Jesuit Mission of San Ignacio Miní
It’s a long way from Puerto Iguazú to Buenos Aires and it will take us two days to cover the distance overland. Long driving days like this one require us to get up early, even before dawn. Since I don’t like getting up in the dark, I wasn’t in the mood for breakfast. So I just packed away my tent and continued sleeping in the truck.
On our way towards Buenos Aires we made a stop at the jesuit mission of San Ignacio Miní. It is one of many missions in which were founded during the Spanish colonial period in the 17th century. Since there are quite a number of missions in the area even the province they are situated in is called Misiones. There are also a number of missions in the neighbouring parts of Paraguay and Brazil.
San Ignacio Miní is one of the missions which are preserved best. This doesn’t mean you see whole buildings but their ruins. To actually understand the pattern of the ruins we hired a local guide. Unfortunately, there is only one English speaking guide working at the sight who was on a tour. So we had to wait for one hour until he finished his tour and could guide us around. We killed the time until the tour by visiting the museum associated with the mission.
While the guide was showing us around and explaining us the houses, the monastery, the church and the cemetery of the mission, our guides Anki and Ross prepared lunch for us. They really put efforts in it and prepared a delicious salami based sandwich for each of us with the exception of Molly, our vegetarian, who got an avocado based sandwich. Anki and Ross even prepared a cold drink for us which was a real refreshment since it was very hot today with temperatures around 40 degrees.
After travelling all day we arrived at a scenic campsite next to a lake. I was assigned to today’s cook group and helped to prepare a pumpkin risotto dish.
