Paraguay

1st - 12 July & 31 August - 2nd September 2023

1'258 km

Driving from Bolivia, the northen small town of Filadelfia will be my first real stop.

Filadelfia was founded in 1930 by Russian Mennonites who fled from the Soviet Union and the city is now the capital of Boquerón Department in the Gran Chaco.

Mennonites in Paraguay came from Canada in the 1920s; more came from the USSR in the 1930s to the Gran Chaco region of Paraguay where their freedoms in language, education, religion and non-resistance were granted.

Mennonites are a group of Anabaptist Christian communities tracing their roots to the epoch of the Reformation. Formal Mennonite beliefs were codified in the Dordrecht Confession of Faith (1632), which affirmed "the baptism of believers only, the washing of the feet as a symbol of servanthood, church discipline, the shunning of the excommunicated, the non-swearing of oaths, marriage within the same church", strict pacifistic physical non-resistance, anti-Catholicism and in general, more emphasis on "true Christianity" involving "being Christian and obeying Christ" as they interpret it from the Holy Bible. The majority of the early Mennonite followers, rather than fighting, survived by fleeing to neighbouring states where ruling families were tolerant of their belief in believer's baptism.

I continue towards Asuncion, the Capital.

Hum... Sorry to say, it's NOT a picturesque city, I will not stay there long.

From 12 July to August 30, I will leave my Land Roamer in a secure campsite near Asuncsion and fly to Switzerland to see my family and friends.

Directly after landing back in Asuncion, I rent a small car for a few days, as the cost of rental will be cheaper than the cost of driving my Land Roamer because all my visits will be on good tarmac road. What a pleasure to cruise at 120 km/h on a highway!

My first destination are the falls of Iguazu that I visit from the Argentina side. The weather forecast for the period was rain and more rain, there was only ONE afternnon with decent weather: => GO!

Normally, a visitor to the falls should plan to be in the area for 2 days and see the falls from multiple points, both in Argentina and in Brazil...

I include a few pictures available on Internet to illustrate what I was not able to see because of the rain...

My second destination were 2 "Missions" or "Reductions".

The Mission of "La Santísima Trinidad de Paraná", or the "Most Holy Trinity of Paraná".

It is an example of one of the many Jesuit reductions, small colonies established by the missionaries in various locations in South America, such as Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay throughout the 17th and 18th century. These missions were built as self-contained societies that existed outside of regular Spanish colonial life that integrated indigenous populations with Christian faith.

Trinidad was originally constructed in 1706, the intended self-sufficient city came complete with a central meeting plaza, where most of the celebrations, such as Mass and matrimony were celebrated, a large church meeting house, a school, several workshops, a museum and housing for the local Indian population.

The Jesuit expulsion from Spanish colonies in 1768 eventually led to the abandonment of Trinidad and the rest of the reductions, which were left to decay.

Owing in part to its relatively recent construction, Trinidad bore the weathering of time fairly well. It has also been named one of two UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Paraguay.

The Reduction de Jesús of Tavarange was initially founded in what is now Alto Parana in 1685. The mission was relocated several times before arriving in its current location in 1760. Construction of the mission was not completed by the time the Jesuit order was expelled from Paraguay in 1767.

The massive mission church was being built as a replica of the Church of Saint Ignatius of Loyola in Italy. It would have been one of the biggest churches of that time, with a central structure of 70 by 24 metres.