Misiones Province
After spending three great months in Brazil, it was finally time to leave, and, not gonna lie, I wasn't super excited about Argentina. We had enjoyed the cheaper and more diverse food and drink in Brazil, so the thought of expensive and limited options in Argentina was not quite so exciting. We hoped for at least some cheaper fuel as we drove the final three hours from our last overnight spot to the border town of Dionísio Cerqueira. We had picked this town as it had an open border, meaning we could easily take the cats across.
Before we crossed, we went to the supermarket to stock up on the last of the Brazilian goodies: some nice beer, halloumi, and coffee. All of these are impossible to find in Argentina for a reasonable price or in some cases at all. We also washed the blanket in the supermarket launderette, as Aimee had had another accident on it while we drove over. It’s a great system, fully automated. You simply pay with your card and the machine runs for only £3. At those prices, and considering how convenient it was, I could definitely see the appeal of using those places again in the future. Laundry for us is normally a day-long event, but this was done and dried within two hours. Not bad, especially if you’ve got to do the grocery shop at the same time.
After getting that sorted, we headed for the border. We drove up near the crossing itself before turning right and heading along the side of the park that formed the divide. I parked up here, and Lee got the cats into their bags. He pointed over to a large blue seating area on the side of the park and told me he’d wait there. As he walked over, I checked iOverlander's border information. Then I realised we’d done it wrong already. I got out of the car, dodged the guy who was enthusiastically trying to sell me windscreen wipers for the second time, and waved at Lee to come back. It’s not a wide park, so despite the fact he was currently in Argentina, he saw me easily.
Once he’d returned, I explained that apparently immigration was not at the border, but 3 km away in the town centre. So we both headed over in Ruby and signed ourselves out of Brazil. Then we went back to the park and repeated the plan. I drove around the crossing alone. It was very quiet. I parked up on the side and headed into the office to get Ruby’s papers signed out. It didn’t seem common for foreign cars to pass this way, and after a few confused people, I eventually got someone who knew how to process the paperwork. After hearing warnings from previous travellers that the Brazilian border agents have a reputation for not processing your papers when you leave, I was ready. If this happens to you, even though it’s entirely their fault, they’ll state that your car never left the country. This makes you liable for an enormous fine—around 10% of the vehicle's value as determined by the officer. The way to avoid it is to make sure you get evidence that the border validated your exit paperwork by taking a photo of the stamped document. I was all ready to insist on this, but the nice lady had already printed and signed me a duplicate copy.
All that was left now was to get signed into Argentina. This was straightforward enough. They did want to search the van initially, but when I told them I’d need to open the door for them so it didn’t fall off, they waved me through without bothering. Mission successfully accomplished, I drove down the park and picked up the cats while Lee walked back to sign himself into Argentina.
We would have been happy to stop driving at this point, but we didn’t particularly like the vibe around this particular park, and there weren't really many other places to stop. We decided instead to drive on. There also weren't a lot of options for places to stay. We went to the nearest campsite to try our luck—one of those places that people had added to the app while completely disregarding the price. How helpful.
It wasn’t far from the town, though, and we still had daylight, so we went to ask how much it was. The problem was that we only had a tiny amount of cash left over from last time, and we had no way to get any more that day. There were no free options around either. We arrived at the very rough entrance to Camping Belapark, and Lee went in to ask. The owner wanted 10,000 pesos for the night, which is actually quite a reasonable price (around £5). We only had 8,000 on us, though, so we asked him if he’d accept that plus a couple of cans of beer and a good review, and he kindly let us stay.
The campsite wasn’t super level, but it had all the facilities including a pool, even though we didn’t use it. The owner was very excited to have "influencers" stay and came to ask us to record a video for his Instagram. We were, of course, happy to oblige before sitting down and relaxing, now that we were no longer running out of visa time.
The province we had entered was Misiones, Argentina. It’s somewhere I had wanted to go for a while after several of our friends told us they liked it. It’s full of wildlife, national parks, and waterfalls. The next day we drove onwards, trying to come up with a plan of what we wanted to see. We also decided we’d try to get some money out, so we headed to the next town, San Vicente, to see if we could find a Western Union.
We had thought about trying to stop off on the way to do a hike, but the problem was that all these places were national parks that we couldn’t enter with the cats. It was also a really hot day, so we couldn’t leave them in the car. In the end, we decided it wasn’t going to work, and we kept going. We thought we’d like to try and visit the waterfall that runs along the border, and we made some enquiries about the tour and paying for it. It started turning into a logistical nightmare, especially when it turned out that the Western Unions here either weren’t open or wouldn’t accept foreign withdrawals. We gave up on that idea, too, and went to find somewhere to camp.
It seems in this province that there aren't many options in general for wild camping. The ones that are available are down rough dirt roads. The soil here is that dark, rich red colour of jungle tracks. It’s slippery and sticky when wet, and definitely something we’d get stuck in if it rained. It therefore seemed that most of the free camping was only really an option when it was dry, and we were having nearly a storm every day at the moment. We didn’t really want to get stuck anywhere, so we looked at alternative options. The best one near us was camping in a big park in the next town. Yet again, there was no price or mention of payment methods, so we decided we’d go and ask.
We arrived in Dos de Mayo in a torrential downpour. Once the rain had passed, a chap came over and asked us if we wanted to stay. We told him we did, but we had no cash. We asked if we could pay by card, and he said no. "Okay, no problem," we shrugged, "we’ll be off then." He flapped his hands at us, telling us to stay. It was his fault, he said, for not being able to charge us properly. This seemed like an unlikely bit of good fortune, and we moved over to park up next to another camper on the other side. We’d just set up when another guy came and told us we had to move to another area, as it was going to be very busy tomorrow. Mildly annoyed, but still enjoying being able to understand what people were saying to me, we moved over again.
The next day wasn’t really that busy at all; I’m not sure what all the fuss was about. We decided to stop another day and figure out what we were trying to do. It was Good Friday, so we couldn’t get any cash out until the following day anyway. We’d also had a week of moving every day and long drives, so it was nice to catch our breath. In the evening, we even blagged a free cold shower in the toilet block.
The next day, we went to Jardín América to try and get cash again. This time we were in luck. The place was open, and they said they could do it. They were only open until midday, and we had arrived with not much time to spare. Then they told us that they had to do an ID check which would take an hour, but that they were closing in 15 minutes. This was a little bit of a problem, but as they were trying to arrange for someone to wait there for us, the check cleared. We finally got our money.
Now that we could pay, we headed off to a local campsite with the idea of spending the weekend there. It was Semana Santa (Easter weekend), which is notorious for being loud. We decided we’d rather be in a paid spot as it would probably be quieter. We headed for a campsite by the river. The prices here were a bit on the high side, but we thought we’d gotten pretty lucky recently, so we could afford a couple of days. Once again, we were pleasantly surprised when we arrived. The owner waved at the riverbank and told us to take our pick. On the topic of money, he said he didn’t care much for it and suggested a donation of 10,000 pesos. That was fine with us, and we scored one of the last spots on the bank, as the place was pretty full already with people barbecuing.
We spent a relaxing weekend here, swimming in the slightly ominous-smelling river and chatting with the friendly locals. While it had been busy on Saturday, Sunday was quiet, and by Monday we were the only people left. Lee went to pay, expecting to give him 10,000 for each night, but when he hopped back into the cab where I was waiting on the road, he told me the owner only wanted 10,000 in total. That’s two nights of camping for £5! While we weren’t having much luck wild camping here, who can complain when the paid options are so reasonable?
While the camping may have been cheap and easy, we weren’t having much luck actually seeing any of the attractions. The access conditions, the heat, and the rules regarding pets were making it pretty difficult. We can normally get around one or two of these, but all three together made us press on. We decided we’d head over to Paraguay soon.
My plan was to get the pet papers sorted here in Argentina so that when we tried to re-enter again from Paraguay at a more difficult border, we would be sorted. The papers in Argentina cost next to nothing, so we just needed to find a vet that offered a reasonable price for a health certificate. The best place for this would be the city of Posadas, located directly on the border by the banks of the Paraná River.
By the time we got there, it was a bit late. We had forgotten about the Argentine siesta, which is ridiculously long (around 3 to 4 hours). Most of the vets were shut, and while they would reopen later, the government office would have already closed by then. We visited several vets to get quotes. The best was 50,000 pesos for the two cats. It wasn’t the best price, and we would have to pay for the parasite treatment too, but for £30 I’d save myself a load of stress. We decided we’d camp nearby and go back the following day early so we could do it all in one day.
We camped just outside the city limits, as apparently the municipality of Posadas does not permit wild camping. We found an empty field by the riverbank that would be good for the night, and once again we weathered a torrential storm that made us glad we hadn’t attempted anything more adventurous.
In the morning, we went to the vet. They told us that the price we had been given was wrong and that it was actually double. We tried a couple of other clinics and found out that they were quoting the certificate price minus the obligatory consultation fee. So, after faffing around, we thought, "Bugger this..." and left without doing any of it. It would have cost us around £100 all in, and we didn’t even need the papers to get into Paraguay anyway. We’d put that problem on a future list and continue as we were.
Our final stop in Argentina would be the Jesuit ruins around San Ignacio. There are three in the vicinity, and a single ticket permits entry to all of them. The same is true on the Paraguayan side. We arrived in the tiny town of San Ignacio needing a supermarket, but at a time of day when everything was shut. We sat in the car in the pouring rain and discussed our options. While we had planned to visit the ruins here, we decided that we may as well just go to the ones in Paraguay. They were half the price, too. The ones in Argentina weren’t super expensive if you took advantage of the ticket three times, but it was kind of pricey for one go, and if we went to all three, that was probably more ruins than I was interested in seeing. Apparently, the ones in Paraguay are also better preserved, so, just like that, the last shred of a plan washed away in the ongoing torrential rain.
We stayed in the town square one night, stocked up on lots of bottles of nice Argentine wine at the supermarket, and decided that the next morning we’d cross the border and put our terribly planned and rather unsuccessful trip through Misiones behind us.
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