The ruins of Loreto lie in a clearing in the forest of Misiones, in the north-east tip of Argentina, and the forest is slowly winning. Strangler figs and giant roots creep over the red sandstone walls of what was once a church, and the grass grows over the plaza where thousands of Guarani people once lived. Loreto was one of the Jesuit missions, the reducciones, that the Society of Jesus founded in the early seventeenth century in the lands of the Guarani, in what is now Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil. This one was moved to its present site in 1632 after raids by slave hunters from Brazil.
The missions were remarkable experiments. The Jesuits and the Guarani built towns with a central plaza, a church, workshops, schools and houses for families, and the Guarani, who were skilled in music, carving and building, filled the churches with baroque sculpture and played European instruments with great skill. Loreto even had a printing press, where books in the Guarani language were produced around 1700, among the earliest presses in this part of South America. The missions were suppressed when the Spanish crown expelled the Jesuits in 1767, and the towns were abandoned, and the jungle took over. The ruins of Loreto and Santa Ana, a few kilometres apart, are part of the World Heritage listing of the Jesuit missions.
Misiones is a different Argentina. The soil is a deep red, the vegetation a thick subtropical green, and the air is heavy and warm, with sudden storms. Roads run through plantations of yerba mate, the shrub whose leaves make the national drink, and tea, with orange groves and forest in between. The main road, Route 12, links Posadas with Iguazu, and is mostly good, but local roads can be rough, and after heavy rain the red mud is slippery. Cattle and dogs are common on the road, and the heat in summer can be intense, with humidity that soaks your clothes. The best months are April to October, with milder temperatures.
The tiny village of Loreto has little in the way of services, and the closest fuel and a bigger choice of shops are at Gobernador Roca, seventeen kilometres away, and San Ignacio, home to the most famous of the ruins, is nearby. Carry water and insect repellent, and take care of the sun at midday. In the evening, a gourd of mate shared with local people, and a meal of grilled meat, cassava and chipa, a small cheese bread, make a satisfying finish.