After spending a little over a week in Posadas so that I could meet with people associated with the Instituto Nacional de Yerba Mate (INYM) and scholars, we spent a week around Apóstoles so that I could visit some yerba mate companies and learn more about yerba mate production firsthand.
I would have loved to have stayed in the town of Apóstoles. It is a very lovely large town with many tree-lined streets and an excellent fruit/vegetable store. Originally a Guaraní mission town, Apóstoles was reborn in the early 20th century with the arrival of many Ukranian and Polish immigrants. It is also a center for yerba mate production and the site of the annual Fiesta Nacional de Yerba Mate.
Unfortunately, Apóstoles isn't set up very well for tourism. The town has some hotels but it doesn't have any facilities with both kitchens and swimming pools. I had decided that I didn't want to make the 1+ hour drive every day from Posadas to Apóstoles so when planning the trip, I looked in the surrounding area for possible accommodations and found La Granja de Casiano in Colonia Azara (about a 15-20 minute drive from Apóstoles).
La Granja de Casiano was an experience! While it is on the Ruta de la Yerba Mate, La Granja de Casiano didn't have a website or email address. I did though find a Youtube video of one of the cabins at La Granja de Casiano. Since there weren't many options and La Granja de Casiano had two swimming pools and reasonably priced cabins with kitchens, I called several months beforehand and made a reservation. The person who answered the phone was friendly and, after I told him my name and the dates, he said the reservation was made. I hadn't given any deposit and had no written confirmation. I called back a week before our arrival and everything was okay.
I would characterize La Granja de Casiano as a lower-middle class entertainment park like the balneario that I visited in Mexico in the 1990s. On the weekends, it is jammed-packed with guests who blare music, bring a picnic or have an asado (grilled meat), and jump in the pool. The clientele is anyone who has a car or access to a car but does not have a swimming pool. The two families (who we met through our kids) were workers at Estancia Las Marías.
I would have loved to have stayed in the town of Apóstoles. It is a very lovely large town with many tree-lined streets and an excellent fruit/vegetable store. Originally a Guaraní mission town, Apóstoles was reborn in the early 20th century with the arrival of many Ukranian and Polish immigrants. It is also a center for yerba mate production and the site of the annual Fiesta Nacional de Yerba Mate.
Unfortunately, Apóstoles isn't set up very well for tourism. The town has some hotels but it doesn't have any facilities with both kitchens and swimming pools. I had decided that I didn't want to make the 1+ hour drive every day from Posadas to Apóstoles so when planning the trip, I looked in the surrounding area for possible accommodations and found La Granja de Casiano in Colonia Azara (about a 15-20 minute drive from Apóstoles).
La Granja de Casiano was an experience! While it is on the Ruta de la Yerba Mate, La Granja de Casiano didn't have a website or email address. I did though find a Youtube video of one of the cabins at La Granja de Casiano. Since there weren't many options and La Granja de Casiano had two swimming pools and reasonably priced cabins with kitchens, I called several months beforehand and made a reservation. The person who answered the phone was friendly and, after I told him my name and the dates, he said the reservation was made. I hadn't given any deposit and had no written confirmation. I called back a week before our arrival and everything was okay.
I would characterize La Granja de Casiano as a lower-middle class entertainment park like the balneario that I visited in Mexico in the 1990s. On the weekends, it is jammed-packed with guests who blare music, bring a picnic or have an asado (grilled meat), and jump in the pool. The clientele is anyone who has a car or access to a car but does not have a swimming pool. The two families (who we met through our kids) were workers at Estancia Las Marías.
This photo does not do justice to the crowds at La Granja de Casiano on the weekends. These 2 cars were parked right in front of our cabin. In fact, I had to ask people to move their lawn chairs so that I could park our car in our driveway. Almost each car blared its own music. During the weekend, La Granja de Casiano sure wasn't a relaxing escape to the countryside.
We did a lot of cooking during our time in Misiones. In part, it was for convenience and to save time and money. Also, it would have been very annoying to have to eat at a restaurant 3x a day for 6 weeks. I always tried to have a lot of vegetables and fruit wherever we went. Our meals were typically pasta or rice with vegetables.
F made a lot of our pasta sauces. He is a really good cook and likes to cook. The pasta sauces were great and we especially liked the enthusiasm he showed when he finished cooking. He ate a ton and kept saying how delicious it was!
Food was one of Gramps's major preoccupations. He doesn't eat sugar in any form except fruits and he doesn't eat much meat - these were both major challenges in Misiones. My kids love sugar and Argentines eat a lot of sweets. Argentines also eat a ton of meat. Fortunately, he likes fish and there was a good amount of fish at restaurants in Misiones (because of the number of rivers). Also, he could always order a salad in a restaurant. Cooking at home was a good option given Gramps's diet.
Many of our conversations with Gramps dealt with food and diet. He was appalled by the amount of sugar that the boys ate. Any time they had some money and there was a store or small kiosk nearby, they immediately bought candies and cookies. The conversations conversations drew my attention more to what the boys were eating. I had become lax in Argentina because everyone eats a lot of sweets and there really isn't anything other than candy on which kids can spend their pocket money. Although the boys and I weren't (and aren't) prepared to cut sugar entirely out of our diets, we did cut back a bit toward the end of Gramps's visit.
Gramps's peculiar food habits make for some good stories. Gramps brought his own bottle of coconut oil on his crazy trip to Misiones (Oregon-New York-Brazil-Paraguay-Argentina). Gramps loves his coconut oil! He uses it to for just about everything - to cook with, as sunscreen, as a treatment for burns or cuts, and more. The boys and I stuck with more standard medical treatments, and we after trying it as a cooking oil we decided that we didn't like the strong coconut flavor on all of our food.
During the trip, Gramps was on a mission to find probiotics. He wanted to buy live yogurt, live sauerkraut, and/or live kimchi. At home, he makes his own but he figured that he could buy yogurt or maybe sauerkraut (given the large amount of European immigration) in Misiones. It was easy to find both in Misiones but there were major problems: 1) the yogurt was sweetened and 2) the sauerkraut was pasteurized (not live). Gramps couldn't believe that every supermarket in Argentina sells tons and tons of different brands and flavors of yogurt but every single one has lots of sweeteners. He couldn't find any non-sweetened yogurt, not even at a "health foods" store. Finally, after a couple of weeks, he started making his own yogurt (more on homemade yogurt later).
F made a lot of our pasta sauces. He is a really good cook and likes to cook. The pasta sauces were great and we especially liked the enthusiasm he showed when he finished cooking. He ate a ton and kept saying how delicious it was!
Food was one of Gramps's major preoccupations. He doesn't eat sugar in any form except fruits and he doesn't eat much meat - these were both major challenges in Misiones. My kids love sugar and Argentines eat a lot of sweets. Argentines also eat a ton of meat. Fortunately, he likes fish and there was a good amount of fish at restaurants in Misiones (because of the number of rivers). Also, he could always order a salad in a restaurant. Cooking at home was a good option given Gramps's diet.
Many of our conversations with Gramps dealt with food and diet. He was appalled by the amount of sugar that the boys ate. Any time they had some money and there was a store or small kiosk nearby, they immediately bought candies and cookies. The conversations conversations drew my attention more to what the boys were eating. I had become lax in Argentina because everyone eats a lot of sweets and there really isn't anything other than candy on which kids can spend their pocket money. Although the boys and I weren't (and aren't) prepared to cut sugar entirely out of our diets, we did cut back a bit toward the end of Gramps's visit.
Gramps's peculiar food habits make for some good stories. Gramps brought his own bottle of coconut oil on his crazy trip to Misiones (Oregon-New York-Brazil-Paraguay-Argentina). Gramps loves his coconut oil! He uses it to for just about everything - to cook with, as sunscreen, as a treatment for burns or cuts, and more. The boys and I stuck with more standard medical treatments, and we after trying it as a cooking oil we decided that we didn't like the strong coconut flavor on all of our food.
During the trip, Gramps was on a mission to find probiotics. He wanted to buy live yogurt, live sauerkraut, and/or live kimchi. At home, he makes his own but he figured that he could buy yogurt or maybe sauerkraut (given the large amount of European immigration) in Misiones. It was easy to find both in Misiones but there were major problems: 1) the yogurt was sweetened and 2) the sauerkraut was pasteurized (not live). Gramps couldn't believe that every supermarket in Argentina sells tons and tons of different brands and flavors of yogurt but every single one has lots of sweeteners. He couldn't find any non-sweetened yogurt, not even at a "health foods" store. Finally, after a couple of weeks, he started making his own yogurt (more on homemade yogurt later).
Our cabin at La Granja de Casiano didn't have a television (and I didn't bring on the trip any screens for them to use) so the boys had to find creative ways to entertain themselves throughout the week. They found some kids to play with on a couple days. Otherwise, they found things to do by themselves, with Gramps, or with me. Here, B decided to entertain himself by styling my hair.
We shared our cabin with this frog. He spent most of his time in the shower. At first, he freaked me out. By the end of our week in the cabin, he'd become my friend. On the morning of our last day, I found him hopping in front of our bedroom door like he wanted to go into the room so I opened the door and let him in. Note all of the dust and stuff on the floor. Each night when I got into the top bunk, stuff had fallen off the ceiling onto my bed. There were a number of bugs too. I was ready to move on when it was the time to leave...
One evening we went shopping in Colonia Azara for flip flops. The owner was very interested in where we were from and why we were in Colonia Azara. At almost every store that we visited in Misiones, the salesperson or cashier asked us where we were from. We were definitely an anomaly. Foreign tourists don't visit these parts. Since the store was empty and it was almost closing time, we had a long conversation with this store owner. And of course, we talked a lot about mate. When we left, he gave us a small mate wall-hanging as a recuerdo (souvenir) from Colonia Azara.
I am very grateful to the yerba mate companies who were very generous with their time and knowledge. I really appreciate the help that they provided me!
One of the highlights of my stay in Apóstoles was the opportunity to see firsthand the harvest of yerba mate. I posted about this experience on 1/27/2016 under "yerba mate".
One of the highlights of my stay in Apóstoles was the opportunity to see firsthand the harvest of yerba mate. I posted about this experience on 1/27/2016 under "yerba mate".