Last week Nick was working out of a small city called Encarnación on the southern border of Paraguay and Argentina. Barely on the map for tourists, Encarnación does happen to host one of the least visited UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Just an hour and a $1 bus ride outside of town, why not?
Trinidad is the name of these stone ruins from the 17th century mission where the Spaniards colonized and christianized the Guaraní indigenous people. (As a side note, the missionaries learned the Guarani language so that they could convert them and the wrote the sounds down for the first time -- this written and spoken language is still an official language of Paraguay today. It's the only South American country to recognize the indigenous language officially!)
As impressive as the ruins were, they paled in comparison to the ruins I've seen in Thailand and Cambodia. They just aren't as old, they're not as large, and the colonial history is a little overdone, no? That being said, the fact that we were the only people in all of the ruins on that Saturday morning was pretty special.
This was our guide:
He let us climb the church tower:
Nick fell in a big puddle of water in the crypt . . . dead people water? Perhaps . . .
They say the heads get stolen off the ruins' statues . . . but where do they go?
Oh! There they are!
1 comment:
Typical Ehler ... one up the paraguan because his colonial heritage just isn't as magnificent as the cambondians ...
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