encarnacion
It was a long, dusty trip to Encarnacion. The purpose of going here was to visit Trinidad. Not the Island but the site of the old Jesuit ruins. It was back to camping and our site was in the middle of nowhere and guess what run by a suspiciously German Family. Aryans running around the place. Blonde hair being somewhat out of place in these parts. And they had an impressive collection of Mercedes trucks! Moreover, it was an extremely well run place. The clues are there!
That night there was another huge storm and I was fully expecting to be swept along with my tent in the torrent. But the drainage system held. That morning I awoke to the familar sound of a South American morning. We referred to it as ´Noahs Arc´. This being the phenoma perculiar to my experience of South America - a racket caused by a multitude of animals cooing, barking, grunting, hooting, honking, gobbling. It really is a proper racket. It seems like a whole battlion of animals had converged and let rip.
Another thing about South America is the random dog. There is ALWAYS a dog roaming about. If on your arrival at a given place, there is no dog to be seen, one is certain to appear if you stay at that given place for a little while. I wish to see whether this other animal phenoma holds true in the other South American countries I visit. I will report back on my findings as events unfold.
So the Jesuit ruins. Set atop a lush green hill, Trinidad is Paraguay's best-preserved Jesuit reducción, a settlement in which native populations were concentrated for religious instruction. It has been a Unesco world heritage site since 1993. It was quite a feat by the Jesuits. In return for offering the native people protection from Spanish slave grabbers, they educated them, converted them to Catholicism as you would expect (the natives still secretly held on to their beliefs) and thought them a trade. They buildings are very impressive and organised according to a master blue copy. In their day these were centres of considerable wealth and industry. Each settlement had thousands of residents and all administered by one Jesuit priest and his assistant. But the Spanards grew tired of their power and wealth. So they kicked the Jesuits out of the continent and the natives returned to their nomadic lifestyle. These buildings represent their only legacy.
On trying to leave the campsite, our truck got stuck in the mud. For some reason we were instructed to push while our driver hit the gas. How we were expected to make any impression on a 25 tonne truck is anyone guess. So we called up help from our German hosts. I was hoping he´d turn up in a Tiger Tank but instead he came along in his military-like Mercedes truck and with seamless efficency, pulled us free.
Next stop Argentina. Give ém back the Malvinas, I say.
That night there was another huge storm and I was fully expecting to be swept along with my tent in the torrent. But the drainage system held. That morning I awoke to the familar sound of a South American morning. We referred to it as ´Noahs Arc´. This being the phenoma perculiar to my experience of South America - a racket caused by a multitude of animals cooing, barking, grunting, hooting, honking, gobbling. It really is a proper racket. It seems like a whole battlion of animals had converged and let rip.
Another thing about South America is the random dog. There is ALWAYS a dog roaming about. If on your arrival at a given place, there is no dog to be seen, one is certain to appear if you stay at that given place for a little while. I wish to see whether this other animal phenoma holds true in the other South American countries I visit. I will report back on my findings as events unfold.
So the Jesuit ruins. Set atop a lush green hill, Trinidad is Paraguay's best-preserved Jesuit reducción, a settlement in which native populations were concentrated for religious instruction. It has been a Unesco world heritage site since 1993. It was quite a feat by the Jesuits. In return for offering the native people protection from Spanish slave grabbers, they educated them, converted them to Catholicism as you would expect (the natives still secretly held on to their beliefs) and thought them a trade. They buildings are very impressive and organised according to a master blue copy. In their day these were centres of considerable wealth and industry. Each settlement had thousands of residents and all administered by one Jesuit priest and his assistant. But the Spanards grew tired of their power and wealth. So they kicked the Jesuits out of the continent and the natives returned to their nomadic lifestyle. These buildings represent their only legacy.
On trying to leave the campsite, our truck got stuck in the mud. For some reason we were instructed to push while our driver hit the gas. How we were expected to make any impression on a 25 tonne truck is anyone guess. So we called up help from our German hosts. I was hoping he´d turn up in a Tiger Tank but instead he came along in his military-like Mercedes truck and with seamless efficency, pulled us free.
Next stop Argentina. Give ém back the Malvinas, I say.
posted by Ciarán at 9:32 p.m.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home