village known for its ruins of a Jesuit mission. In Bolivia we had seen a few and this was more of the same story. In the 1600's the Jesuits arrived and built dozens of missions in the wilds of what are now Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, past the dominating reach of the Spanish and Portuguese colonial powers. They set up what were essentially self-sustaining villages based around a central plaza and church, preaching to the Guarani natives. For about 150 years these missions thrived until political attitudes in Europe eventually forced the Jesuits to abandon their projects worldwide. The missions quickly deteriorated as the Guarani were no longer protected from slavery and other abuses at the hands of the colonial powers. The 1986 movie The Mission starring De Niro, attempts to tell the story and give an idea of what life was like back then.
Dropped off the bus on the highway running through town, we were lucky enough to meet a guy who ran a local tour agency and would let us drop our bags for the couple hours it would take for us to visit the mission. The ruins lie right in the middle of the town and the walk over was eerily quiet. Only a couple of streets are paved, the silence infrequently broken by the passing of the occasional car. At 12:30 even the restaurants were closed and the stray dogs were too lazy to harass us. Such is the power of 38C. The ruins were a lot bigger than I expected, encompassing the grounds of the whole former village with several residential areas for the natives in addition to the plaza, church and its grounds reserved for the missionaries. They are ruins, with crumbling walls and trees growing out and around some of them making for an interesting exploration. There were lizards everywhere and fortunately no tourists until the end when a few small groups finally showed up.

Inside the church 

Remains of the housing area

We continued to Posadas and stayed the night before jumping on a bus the following day to hop across the border into Paraguay at Encarnacion. Paraguay is quite a bit poorer and cheaper than Argentina so many local Argentines cross to go shopping leading to some long lines. There is a noticeable difference once across, the lack of maintenance shows but it didn't feel overwhelmingly poor in the parts we saw. With only a day trip under my belt I am far from qualified to make any grand comments on Paraguay other than to say it was a shame we couldn't figure out how to justify staying longer. And this is the touristic problem with the country. Most people skip it because there is no huge draw to bring people in and keep them there. I have heard good things about people that have explored it further but nothing so great to force me to do so. For us, the Jesuit mission at Trinidad, another 45 minute bus ride from Encarnacion was to be our excuse.
Part of the same Jesuit expansion, the mission in Trinidad was established later than the one in San Ignacio and lasted less than 70 years. The ruins were smaller but followed a very similar layout to the one in San Ignacio. We made a big, slow circuit in about an hour which was all we could handle as the temperatures hit 40C and we were melting. We were the only visitors during our time on the grounds. Kind of sad for the most famous attraction in the country...  The missions in general were considered special as a result of the fusion of local Guarani artistic styles and materials with Roman Catholic ideals and images. Each mission had a small museum or display of some works and some carvings were still visible on the ruined churches themselves.

A rural walk through Trinidad

One of many posts along the way

The ruins of Trinidad Mission

Outside Trinidad, the land looked to be mostly fertile farmland and the people surprisingly very European. There is a large Ukrainian population there and while these particular people aren't Mennonites (they are in western Paraguay) the overall feel was most similar to eastern Bolivia compared to anywhere else we've been down here. Compared to the missions in Bolivia, these ones were much larger and more ruined, while the ones in Bolivia are more restored, showing more artwork and are mainly just the churches still in use. I like this sort of thing and pretty much all ruins in general so it was a pair of worthwhile stops for us.
There are also many other missions around both San Ignacio and Trinidad, but without a car or tour it would take us days to see them on the infrequent local buses. We chose to focus on the two most famous (popular?) instead. From Trinidad we hurried back to Posadas and jumped on a night bus heading further south.
Ammon