After hitting up the Iguazu Falls at the very north of Argentina, we spent the next 3 days completing our giant circle route back to Buenos Aires.

The farthest north providence is Misiones, which is so named because of the Jesuit Missions that were founded in the region (also including Paraguay and Brazil). Unable to leave the providence without stopping by one of the Ruins, we made a side trip to see the largest and best preserved Jesuit Mission known as the San Ignacio Mini, which is only one in a long string of Jesuit Ruins that are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites.







After our quick afternoon stop, we continued driving south with a plan to stay in the city of Colonia Carlos Pellegrini to visit the Wetlands of Ibera (Esteros del Ibera), which is a Ecological Reserve with an interesting history. US billionaire and co-founder of North Face and Espirit, Douglas Tompkins has been purchasing vast patches of land in Argentina and Chile.  His intention is to then turn them over to the governments to be preserved them as National Parks.  This is one of those areas that he has been aggressively purchasing land.

But we never made it. Blindly following the advice of our trusty GPS, we made our turn onto the last highway only to find out it was dirt road. After pulling over to confirm that the GPS wasn't taking us on some ridiculous "shortcut", we made the decision to press forward. But our confidence quickly fell as we made it about a mile down the road before we decided to turn back. It had rained that morning, making our dirt road more of a mud road. With night approaching and not knowing if our mud road went on for 2 miles or 40 mile (@ 20mph), we turned back and devised a new plan.  We were now looking for any hotel along the way to our next destination, Parana.

We showed up in the small town of Paseo del Los Libres (a border town on the Brazilian border) about an hour after the sun had set. The GPS again proved to be a life saver.  It found us a 4 star hotel for the night or at least one with 4 stars in the name (apparently they must have a 8 star rating system). Tired and oddly not hungry, we quickly climbed in bed so we could get to Parana early enough to spend the majority of the day out of the car.

In the morning, we made it about an hour outside of town when we were stopped at a Police Control manned by Border Patrol agents. After failing the Spanish conversation test, they had us pull over to show our passports, insurance and rental contract. They did a quick search through the back seat and trunk to make sure we weren't smuggling any Brazilians and sent us on our way. I think they were more amused at the fact that they had American's traveling on their highway.

Parana was not a choice we made after any amount of research, it was more of a "enny menny minny moe" selection between Santa Fe and Parana, which is located directly across from each other on the Parana River. Since we arrived early in the morning, we had plenty of day to stroll through their shopping district and take in a late lunch near their Plaza de Mayo. Directly across from the Plaza is a beautiful Catholic church with a vibrant blue dome. Terry's mom really likes visiting churches, so we went inside and watched a group of kids in a confirmation class. After checking into our hotel, we walked along their river walk and did some people watching. To close out the day, we made an obligatory trip to Super Walmart. Don't ask me why, but I enjoy seeing how different Walmarts are around the world (unlike McDonald's which are generally identical except for the menu). Even with every cashier opened (incredible, I know) every line was 20 people deep.

Sunset across the Parana river (view from our hotel room)

 Our final stopover was the town of Rosario, which is about 3 hours northwest of Buenos Aires. We quickly found a hostel (La Casona de Don Jaime 2) and spoke with their front desk for some advice on how to spend the day. The largest greatest attraction by far is the National Flag Memorial (Monumento Nacional a la Bandera), which commemorate the birthplace of the National Flag.

View from the top of the monument

View from the top of the monument looking down

For lunch, we shared a chivito sandwich and super pancho before visiting the Juan B. Castagnino Fine Arts Museum located along large city park at the center of town. We also visited their main shopping mall, Alto Rosario Shopping, which was really nice to stroll around in. For dinner we searched out a Mexican restaurant. We found a restaurant called Tijuana, which had the absolute worst fajitas we'd ever had the displeasure of eating. Bad pick GPS, bad pick.

After a quick 3 hour drive in the morning we had made it back in time to return the car. We got a thumbs up at the rental inspection even though our car was covered in red dirt (even the rain couldn't remove).

Stats:

Total Drive Time = 35 hours

Total Distance = 3025 km (1,880 miles)

# of Toll Booths (Cost) = 16 (U$12.95)
# of Insecticide Spray Stop (upon exiting the Misiones Providence) = 1 ($0.75)

# of Police Stops = 14 (including 1 full search)

# of Tickets = 1