Date: Tuesday, 04 October 2022

Trajectory:  San Ignacio to Posadas

Distance covered: 60 km

Left cabin in San Ignacio  for the first of three Jesuit ‘missions’ in the area – there were many more, but these three were handy: San Ignacio, Loreto and Santa Ana.

San Ignacio is the best preserved/reconstructed, with much ‘replacement’ stonework robbed out of the other two sites.

The entrance to the main ‘temple’ is perhaps the most known Mission archaeology in Argentina, being reproduced frequently, but the whole site is rather splendid.

There were dozens of grey-breasted martins nesting in and flying around the inner walls of the temple, making the species an ideal choice for bird of the day.

I only visited these three missions, but there are/were many more:

Loreto was interesting to me, as I had visited Loreto in Corrientes, whence the population of the Loreto in Misiones had fled to get away from slave-traders. 

 The ruins here were only partly uncovered, making the overgrown site a more natural place.

Similarly with Santa Ana, although there was a little more original stonework there. 

The plan shows the original layout. All the missions (also known as ‘reductions’) had the same features – main temple, chapel, workers’ quarters, Jesuit quarters, orchard and vegetable garden, cemetery, etc. – but the layouts varied considerable.

I then spent a couple of hours chasing an endemic bird (yellow-headed blackbird) but he wasn’t where he was supposed to be, so I dipped again. You can’t win them all.

Spent the night in a quite cabin just outside Posadas. It was a long way from anywhere,  so I cooked myself some onion soup for supper.

Tomorrow the journey south continues, with intentions to spend the night somewhere near Bonpland, Corriente. The hard driving commences too, but hey, I have to get home.