Travel and Tourism in Paraguay

Defensores del Chaco National Park

The Parque Nacional Defensores del Chaco is Paraguay's largest national park and one of the largest protected areas in South America, covering approximately 720,000 hectares in the northwestern corner of the country. The park protects a vast expanse of dry Chaco forest, palm savannas, and salt flats, and it serves as one of the most important refuges for the jaguar, puma, giant anteater, tapir, and other large mammals in the region. The Cerro Leon, a low rocky hill that rises to approximately 600 meters above the surrounding plains, is the highest point in the Paraguayan Chaco and provides panoramic views over an almost unimaginably vast landscape of thorn forest stretching to the horizon in every direction.

Access to Defensores del Chaco is challenging, requiring a four-wheel-drive vehicle and preparedness for extreme heat, limited water, and rudimentary facilities. The drive from Asuncion to the park entrance takes approximately seven to eight hours in dry conditions. Despite these challenges, the park offers extraordinary wildlife viewing opportunities and a sense of wilderness solitude that is increasingly rare in the modern world. Several tour operators in Asuncion offer guided expeditions to Defensores del Chaco, and these guided trips are strongly recommended for first-time visitors given the logistical difficulties of the journey.

The Eastern Region

East of the Paraguay River lies the Oriental region, the more densely populated and economically developed half of Paraguay. This region encompasses the capital, Asuncion, and the country's main agricultural areas, as well as the remnants of what was once one of the most biodiverse forest ecosystems on earth: the Atlantic Forest, or Bosque Atlantico.

The Cordillera Region

The Cordillera department, located approximately 70 to 80 kilometers east of Asuncion in the central interior, is one of the most historically and culturally significant regions of Paraguay and one of the most rewarding for day trips and weekend excursions from the capital. The department's name refers to the low chain of hills, the Cordillera de los Altos, that provides the region with its characteristic rolling landscape of red laterite soil, eucalyptus groves, and small farms.

The most important religious pilgrimage site in Paraguay is the Basilica of the Virgin of Caacupe, located in the departmental capital of Caacupe and dedicated to the patroness of Paraguay. The basilica, a large modern structure completed in the 1980s, houses the image of the Blue Virgin, a small carved wooden figure that according to tradition was created by a Guarani convert in the seventeenth century and has been the object of miraculous attribution and intense popular devotion ever since. Each year on December 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, hundreds of thousands of Paraguayan pilgrims converge on Caacupe on foot from throughout the country, some having walked for days to make the journey. This pilgrimage is one of the most impressive displays of popular Catholicism in South America and a demonstration of the deep interweaving of Guarani and Catholic spiritual traditions in Paraguayan religious life.

The town of Tobati in the Cordillera department is known for its tradition of popular religious sculpture, producing carved and painted clay and wood figures of saints and religious scenes in a style that continues the tradition of the Jesuit mission era workshops. Several artisan families in Tobati have maintained this tradition for generations, and visiting their workshops provides a direct connection to one of Paraguay's most important artistic lineages. The annual festival of the town's patron saint in June is accompanied by displays and sales of this distinctive craft.

Yataity, a village in the Guaira department roughly 180 kilometers east of Asuncion, is the center of production of ao po'i embroidery and can be visited as part of a circuit through the eastern interior. Watching the women of Yataity at work on their embroidery, creating the intricate geometric patterns stitch by careful stitch on the stretched cotton frames, conveys more powerfully than any museum display the skill and patience that this tradition requires. The village market, where ao po'i items are sold directly by their makers, provides the best opportunity to purchase authentic pieces at prices that fairly reflect the labor involved.

Festivals and Celebrations

Paraguay's calendar of festivals and cultural celebrations provides numerous opportunities for the visitor to experience the country's living culture in its most animated form. Several of these festivals are of particular interest to travelers and deserve detailed consideration.

Semana Santa, Holy Week, is perhaps the most important religious and cultural event in the Paraguayan calendar. In the days before Easter, families throughout the country devote themselves to the preparation of vast quantities of chipa, the traditional cheese bread that is inseparably associated with the season. The smell of wood-fire-baked chipa fills the streets of every Paraguayan town and village in Holy Week, and the giving and sharing of chipa among family and neighbors is a fundamental expression of community belonging. Religious processions, church services of great solemnity, and family gatherings characterize Holy Week throughout the country. The procession of the image of the Virgin of Caacupe, Paraguay's patron saint, and the pilgrimages to the basilica at Caacupe during the December 8 feast of the Immaculate Conception are among the most significant religious events in the country.

The Nanduti Festival in Itaugua, held each July, is one of Paraguay's most charming folk festivals, filling the streets of this small artisan town with displays of the distinctive circular lace that has made Itaugua famous throughout South America. Artisans display their work in front of their homes and workshops, live music fills the plazas, and traditional Paraguayan food is available from stalls throughout the town. The festival provides an excellent opportunity to purchase nanduti directly from the artisans who make it and to understand the craft in the context of the community that produces it.

The Festival of Folklore in Villarrica, held annually in August, is one of the premier celebrations of traditional Paraguayan music and dance in the country. Villarrica, located in the Guaira department in the eastern interior, is considered by many Paraguayans to be the cultural capital of the country's interior and has a long tradition of folk music and cultural celebration. The Villarrica folklore festival brings together performers from across Paraguay for several days of concerts, dances, craft exhibitions, and culinary displays that showcase the breadth and depth of Paraguayan folk traditions.

The Festival Internacional de Teatro, held in Asuncion, has grown into one of the most important theater festivals in South America, bringing international theater companies to the Paraguayan capital alongside local and regional productions and providing a window onto the growing sophistication of Paraguay's performing arts scene. Asuncion has a number of excellent theaters including the Teatro Municipal Ignacio A. Pane, the city's principal performance venue, and several smaller independent theater spaces that host a year-round program of dramatic and musical performances.

The founding anniversary of Asuncion on August 15, which commemorates the establishment of the city in 1537, is celebrated with particular civic pride in the capital, with military parades, cultural events, and public celebrations that draw large crowds to the historic center. The celebration provides a vivid demonstration of Paraguayan national identity and the degree to which the founding of Asuncion remains a living reference point in the country's self-understanding.