|
EXPO MUJER 2010 !
www.expomujer2010.com
Para más información llame a: 0054 3752 44 79 12 / 13
Fax: 0054 0752 44 79 14
o escriba a expomujer2010@yahoo.com.ar
Province of Misiones
The Province of Misiones is located in Northeastern Argentina, bordering on Paraguay and Brazil. The province’s territory has 29.800 square kilometers. The capital of the Province is Posadas, a city with approximately 200 thousand inhabitants, 300 km from Foz do Iguaçu.
This region still boasts large areas covered by native forests some declared Natural Heritage, protected by law, and of great ecological interest regarding the formation of a green corridor connecting with two Iguassu National Parks (Brazil and Argentina), very important for the preservation of the local fauna and flora.
Here some of the Jesuit Ruins cited in section “The Jesuiit World” are to be found
The whole Province has a great hyidrological network therefore, it shelters innumerable waterfalls where the bathing is allowed and obligatory;
Its underground of basaltic origin, propitiates the explotation of precious stones like amethyst, crystals of quartz and agate;
Distributed throughout the region, there are Indian reservations that allow tourist visits;
Large, old-styled mate tea farms are dedicated to tourism nowadays and receive their visitors with all the hospitality.
History
It was through the Paraná River that the first explorers, by the 19th century made their way into the interior in the search of the hierba mate (Ilex paraguayensis), a large tree found in the forest, whose leves produced a delicious tea. They went up the river by boats, coming from the River Plate, and when they arrived at the region they used to hire Indians to help them to open trails into the jungle and identify agglomerations of the mate tea tree. Then they cut them down, putting the leaves in huge bags and dragged them all the way to the boats embarking on the trip back to Buenos Aires where the leaves were consumed or exported
The workers used as labour force in this activities were called “mensu” and the place where the mate tea trees were found, cut and bagged were called “obragem”. The majority of the small cities in the Province were in fact “obragens” and the cities along the Paraná River are old ports.
Oberhalb der Schlucht des Flusses Paraná liegt Posadas,
Hauptstadt des Gebietes Misiones und an die paraguayische Stadt Encarnación angrenzend; auf ihrem Plaza 9 de Julio stehen prächtige Bäume. Es gibt interessante Museen und Märkte mit Kunsthandwerk. Dem Flußlauf in Richtung Südwesten folgend, gelangt man zu der hydroelektrischen Anlage von Yacyretá, einer der größten der Welt
Posadas Hauptstadt der ProvinzIn
der Nähe von Posadas liegen zahlreiche Ruinen der ehemaligen Jesuitenmissionsstationen, einige vom Urwald überwuchert. Besonders beeindruckend sind die 56 km von der Provinzhauptstadt entfernt liegenden von San Ignacio Miní, obwohl die von Loreto, Santa Ana und Mártires ebenfalls interessant sind.
Die starke zentral-europäische Emigration hat in der Physiognomie vieler Bewohner Spuren hinterlassen. In einigen Dörfern stehen Häuser im tirolischen Stil. Machen Sie unbedingt Halt in Wanda, den Fundstätten von Halbedelsteinen, und in Hito de las Tres Fronteras, wo Argentinien, Brasilien und Paraguay aneinandergrenzen
San Ignacio Miní 
Approximately 50 km from Posadas, towards Puerto Iguazú/Foz do Iguaçu, San Ignacio Miní was one of the most prosperous Jesuit missions, partly restored by the Argentinean Government.
San Ignacio Miní was founded in 1610 in the Guairá area, currently state border between Paraná and São Paulo, Brazil. The fathers José Cataldino and Simón
Masseta built this mission and the mission of Loreto near the Paranapanema river. In 1631 after the attack of the bandeirantes, father Antonio Ruiz de Montoya starts an exodus to save the survivors
With approximately 12.000 Indians he sails down the Paraná river. After a hard trip, about 4000 surviving Indians reach the banks of the Yabebirí river, tributary of the Paraná, modern-day province of Misiones, Argentina. Due to the inadequate conditions of the place, they look for a third place to establish (1695/1696), what are currently the ruins of San Ignacio Miní. In 1816, with the Jesuits already expelled, general José de Artigas organized his armies and makes Andrés Guacurari, a Guarani Indian known as Andresito as one of the commanders. As five of the Paraná reductions have been occupied by the Paraguayan armies of Dr. Francia, Andresito and his Guarani armies take them over. Dr. Francia then restarted the attack and totally destroyed the missions. The church, centered on the axe of the grand square, a characteristic of all missions was of large dimensions. The structure that supported the ceiling was made out of long and thick hard wood logs. The place was divided into three naves. The walls had approximately two meters in height in the inferior part and were reduced to one meter in the superior part. All decoration was certainly polychromatic wood painted with strong colors and profusion of golden.
Around all the mission there were trenches in form of pits to protect from eventual attacks. At the end of the tour there is a museum with considerable interesting local pieces found during the excavations.
The Parks that shelter the Falls are called Iguazu on both sides of the Falls. The Argentine Park was created in 1934 and the Brazilian in 1939, together the Parks cover an area of more than 245.000 hectares and preserve the last subtropical humid forest of South America. The flora is basically divided into 2 groups: the semi-deciduous comprising the orchids, bromeliads, lianas, cedar, aspidosperms, etc... and the araucaria pine forest where the mate tea plant (Ilex paraguayensis) is found. Toucans, parrots, hawks, humming-birds, monkeys, tinamous, share the jungle with jaguars, pumas, tapirs and many other large animals.
The torrential Iguassu River crosses the State of Paraná, Southern Brazil, from east to west and few kilometers before its junction with the Paraná River it forms one of the most splendorous natural beauties of the world: the Iguassu Waterfalls. Over 2.7 kilometers long with an average flow of 1.750 m3/s, this wonder is located in a very special scenery.
The contrast between the green of the vegetation, the dark color of the basalt rocks with whirring waters plunging from a 72-meter-high cliff makes the visitors feel a profound communion with nature. Great-dusky-swift (Cypseloides senex) and black-vultures (Coragips atratus) performs acrobatic flights through the clouds of mist giving a final touch to this magnificent nature’s work of art. The Iguassu Falls are protected by two National Parks – Brazil and Argentina both listed as Heritage Sites by Unesco in 1986.
After a wide curve and some rapids, the whole rive jumps laterally over the deep cleft carved by erosion forming the Devil’s Throat. Geologically the linear retro-erosion follows the diaclases of the diverse cascades of the falls. As a consequence a platform between the upper part of the Falls and an older lower layer of lava flow limited by diaclase has been formed.
The visits are made through trails and cat-walks adapted to the landscape of the area and are an easy walk for all ages.
The discovery of Iguassu Falls
The Iguassu Falls were discovered in 1542 by Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca. After spending several years in the south of today’s United States, Mexico and the Caribbean living with the indians, considered lost by the Spanish, Cabeza de Vaca was assigned to be the governor of the recently founded city of Asuncion, Paraguay. Arriving on the Brazilian coast, today’s Santa Catarina state, he penetrated deep into the jungle were he walked about 700 km followed by his companions and some natives as guide. Cabeza de Vaca decided to navigate on the Iguassu river ending up at the beautiful waterfalls that he called Santa Maria. The current name Yguazu, from the Guarani language, means great waters Y = water, guazu = great. It is worthy to read the book based on the manuscripts of Cabeza de Vaca: “Naufragios y Comentarios”.
Legend of the Falls
The legend says that the Caigangue Indians inhabiting the banks of the Iguassu River believed the world was governed by M’boy, a god that had the shape of a gigantic serpent and was the son of Tupã. The cacique (chief) had a daughter called Naipi. She was so beautiful that the waters of the river would stop when the young lady looked at them. Because of her beauty, Naipi was consecrated to the god M’boy, living only to his cult. However among the Caigangue, there was a young warrior called Tarobá, who fell in love with Naipi after he met her. On the day of the consecration of the beautiful Indian, while the cacique and the witchdoctor were drinking cauim and the warriors were dancing, Tarobá took his chance and ran away with Naipi in a canoe, down river, taken by the current. When M’boy discovered the escape he became furious and forced his way deep into the river, twisting his body thus causing a big chasm, forming the Falls. Engulfed by the waters, the canoe and the fugitives fell from a great height disappearing forever. The legend says that Naipi became a beautiful rainbow and Tarobá became a palm tree leaning on the edge of the river’s gorge. If we pay attention we will see that the rainbow ends on the canopy of the palm tree, so both lovers remain together forever, but under the eternal surveillance of the revenging god hidden in a cave under Devil’s Throat.
18 km entfernt vom Puerto Iguazú gelangen wir in den Nationalpark gleichen Namens, in dem die berühmten Wasserfälle liegen. Aus 70 Metern Höhe und auf einer Breite von 2,7 km stürzen die Wassermassen über 275 Kaskaden in die Tiefe. Die Grenze mit Brasilien verläuft durch die Garganta del Diablo, Teufelsrachen, wo im abstürzenden Wasser zauberhafte Regenbogen erscheinen. Im Nationalpark setzt sich die üppige subtropische Vegetation, von der die Wasserfälle umgeben sind, fort mit 2000 Pflanzenarten - Riesenbäume, Farne, Lianen, Orchideen. Es gibt 400 Vogelarten - Papageien, Kolibris, Tucane,- Jaguare und Kaimane.
|
