Chaco Essence: A Three-Day Immersion Experience

As we travel through the sparsely-populated Chaco region, you will notice the gradual transition of vegetation from the humid Chaco as we travel north toward the dry or Central Chaco.

Our first brief stop will be in the small town of Villa Hayes, named after former US President Rutherford B Hayes and learn about the important role he played in Paraguayan history.

Next we visit a rural boarding school with more than 800 students, 90% of whom live there during the school year because their homes are very far from the Educational Center. They are children and young people who come from working families, some of whom have traveled up to 400 km to get to school. In addition to learning about the challenges of educating young people in the Chaco, we also see the amazing carpentry of the students and learn how the school collects rain water as there isn't fresh water available in much of the Chaco.

We will arrive to our hotel in Filadelfia in the evening.

Meals: L, D

In the morning we will visit a battle site from the Chaco War and take a nature walk to see flora and fauna.

Fortin Toledo was considered a strategic point during the Chaco War between Bolivia and Paraguay and was the only Paraguayan defense that protected Isla Po'i from the northwest. See artifacts in the museum and remaining trenches.

The Proyecto Taguá is a chaco peccary breeding project. Once thought to have been extinct, the chaco peccary remains and endangered species. This project breeds the peccary in captivity and healthy peccary are then released to the wild.

In the evening we will have dinner at a local ranch and go on a night drive. After dark a lot of animals come out to play that you just don't see during the day. Everybody enjoys seeing mammals, but they can be frustratingly difficult to observe - owls, nightjars, and mammals will be on our list. 

Meals: B, L, D

The scientific “Jakob Unger” museum exhibits a collection of natural and ethnological material from the Chaco. We will learn about the complex

Jakob Unger was the first colonist who started a biological investigation and embalmed a variety of species and samples. This museum owns a collection of 210 examples of the 250 categories of birds that live in the Chaco. The colony house, one of the first buildings constructed during the settlement (1933-34), was converted into a museum and displays objects from the first years of settlement in the colony.

We will visit an interesting small business that is working with indigenous communities to process, package and sell seeds and fruits native to the Chaco.

We will also visit the new Chaco Interpretation Center and the impressive Fortin Boqueron to see the living sniper tree before returning to Asuncion.

Return to Asuncion in the evening (long drive - 6 hours)

Meals: B, L