Easter Weekend/Semana Santa: Part I

Wow, a week has truly flown since the last time that I posted. I hope that all of you reading this had a blessed Easter with friends and family. I spent an amazing, amazing weekend traveling in the Northeast corner of Argentina and will, over the next three posts probably, share much of what I had the blessing to do and see. There are still moments where I look at my pictures and think, did I really do that?! Yes, the weekend was simply that inspiring.

My travels began very, very early on Thursday morning.  As I had to be at the bus station at 3:30 am, I decided that going to bed on Wednesday evening was simply not necessary (Gotta love siesta for this reason!). Once on the bus, I did pass out for a few hours but arrived bright and early in Posadas (in the Misiones province) at 8:30 am to meet up with fellow ETA's Stacy Nazarro and Sam Kalish for the weekend's travels.  We grabbed a taxi to our hostel, got settled in, and headed right back out to explore las ruinas de Misiones Jesuítico Guaraníes (or Jesuit Guaraní Mission ruins) in San Ignacio (a small pueblo close to Posadas). With an hour to kill before our bus left for San Ignacio, we ate lunch at a small restaurant near the bus terminal called Homero, named after the infamous Homer of The Simpsons. This is certainly not the first time that I have seen/heard of references to The Simpsons here in Argentina. In fact, I'm almost beginning to think that I should watch an episode on YouTube each day to familiarize myself with this show that I have never watched! I have encountered references to this TV phenomenon on products like clothes, art and school supplies, in the name of the restaurant where we ate and amidst several discussions I have had with students about American culture.

Post-lunch and bus travel, we walked into San Ignacio and up to the mission ruins. It was truly amazing to again (Quilmes ruins a few weeks ago) be amidst a place where, a couple hundred years ago, there were such diverse groups each fighting for their own way of living. Clearly in this society, the Jesuit missionaries had their way over the Guaraní indigenous community that was forced to either conform to the ways of life within the mission or face slavery to other European settlers outside the mission walls. Sam, Stacy and I first spent some time inside the Mission's historical museum, reading about the history of both peoples (Guaraní and Jesuit missionaries), listening to their music and languages and looking at various artifacts. Outside the museum, we briefly joined a guided tour group and gained a more in-depth historical perspective. But, enough of my narrative, here are some pictures of the mission with (brief and hopefully accurate) descriptions:

Road leading into San Ignacio (site of the ruins)

Front of the historical cultural museum for the mission.

View from directly in front of the cathedral ruins at the mission. The cathedral was the heart of activity in the mission, both in its physical placement and in its spiritual importance emphasized by the missionaries.

Photo of the entrance to the baptismal font. The stone carving above the archway depicts Jesus' baptism in the River Jordan by John the Baptist.

Petrified wood in one corner of the cathedral's structure- very cool :)

View across the vast plaza in front of the mission's cathedral. This yard/plaza was HUGE! While I don't know precisely all the community activities that took place here in the mission's years of functioning, it was certainly an incredible, vast space for the mission inhabitants to interact.

Returning to Posadas, we walked along the costanera (riverside promenade along the Río Paraná) for a while, taking in the normal cultural activity that usually accompanies this setting: people drinking mate, walking their dogs, sitting and chatting, running or rollerblading, fishing, enjoying a beer, etc. We happened to pass a restaurant featuring Mexican and Arabic cuisine and decided to eat dinner there. While there are countless things that I enjoy about Argentine food, I definitely miss hot and spicy foods that are so common in my diet in the United States. Most Argentines simply do not enjoy these striking flavors and thus, I had few real expectations of encountering, at this restaurant, anything similar to the Mexican food I am most familiar with in the U.S. My meal consisted of two small beef burritos that more closely resembled what I would call fajitas in the U.S. but were still very good. The salsa that came with them was flavorful (but, as anticipated, not spicy) and the accompanying "sour cream" was some type of ricotta cheese spread (yum!). Here are a couple pictures of our evening along the costanera:

View across the Paraná River to Paraguay from Posadas.

The Paraná River again- this time, a view of the Posadas costanera.

This picture really doesn't do the moon justice but it was HUGE when it rose. We were sitting at the Mexican & Arabic restaurant having dinner when it came up over the horizon.

Parts II and III, featuring Puerto Iguazú and the Iguazú Falls (more widely known here as simply las cataratas [the waterfalls]), to come soon on my weekend travels. It was a great weekend, but at the same time, I'm glad to be back in Resistencia and in more of a daily routine at San Fernando. Lots of love to all reading this, whether you are near or far!