The ultimate goal of our 10-day Argentine winter vacation trip was Paraguay. When we found that all of the bus tickets to Asunción were sold out for both Saturday and Sunday, we looked for other options. Posadas seemed like a good choice. It is the capital of Misiones Province – one of the two main yerba mate producing states in Argentina. A stopover in Posadas was a great opportunity for me to look into sources for my yerba mate research and explore the feasibility of spending 4-6 weeks in the region during summer vacation.
Around 8:00pm on Sunday, July 19, we boarded an Expreso Singer cama suite bus from Buenos Aires to Posadas, Argentina. Bus travel is much better in South America than the United States. We purchased tickets for a cama suite bus, which is a lot like 1st class airline travel. The seats recline 180 degrees and there are rows of 2 seats on one side of the bus and rows of only 1 seat on the other side, so passengers have plenty of space. Additionally, an attendant serves beverages (including wine or beer), a warm dinner, and breakfast in the morning. After the 13-hour bus-ride, we arrived in Posadas fairly well rested.
We arrived in Posadas on a rainy day. The boys stayed in our hotel on the central plaza to shower while I spent a couple hours checking out research sources at the Archivo General de la Casa de Gobierno – the province of Misiones’s main archive holding historical documents. Then we went to a restaurant for lunch where we ate the specialty of stuffed, grilled chicken with papas fritas al provencal (French fries with garlic and parsley).
Around 8:00pm on Sunday, July 19, we boarded an Expreso Singer cama suite bus from Buenos Aires to Posadas, Argentina. Bus travel is much better in South America than the United States. We purchased tickets for a cama suite bus, which is a lot like 1st class airline travel. The seats recline 180 degrees and there are rows of 2 seats on one side of the bus and rows of only 1 seat on the other side, so passengers have plenty of space. Additionally, an attendant serves beverages (including wine or beer), a warm dinner, and breakfast in the morning. After the 13-hour bus-ride, we arrived in Posadas fairly well rested.
We arrived in Posadas on a rainy day. The boys stayed in our hotel on the central plaza to shower while I spent a couple hours checking out research sources at the Archivo General de la Casa de Gobierno – the province of Misiones’s main archive holding historical documents. Then we went to a restaurant for lunch where we ate the specialty of stuffed, grilled chicken with papas fritas al provencal (French fries with garlic and parsley).
After lunch, we explored a bit of Posadas.
During our day in Posadas, Argentina celebrated Día de la Amistad (Day of Friendship). While exploring Posadas, we found a salon above an art gallery where people gathered to celebrate yerba mate and friendship. The boys soon left but I stayed to talk with some of the participants, share some mate, and hear recitations of poetry.
After a leisurely breakfast the next morning at our hotel in Posadas, we caught a local bus to the Argentine border and then another bus that took us across the Paraná River to the Paraguayan border and another bus to the Encarnación long-distance bus terminal. We missed the first bus because there were too many people and we had too much luggage. Even the second bus departing Posadas was stuffed with people!