At about 9am after a rather restless night we pulled into Posadas, a sizable town, capital of Missiones, Argentina’s northernmost province. Having arrived during peak hour we had a rather unpleasant half an hour ride into town, pack still on our back, crammed into a colectivo (local bus). We arrived at the hostel, got a room, but had to head straight back out in search of the Paraguayan Consulate.
We had a couple of forays into Paraguay planned, the first of which was a day trip to visit the ruins of the Jesuit Missions at Trinidad and Jesus. To do so we needed a visa, and as we were unsure how long this process was going to take we made tracks straight for the consulate. Inside the door we were greeted by a friendly man behind a desk who ushered us to sit down and tell him what we needed. In return he issued us with an extensive list of requirements: two photocopies of our passport photo page, Argentinean entrance stamps, credit card and return air tickets, two passport photos, imprints of our right thumb and USD130 in cash (no wonder so many travellers never visit Paraguay). As we don’t have return air tickets a more senior member of staff was summoned so we could explain our circumstances, he relented and we headed out in search of the required items.
When we finally returned the consulate had only an hour left open, so were resigned to the fact that it would be tomorrow at the earliest before we could secure visas. But the kind man who had first greeted us took our extensive pile of paperwork, handed us each a tourist brochure for Paraguay and ushered us to sit on the couch. Half an hour later, substantially poorer and with blue ink on our thumbs we stepped back into the afternoon heat with visas secured.
Thumbs up.
Back at the hostel we collapsed into bed for a siesta and then moved out under the nice wide veranda to wait out the afternoon thunderstorm, in two days we’d moved from temperate Uruguay well into the tropics (as I sit typing this on the bus from Posadas there is a torrential downpour happening outside, the bus has had to slow down to negotiate the sheets of water coming across the road).
Funky fountain in Posadas
Day 23 – Day tripping to Jesus
Having secured breakfast we made tracks for Paraguay via the lengthy bridge across the Rio Uruguay, which is several hundred meters wide at this point, despite being more than a thousand kilometres from the ocean. As soon as our bus pulled off the bridge on the Paraguayan side the changes were noticeable. The houses are far less affluent than on the Argentinean side, many are made of unprocessed wood rather than concrete or brick. Here too the flooding has affected daily living, with many shop keepers having to have improvised bridges of sandbags into their shops. Other shops have had to close entirely until the river recedes, I guess a couple more shops open each day once the water has gone down, they’ve cleaned the place out and salvaged what stock they can.
An intercity bus deposited us at the start of the entrance road to ruin number one, Trinidad, one of many Jesuit settlements in the region. The Jesuits arrived in the 1600s, creating communities (along with the local Guarani people) which operated with relative autonomy under the Iberian empire. In the late 1700s the Spaniards became fearful of the Jesuits increasing wealth and influence and expelled them, leaving dozens of large ruins dotted across the countryside. At Trinidad there remains portions of the lodging and day to day buildings as well as a large part of the impressive church.
Storm rolling in as we arrived
Ruins at Trinidad with the storm approaching
A bird at the ruins, he was doing a dance for a lady bird
Erin in front of the main church
An ornate doorway in the church
Some statues salvaged during restoration work
A view over the complex from the top of the tower
From Trinidad we headed across the road where we and four other foreigners negotiated a rather cramped lift in a beat up old ford. The rain started again and we wandered around the ruins at Jesus de Tavarangűe getting rather wet.
Ruins at Jesus
On the way back toward the border our bus broke down. Five minutes later a replacement was there, we were barely delayed. It would seem that the management of Victoria’s public transport could take some tips from Paraguay!!
No comments:
Post a Comment