We are less than ten days from flying back to the USA

Here it is, we just bought our plane tickets. On Tuesday June 8th, we will be leaving from Buenos Aires to fly into Charlotte, North Carolina the next day where part of Chad's family lives. Again we have these mixed feelings about the whole thing: we can't believe that this amazing adventure is about to end and at the same time, we are so excited to see the family back home. Truly, it has been incredible for the both of us. We had a few tough times but overall, this trip will be the best experience of our life and we are so glad we made this decision to take a year off to travel on our motorcycles all across a continent. Truly life changing in many ways, even if we have not decided to give it all up and raise sheep in Bolivia. We are curious to see how we will adapt back to a more “normal” lifestyle. For now, we are still enjoying the last few days we have left in Argentina.

A glimpse into the past through the Jesuit missions

The province we were traveling in is called Misiones, due to the fact that it had 30 Jesuit missions spread all across the province and in neighboring Paraguay and Brazil. The bus from Iguazu took us to San Ignacio where we visited one of the best preserved mission. Learning about the history of the missions was just fascinating. The Spanish and Portuguese had come here to take the resources of the land and the native people as slaves, under the false pretenses that they were christening them. As a result, the local native communities, mostly the Guarani Indians, were victims of slave trading, their villages constantly attacked by slave traffickers. The company of the Jesuits, founded by an Italian, heard about the horrible things that were going on here and decided to help. A few men were sent and the first Jesuits missions were build in the beginning of the 17th century, with the purpose of protecting the Guaranis people in a working community while converting them to Christianity.

As we were walking through the ruins of San Ignacio Mini, the guide was explaining us how the whole mission was functioning, showing us the remain of certain buildings to illustrate what he was saying. Any Guarani tribe could go to a mission and seek protection: no individuals or families would be accepted as the Jesuits feared they could be spies of the Spanish or Portuguese to attack the mission. The hierarchy was clearly establish: the Jesuit fathers, usually only two or three per mission, would give orders or tasks to the chief of each tribe and they would then relay it to their people to get the work started. Each person had to contribute to the life of the mission: we saw the fields they would cultivate or some of the work that they did such as carpentry or building houses with the Jesuits teaching them how to do it. Each mission was self sufficient, producing what they needed to eat and live and trading with other missions if they wanted something out of the ordinary. A large wall was protecting the mission from outside attackers, a reminder that the outsie world was not safe. Overall, it was almost a military like organization, where the ranks and duties of each person was clearly established.

The next day, we visited our second mission: Santa Ana. We had to take a local bus and then walk for a kilometer: this was when we really missed our motorcycles when it was so easy to travel anywhere. This mission had the exact same layout as the previous one but was not as well preserved. There was a big central plaza around which each family had a house, with the house of the chief of the tribe the closest to the square. The church was the biggest building, close to where the Jesuits were staying and the food stored. All these buildings were in ruins and in the 19th century, a lot of European immigrants had taken the stones from the missions to build their own house. This is not the only thing that the immigrants had taken: they had used the old Guarani cemetery for their own purpose and only in the mid-90's, when the site became a world heritage site, was it no longer used. It was actually a pretty creepy place as the funerary houses were open and the gaskets as well. Fortunately, no skeletons inside!

The more, the merrier with our two French friends

At the bus station in San Ignanio, a French couple was waiting for the Cordoba bus like we did. It turned out that they were doing a year trip too, around the world by air. The funny thing is that they were nine days into the trip and had eleven months left, just the opposite from us. They were really friendly and we were getting along very well. When we arrived in Cordoba the next morning, we decided to explore the city together and stay in the same hostel. Cordoba is the second largest city in Argentina and known for its colonial beauty. As we were wandering in the streets and talking and talking, our stomachs started to growl. We stopped in this little ice cream store that was also offering Picadas, a food typical from Spain, where you have a large plate of cold cuts, olives, cheese, salami, nuts, pickled vegetables and other goodies to eat with bread. It became obvious that each of us had the same love for food: leave it to the French (and an American) to spend the next hour of the conversation talking about the things we like eating and had tried lately. Chad was especially enjoying to practice his French with other people than Caroline. A really good start with our newly found friends.

We walked some more in the city after the tasty treat, encountering numerous amazing churches that we visited on the way back to the hostel. Each of them was so unique and different from the previous one; we were marveled by how beautifully they were decorated. In a little park close to the Cordoba University, a band was playing rock music, playing their own songs and some cover songs. The four of us just stood there for a while, discovering what Argentinean rock music sounds like. As the sun was about to set, we walked back while running some errands like getting the bus schedule for our next destination and buying groceries. In the hostel, there was a lot of noise coming from the outside patio where the grill was. We found out that a huge Asado (BBQ) was about to take place to celebrate the birthday of one of the guys there. They told that us that we were welcome to join if we could pitch in for the meat and so we did. The chef knew what is was doing: it is such a tradition here, the weekend Asado, that he had learned how to do it since he was a kid. Fresh off the grill, we enjoyed the delicious meat along with some tasty red wine while the guitars were out playing and the guests singing along. What a cool party, so laid back and easy, enjoying the simple things of life.

The second day visiting Cordoba was all about food. We had a pretty late start given the party and the first thing we went to was the market, in search of some local food. We encountered exactly what we were looking for: a small restaurant offering homemade Empenadas. The choice was really large and they all looked yummy: chicken with vegetables, meat with eggs and carrots (spicy or not spicy), Arab type with lime and vegetarian. We tried them all except the vegetarian one, making noises of content at each of them. No doubt that Aurore and Arnaud were like we were: enjoying the good eats that you encounter while traveling. We walked some more in the city, discovering more beautiful buildings and churches. It was very fun for us to have met these guys and be able to chat with them, laugh and get to know each other. It gave a new wind to our journey, making it more interesting. Almost without paying much attention to it (according to the guys, the girls went back there deliberately), we returned to the ice cream store we had discover the day before. This time, we went big: we took the biggest ice cream they have on a cone, so big it was taller than our faces, and all dipped in chocolate. We took one per couple. Making jokes about how big it was and faces while devouring it, both couples managed to finish it. Quite an accomplishment that we would certainly pay at dinner time...

Since we were getting along so well, Chad and Arnaud joking and being silly while Caroline and Aurore were talking about everything and nothing, we decided to stay together a little longer and share a few days at a typical Estancia (farm) lost in the middle of the Sierra two hours north of Cordoba. That night, around a big and delicious Parrilla, we made the plans for the upcoming days. Believe it or not, we were all still able to eat a pile of meat four hours after the gigantic ice cream. The girls were challenging the guys to always eat “Mas carne” (more meat) as both usually eat a lot despite being tall and thin. We actually all ate quite a lot and had the hardest time walking back to the hostel and sleep with our stomachs so full. We promised ourselves before falling asleep that we would eat only vegetables and small portions at the Estancia. We will see if we can keep this promise with the big appetites we have in the group.