South America – Page 8

The Paraguayan Chaco

This is the second article in a series on Paraguay’s Chaco region with highlights from the area. The first focused on Filadelfia, its largest town. Other posts will feature the local Mennonite and indigenous communities. Enjoy photos and stories from one of Paraguay’s most intriguing places.

If you are looking for a trip off the beaten path, try visiting the Chaco region of Paraguay. It’s quite the trip (figuratively and literally). My family and I headed to the “Wild West” of South America, in August 2008. It’s a fun destination for those who enjoy rural tourism and exploring scenic beauty. The Chaco has many hidden gems to discover — wildlife, livestock, farmland, salt lagoons, historic battlefields, dry terrain, and the local culture.

We spent a day driving in the back country on dirt and gravel roads. We passed palm trees and lapachos (jacaranda trees) with flowers that seemed to glow in the sunlight. The flowers of different lapachos bloom at different times of the year in bright yellow, orange, or lavender. We saw Mennonite ranches (estancias) with grazing cattle and crop fields. We drove through swaths of barren land with dead trees, disheveled earth, and patches of salt residue left behind by flash floods. The water table under the Chaco is salty and non-potable, so local residents must collect and preserve as much water as they can during the rainy season (November-February) in order to weather the brutal dry season (May-August). Hollow dirt mounds serve as water reservoirs for the estancias.

We headed from Filadelfia to Isla Po’i, where we toured an experimental agriculture farm run by the Mennonites. We saw fields of cotton and mustard, two crops the Mennonites planned to introduce as cash crops.

At Isla Po’I, we toured the ruins of a former Paraguayan military staging area used during the Chaco War (1932-35). The national monument is one of several dedicated to Paraguay’s victory over the Bolivians. The statue is of Mariscal José Félix Estigarribia, Paraguay’s military commander during the war and one of the country’s most celebrated heroes. The bomb shell and tank tracks were left behind by the Bolivians.

We continued on to the Yakaré Sur saltwater lagoon, a sanctuary for flamingos and other birds in the heart of the semi-arid Chaco. It’s a great place for bird watching. The view from the observation tower is gorgeous – one of the few places where you can survey the Chaco for miles in all directions.

We drove not far from Yakaré Sur to a Mennonite estancia. The scene looked idyllic with grazing cows, green pastures, windmills, and landscapes dotted with palm trees and jacarandas.

It’s easy to get lost in the back roads even with GPS, the road conditions are unpredictable, and the best places to can be hard to find. As a result, it’s advisable to hire a local guide for a half day (U.S.$90 in 2008) or full day ($150 in 2008) trip who can show you what the Chaco has to offer. Most roads are unpaved and chock full of potholes. Consider using the guide’s vehicle (an additional $150) to spare your own from wear and tear. If you drive in the Chaco, bring plenty of food and water, and be prepared for roadside emergencies. Your guide can help you navigate the myriad roads that crisscross the area.

Most of all, don’t forget to bring the tereré, a beverage made with yerba mate leaves. It’s the drink of choice in Paraguay, and you will make new friends and feel more at home in Paraguay. Enjoy a cup with your guide.

After driving more than 100 miles (160 kilometers), we opted not to visit two other attractions, Fortin Boquerón, a historic site from the Chaco War, and Fortin Toledo, home of the Tagua Reserve, a reserve for the endangered tagua boar (peccary). It’s impossible to see all the major points of interest in the Chaco in one day.

Our adventure continued when we returned to Asunción via the Trans-Chaco Highway. During the five-hour drive, we saw herds of cattle grazing amid fields of grass peppered with palm trees; fields charred by wildfires; igloo-size brick ovens; and cowboys (gauchos) herding cattle. We enjoyed taking in the wide open spaces and flatlands of western Paraguay.

If you have the opportunity to visit Paraguay and the time for a few out-of-the-way excursions, head to the Chaco. Plan to take at least four days to see sites such as Filadelfia that are easily accessible from the Trans-Chaco Highway. For more remote locations such as Cerro León (Lion Hill) in Parque Nacional del Defensores del Chaco (National Park of the Defenders of the Chaco), set aside at least a week, hire a guide, and expect to rough it.

More about the Chaco

Filadelfia, the capital of Boquerón Province and the largest town in the Chaco

This is an update with photos of an article I posted in September 2008. Click here to read the original post.

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Filadelfia, Paraguay

This is the first post in a series on Paraguay’s Chaco region about its largest town, Filadelfia. The others will feature articles about the region and its Mennonite and indigenous communities. Enjoy photos and stories from one of Paraguay’s most intriguing places.

A visit to the Chaco, the remote western half of Paraguay located in the heart of South America, is like a trip back in time. It truly is the “Wild West” of South America. From the timeworn, semiarid terrain to the eclectic mix of Germanic, Spanish, and indigenous influences, the Chaco is out of this world.

The heartbeat of the Chaco is in Filadelfia, the capital of Boquerón Province, about five hours northwest of Paraguay’s capital, Asunción. It lies just off the Trans-Chaco Highway headed toward Santa Cruz, Bolivia. The town of 10,000 was founded in the 1930s by Russian Mennonites of Germanic descent who emigrated from the former Soviet Union to avoid persecution under Stalinism. Mennonite influence dominates the town with the prevalence of Plattdeutsch, a Low German dialect, blond-hair and blue-eyed residents, and delicious German cuisine and pastries.

In 2008, we visited Filadelfia and stayed in one of just two hotels in town at the time, a decent place with a so-so German-style buffet. Along the main street, Avenida Hindenburg, we stopped to see the monuments that commemorated the city’s 25th, 50th and 75th anniversaries and the Mennonite pioneers.

We stopped to explore the town square, one of the nicer ones I’ve seen in Paraguay. The manicured lawn and gardens were a beautiful escape from the gritty, industrial atmosphere of the rest of the town. The aptly-named bottle trees (ceiba insignis; in Spanish, borrachos) stood like giant guardians. The untrained ear might have mistaken the Mennonite school next door for one in Germany were it not for the dry, windswept Chaco landscape on campus.

We toured the Jakob Unger Museum adjacent to the town square. Named after a local specimen collector, the museum was filled with virtually every kind of animal found in the Paraguayan Chaco. It also housed a mish-mash of Mennonite and indigenous artifacts from Filadelfia’s past. Our young son enjoyed learning about armadillos, rheas, and cheetahs — up close and personal. We played a game of “which animal can hurt you” to help him learn respect for wildlife.

Filadelfia was a beehive of activity when we visited. The town’s epicenter was a small strip mall that catered to the Mennonite community with a large German-style supermarket and boutique stores selling everything from wood furniture to ceramics. Smaller commercial enterprises on the outskirts of town served the local indigenous population and migrant workers, primarily “Brasiguayos,” or Brazilians who emigrated to Paraguay. Around town were numerous plants and factories, predominantly Mennonite owned and operated, that processed agriculture products from milk to honey. The ice cream was some of the most delicious I’d ever tasted.

The region is Paraguay’s dairy heartland, but all this productivity has come at a cost. The Chaco is very dry, with frequent droughts and water management issues exacerbated by large farms that need irrigation. Although Filadelfia and surrounding communities such as Loma Plata and Kolonia Neuland use power from the Itaipu Dam, one of the world’s largest dams located in eastern Paraguay, coal and wood were still widely used as fuel when we visited. As a result, clear cutting to increase pasture lands for cattle and for fuel has contributed to deforestation in the area.

Those who live in the harsh climate of the Chaco work hard to make the desert bloom, but they also find time to relax, have fun, and enjoy life. Filadelfia has several Mennonite churches, and many indigenous and Brasiguayos are Catholic. Soccer (fútbol) is a passion for many locals, as it is throughout Paraguay, and each year at the end of September, the Trans-Chaco Rally passes through town. Visiting Filadelfia during the rally is arguably the best time to go, but be sure to book your hotel room early! There aren’t many.

Stay tuned for more exciting posts about Paraguay and the Chaco!

This is an update with photos of an earlier post about the Paraguayan Chaco. Click here to read the original post.

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Victoria Falls and Iguaçu Falls

Click here to read a follow-on article about Victoria Falls and Iguaçu Falls with photos.

I’ve had the rare opportunity over the past year to visit two of the world’s largest waterfalls. I visited Iguaçu Falls on the Argentine-Brazilian border in February 2009 prior to leaving South America, where I had lived for two years. I just returned from a short weekend trip to Victoria Falls on the Zambian-Zimbabwean border, which is a six-hour trip from Lusaka, Zambia by car. As measured by water volume, these two waterfalls are two of the largest and arguably most spectacular waterfalls in the world.

It’s easy to make comparisons between the two. In truth, both waterfalls are equally impressive. They’re different, so it’s difficult to say whether one is “better” than the other. Iguaçu Falls is larger by volume and longer. It comprises numerous waterfalls that give it a layered effect, and it stretches over a longer distance than Victoria Falls. The Parana River above Iguaçu Falls collects at the top of the falls and cascades down over what must be a stretch of five miles or longer. At the same time, Iguaçu features a boardwalk on the Brazil side that puts you near the heart of the waterfall, the “Devil’s Throat” (La Garganta del Diablo).

Victoria Falls appears visually larger than its Latino counterpart. The sheer “in your face” effect it offers you while the Zambezi River spills over is incredible. The pathway on the Zambian side puts you very close to a massive wall of water that drops at least a couple hundred feet in front of you. Although I wore rain gear, I was soaking wet when I passed close to the falls – wetter than I was at Iguaçu.

Although I left Iguaçu Falls convinced that it is unsurpassed in its grandeur, Victoria Falls rivals it in intensely. Of course, visitors to either locale would undoubtedly insist that each waterfall is more impressive than the other. As an objective outsider, I believe that these two falls collectively rank as two of the more beautiful and awe inspiring natural wonders of the world. If you ever have a chance to visit either one, don’t miss out. You won’t be sorry spending the money and time to behold two of God’s greatest creations. In this respect, I feel blessed to have experienced both.