Welcome To The Jungle

That's Paraguay across the bridge.

The city of Posadas, in the Misiones province, is the starting point for the jungle area of Argentina. It's across the river from Paraguay, where it's rumored that in Asuncion, you can purchase anything from grenades to babies. Tempting, I know, but we stayed on this side of the bridge.

Posadas is about 200 km from Iguazu Falls. Since we saw 'the' falls last year, we set our sights on a smaller set of falls and the Jesuit ruins nearby.

This province is also notorious for corrupt police checkpoints. Surprisingly, of the 6 times we were stopped, there was only one questionable request for pesos.

Our first stop was to the area's new Parque Tematico de la Cruz de Santa Ana. It's a lush park and butterfly garden built to promote tourism in the area. The main attraction is a 207 foot tall cross. The place was shiny and new, but there were no tourists at all. None. A bored guide drove our little tram up the hill where we were met by 5 other bored guides who showed us to the magic elevator. The view from the top was fantastic--jungle as far as the eye could see. Having an entire butterfly garden to ourselves was pretty exciting, too.

Next stop, the Jesuit ruins. Our car and the nearby tour buses were swarmed by begging children. It's sad, folks. However, the beggar kids we encountered in Cambodia (pre-Teague) ruined it for the rest of the world with their fluency in 3 languages, their country/capital trivia and their selling of relevant souvenirs. In comparison, the kids here seem...well, lazy. Yes, I just called some poor kids lazy. I blame their handlers, mostly because they were trying to sell houseplants to tourists. I don't know about you, but when I'm far away from home and practically living in a small vehicle, a living plant isn't the first thing I think about buying. Also, I've never seen a 6 year old scoff at the amount of money given to him. It wasn't even spare change, it was a bill! There were some kids selling carved wooden owls, so we're the proud owners of too many. (Caitlin and Ryan, guess what that means?)

We saw two sets of ruins and were impressed by the conservation efforts. The missions were founded in 1632 and are said to be the best preserved in the area. The buildings were made of sandstone, had Baroque detailing and intricate designs.

Our stop at the falls was Teague's favorite part. Naturally. The boat ride took us the length of the 3km long Saltos de Maconá and brought us right up to the spray.

All this fun and it's only day 4. I'll post more about our Argentine adventures soon.