The girl/young woman who set up my whole trip with the Spanish school with me while I was in Canada planning things, she lives in Cordoba. And I got to meet her a couple times while there and she is one of the nicest people I have ever met. So nice that when I told her I wanted to visit Misiones for the long weekend (this past weekend), she contacted her family there and told them to help me out. So I ended up spending the weekend with them.
Her father picked me up at the bus terminal on the Friday morning of last week. And her youngest brother (who is a little older than her) helped me plan my weekend, including calling different tourism agencies, because he is studying to be a "tourist guide" (these days I can't tell the difference between proper English and broken English). And then afterwards he took me around his town (Posadas) and told me its history and afterwards we had milkshakes together on the border of Rio Parana which runs between Argentina and Paraguay. So it's cool, I got to see Paraguay.
On Saturday I took the bus to see San Ignacio, which has a UNESCO World Heritage Site - the Jesuit ruins there. It was really fascinating with an interesting history and afterwards I got to see the house of Horacio Quiroga who is a very famous writer from the 20s or 30s.
On Sunday I went to Obera which has a strong history of being a settlement for immigrants to Argentina. I visited the Parque de los Naciones which is where all these little houses are set up to represent 25 or so different nationalities that are open unfortunately only during the big festival at the beginning of September. But I got to go to the museum which was really cool. And then after I saw the Jardin de las Pajaros (Garden of the Birds) which was very beautiful and peaceful and I got to see a toucan and I felt like I was in one of those movies where they mix live action with cartoon. That's how fluorescently-coloured this toucan was. And I saw peacocks too, including a male presenting to a female, if ya know what I mean.
Monday is the interesting anecdote day. I didn't see anything particularly interesting other than mate (pronounced ma-tay) fields, which is what they drink instead of a Large Double-Double. And so I went to visit Apostoles, but it was empty and almost everything was closed, on account of it being La Dia de la Virgen (The Day of the Virgin), which I know nothing about other than it's a very religious holiday that is like a big lead-up to Christmas.
ANYWHO, back up: I'm in the bus terminal at the beginning of the day having trouble finding a bus that goes to Apostoles on account of the holiday. I go to talk to the woman in the tourist info kiosk except she is not there. Some guy comes up to me asking me what I need - I tell him because so far people here have been very helpful. I had been on my guard at first because that's what you do when you visit another country, but had let it down after people had been all like "Wow a real live tourist from outside of Argentina! And Canada, how exotic!" So this guy tells me I have to take a cab for 50 pesos. I tell him that 50 sounds too much, but he says that it is not possible to take a bus and so I have to take a cab and sends me to this other guy who says "yes, yes, come with me to this cab" (all this in Spanish). I suddenly find myself in a cab with a driver and his friend and we're off. I figure what the hell, I've been saving all this money by staying with a family instead of in hostels and getting free breakfasts and suppers as well. So anywho, I get in (stupid!) and then along the way the guy says "Oh we need 30 pesos for gas" when we stop at a gas station. So I give him the 30 pesos, thinking I will only need to give him 20 later. Then afterwards, in the middle of these beautiful fields and expanses... the fucker tells me I need to give more money! To avoid the risk of getting Munson'd out in the middle of nowhere, I decide to give him my money.
So in the end I was out 200 pesos or so by these assholes... but the strange thing is that, when I think of it, I still had a wonderful weekend. The real highlight of the trip was living with this awesome family in a small town in Argentina - a mother, father, and their 3 sons (their daughter and oldest son don't live with them anymore). And on Sunday night there was a birthday party for their youngest son and the mother which was a lot of fun and one of the mother's friends was really drunk (well a few of them were) and she made me dance with her for a bit. It was fun'n'funny. And when I got back and told my friend Eli (the daughter) about it she was really glad to hear I had a great time. And when I told her about my shitty taxi ride, she said "I dunno why people do this. These people come from another place to see your country and I dunno. You should treat them like a king" (which is pretty much how she, her family, and everyone at the Spanish school had treated me). The people in Cordoba were unbelievably nice.
And so were the people in Misiones! In every town, once people heard my accent, they wanted to talk to me and find out about my country and what it is like and discuss things. One guy even asked me if I had Canadian coins to show him, which I unfortunately didn't. But I would've given him a quarter or a loonie, why not? Most of these people know nothing of Canada. Especially the two taxi assholes I had. The guy who wasn't driving would say stuff like "See this? So green. Not like Canada, Canada is very dry." And "I studied Canada, you guys caused wars between England and France" and how people in Canada are more closed and people in Argentina are more open (which is for the most part is true, but he doesn't know fuck about Canada), and other stupid shit. That probably pissed me off more than taking my money. I can always get more money (sorry for all those calls, Mom and Dad) and these are people who probably really need money. Maybe they feel driven to it cuz of their country's shitty economic situation, I dunno. I saw the movie Nueve Reinas (Nine Queens), Argentina's answer to The Sting, and I felt like I was in the middle of that movie.
Anywho, the point is, Misiones is one of the coolest, most beautiful, and most likeable provinces in Argentina. And on the tour I'm about to start I will get to visit it's northernmost corner for a couple of days to see the great big Iguazu Falls (which apparently dwarf Niagara Falls). And I would love to visit Posadas and Obera and Apostoles (not on a holiday) again... I just won't take a fuckin' taxi.
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