Paraguayan Chaco

The landscape of the Paraguayan Chaco is defined by absolute flatness — not a single hill exists in the entire region — and by the dramatic contrast between the shimmering heat mirages on the white-calcium soil in summer and the sudden flood of the lowland areas after the summer rains transform dry riverbeds into lakes that persist for weeks, turning what appears to be solid ground into a vast shallow inland sea that disrupts supply routes and isolates communities for days at a time.

The town of Filadelfia, established in the 1920s by German Mennonite colonists who arrived from Russia via transit through Germany, remains the largest settlement in the Chaco and is surrounded by large-scale soy, cotton and cattle operations that have replaced much of the original thorn forest, though patches of native vegetation survive along the rail lines and around the few permanent water sources that continue to attract wildlife, and the contrast between the manicured streets of Filadelfia and the raw natural environment immediately outside the town is one of the most striking things about visiting the Chaco.

The Defensores del Chaco National Park, covering approximately 780,000 hectares in the northern Chaco, protects a representative sample of the thorn forest and is one of the last strongholds of the South American tapir, giant anteater and the endangered Chaco eagle, though the park is remote and access requires a high-clearance vehicle, a local guide familiar with the unmarked roads and careful preparation for self-sufficiency, as there are no facilities within the park and rescue services are many hours away.

Indigenous communities of the Maskoy and Nivaclé peoples continue to inhabit the remoter areas of the Chaco, maintaining traditional hunting and gathering practices alongside participation in the regional cash economy, and several communities have established small eco-tourism operations that offer visitors the opportunity to learn about traditional knowledge of the thorn forest, including plant identification, tracking and navigation techniques that have been refined over generations of living in an environment that appears hostile to outsiders.

The experience of a Chaco night is unlike anything available in the more populated regions of South America — the sky is free of light pollution for hundreds of kilometres in every direction, and the Milky Way is sharp enough to cast a visible shadow when the moon is absent, while the sound of the forest is entirely different from any temperate woodland: insects and frogs dominate the soundscape, punctuated at intervals by the distant calls of owls and the occasional bark of a fox, and the temperature drops rapidly after sunset making the evening a comfortable time to be outdoors.

The Paraguayan Chaco represents one of the last intact semi-arid wilderness areas in South America, supporting populations of species found nowhere else in the world in an ecosystem that has been almost entirely transformed in the surrounding countries of Argentina and Bolivia.

The combination of Mennonite agricultural settlements, indigenous communities living partly traditional lifestyles and large protected wilderness areas creates a cultural and ecological landscape found nowhere else in Paraguay or the broader region.

The Defensores del Chaco National Park is the largest protected area in Paraguay and one of the largest national parks in South America, offering a wilderness experience that is increasingly rare on a continent where accessible protected areas are often heavily impacted by tourism.