... And on to Paraguay

Ah, Paraguay. Talk about off the beaten path!! Me and Lacy were on the bus headed for Posadas, a city in the Missiones (northernmost) province of Argentina. We had intended to head for Puerto Iguazu that night, but Posadas was as close as we could get that hadn´t been booked solid. About halfway there, while flipping through the guidebook, we realized that it was only about an hour away from the Paraguayan border. Good old LP had recommended the Jesuit Missions ruins outside of Encarnacion (the closest city on the Paraguay side) as a don't-miss, and they would be on the way up towards Iguazu. A plan was hatched.

We got off the bus in Posadas, and hopped immediately onto the much more cramped one headed for Paraguay. We had to get off for customs on the Argentinian side, and got our exit stamp... after hopping back on the bus and going another few minutes to the border crossing in Paraguay, madness ensued. The attendant at customs looked at our US passports like they were OVNIs (UFOs). Finally, after much ado, he realized that we needed visas to enter the country. They wanted 50 U$S for each passport, which we weren´t about to pay. However, we weren´t about to go back to Argentina without seeing the ruins either... So finally, we settled on in-transit stamps, which meant we had to be out of the country by nightfall... But only had to pay 45 U$S between the two of us. Sometimes travelling in one of the world's most corrupt countries CAN work in your favor!

So after we got our passports all settled, we headed towards the big terminal in Encarnacion. En route, we got a glimpse of the outdoor vendors Paraguay is so famous for. The streets were cramped, and almost every space was taken up by odds and ends. Digital cameras next to toenail clippers, knockoff Nike socks displayed with Powderpuff Girls stickers. As we waited for the bus to Trinidad, we were bombarded by children and adults alike selling all sorts of randomness. After being offered apples, sewing kits, expired valentines cards, and steak knives, we finally settled for a pack of halls cough drops and a bottle of water. Our bus finally showed up, and we were off to see the ruins.

About an hour later, we had arrived in the town of Trinidad and were dropped at a big sign advertising the missions. We walked up a red dirt road, watching school children pass along the way. It was only about a ten minute walk up, and the site was truly amazing. Jesuits and Paraguayan indigenous coinhabited these reductions built in the 17th century. Remains of a college, two cemetaries, a church, and several other buildings can still be seen. The church is especially striking, as it is HUGE and crafted in a very unique sandstone-looking crude baroque style. We wandered about for about an hour, then decided we should head on back (lest we should get stuck after our in-transit visa expired and pay our souls in fines!!)



The next few hours were spent on yet another bus, bumping and shuddering our way towards Ciudad del Este. At one point it sputtered, and it looked doubtful if it would start again or not... Lucky for us, it did. The countryside was gorgeous, supergreen long-bladed grass and a brilliant blue sky. Corn was planted alongside the road for most of the way... Between that and the red dirt, at times I could have sworn I was in Alabama. We chowed down on chipas (a kind of potato-cheese-corn-bread/roll thing) and some pretty dodgy looking empanadas, and watched the scenery go by. It is pretty evident how much of a divide exists between rich and poor in this country... Beautiful country style houses with red tile roofs lined up next to shacks. After about four or five hours, we were in Ciudad del Este... but I´ll write about that later.

P.S. My camera was unfortunately stolen awhile back, the picture above is not mine... it is from the website www.gosouthamerica.com (although I wish I would take credit for it!)

Wrapping up Buenos Aires

Hello all… I am about to hit the road again, so I figured I would try to get this thing good and updated before I left the city and all of its conveniences. I wanted to catch up before moving on to new adventures. Hopefully I will get a post in for each new place that I visit from here on out. I have been in Paraguay and Iguazu this week also, but will be posting each of those separately from this. So here goes nothing…

For those of you that don’t know, I moved out of my Recoleta place about three weeks ago and into an apartment in Colegiales. I have two roommates, a guy named Augustin from Buenos Aires, and a girl named Lacy who hails from Atlanta. We also coexist with their cat Oscar, whose interests include chasing invisible stuff, waving at people, and working on his phantom meow (he opens his mouth, but most of the time not much comes out). I have been loving it here… We have a great time playing Three’s Company, and I have finally learned to embrace the Subte (subway). I will certainly miss being able to get anything from ice cream to Mexican food to toilet paper delivered to my door for free.





At the beginning of this month, I got to go see a Pato tournament in Palermo. Pato is a game that was born here in Argentina, the literal translation being duck. It involves a ball encased in a net, horses, and a bunch of crazy people. The name comes from the fact that, originally, a duck was used in place of the ball. Somewhere along the line, someone decided that this was a bad idea… Therefore, I didn’t have to see dead raggedy fowl being hurled about the field. Nuts. Anyways, the details were a bit sketchy for me, so I won’t be able to explain the rules too well. From what I picked up, it is the lovechild of basketball, polo, and (European) football. A goal is scored when the ball is thrown through a net sort of thing at either end of the field. This tournament was particularly interesting, because several teams from all over the world had come to play “horseball” (as the sport is known in English). Not surprisingly, Argentina creamed the opposition… Although I was shocked to see the US win their match, as I had no idea this sport even existed. Oddly enough, our watergirls were Canadian, yet Canada had no team. Hmff. I have decided that being a horseball waterperson wouldn’t be a half bad job.

So that does it for now on the Buenos Aires beat… I will be taking off on a (gasp) 20 hour bus ride to Bariloche on Sunday. As of now, I am trying to get all my internetting and phone calls caught up on before it is back to cybercafes and locutorios for me. Leaving this place is certainly going to be bittersweet… I have had an absolutely wonderful experience here, and I am going to have to drag myself away (after extending my dates almost two months already!). At the same time though, I am ready to see some new places and experience some new things. I have been perusing my trusty old Lonely Planet Shoestring and getting hyped up all the fascinating stuff there is to see. So expect to (hopefully) hear more in the near future.

P.S. Sorry for the terrible writing skills… As my Spanish keeps improving, my English skills have been on a sharp decline. I have a theory that there is only so much room for language in my feeble brain.