Travelling back down south, Buenos Aires is a long way from Iguazu Falls so we decided to break it up with a couple of stops on the way. A small detour from our route meant that we could visit the Jesuit Mission ruins at San Ignasio.

Before the Spanish and Portuguese invaded South America the Jesuit missionaries from Europe arrived in Northern Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. They found nomadic tribes of indigenous people in the large forested areas of the region. These people had their own systems of culture and religious beliefs based on the sun, moon, seasons etc. The missionaries had different ideas and set about overseeing the building of large villages with specific layouts according to the structure of their religion. The Jesuits were house in a separate and very ornate area, which was out of bounds to others. An imposing church was the centre piece and in front of that a large open square where the villagers worked and congregated during the day. They had to work a trade designated to them by the priests and everyone who was at all able would work. The priests were kept very nicely indeed whilst the natives struggled. The living quarters were very basic stone huts separated on opposite sides of the square and segregation was very strict with males on one side and women and children on the other, day and night. (Don't ask me what the rules for reproduction were because neither of us can remember - though we do remember reading about it somewhere!) This was a very different set up to what the people were used to and they understandably found it very difficult to adjust to. Any flouting of the rules was punished violently and severely and many natives decided to leave the villages and return to the nomadic life. However, the Jesuits did offer something that appealed and that was protection. At the same time the Portuguese and Spanish were moving further into the continent and picking up unwilling workers to do their bidding on route. The Jesuits rallied and organised an armed resistance which was highly successful compared what the tribes could muster alone. Those who had resisted the Jesuits were soon being either killed or taken to work as slaves. The ruins themselves demonstrate the original layout and grandeur of the village. Built entirely from hewn stone with remarkable craftsmanship. We wandered around for a couple of hours finding hidden cellars and marvelling and the remaining architecture. As well as being unable to resist the urge to play hide-and-seek, just once.

Eventually we headed back to the main road and caught a bus on to Posadas where we spent the evening before catching a very comfortable night bus down to Colon.