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TRAVELING TO PARAGUAY LEADS TO A JOURNEY THROUGH A COUNTRY WITH TWO AMAZING NATURE: BOTH PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL. BOTH MAGICALLY MERGE IN THE NATION OF THE ROUTE OF THE JESUITS

When the first preacher of the Jesuit Order landed on Guarani soil, the dense forest of cashews, cedars, and araucaria barely let the sun shine through the sky of leaves leading the way.
The cassock, the hanging cross, and the heavy Bible —almost weighing more than the preacher himself— clashed with that land where inhabitants were far from wearing these sorts of stuff.
According to the legend, the preacher picked a burucuya (passionflower), and that flower reminded him of the Son of God crucified: the crown of thorns, three nails, five wounds. The soft fruit looked like drops of blood. Then he felt Jesus had led him to such distant and lush destination.
Paraguay could have been described as a nation with two nature, being one of them essentially spiritual. Firstly, its natural geography, where the river bearing its name stands out to the East, with its hills, and unevenness. On the other hand, the Gran Chaco stands out to the West, where tropical and arid-land vegetation converge and 14 ethnic groups coexist. It also covers major protected areas such as the Medanos del Chaco National Park, Chocovera, and Rio Negro. Signs of the arid-land vegetation are the San Cosme y Damian Sand Dunes; each having more than 30 meters height, remnant of the Ybycui Hill, which is fed by the Parana River.
There is another Paraguay, a mythical one, almost celestial. It is not only the land where terere is drunk and cassava is eaten to the rhythm of polka dances and guaranias. On all the foregoing, we must add the legendary and mythical presence of Jesuit preachers, those unique Saviors who arrived from the medieval Europe. In their cases, they were not aiming at conquering the lands, but the souls. The routes of those special pilgrimage draw the path of the impressive southern side of that nation.
The village of the Most Holy Trinity of Parana, declared World Heritage Site by UNESCO, imposing network of buildings that still preserves the architecture typical of the era: the square, workshops, indigenous houses, the cemetery, is one of the praised places in the route. The original red-bricked bell tower in the Chapel of the Church Our Lady of Loreto also notes the Jesuit presence in Santa Rosa de Lima. The old astronomy center in San Cosme and San Damian and a two-meter height wooden statue of the Virgin, in the town of Santa Maria are some of the dazzling signs of the so much settled route in Guarani land.
As one of the main Catholic Evangelization Centers and abundant livestock production, the San Ignacio Guazu Mission still treasures artworks highlighting the atmosphere of the colonial times. The Diocesan Museum of Jesuit Art treasures important samples of the Hispanic-Guarani art in exhibition rooms where visitors can enjoy more than 30 polychrome wooden carvings elevating religious passages like the creation, redemption, the history of Christ in Church and the famous Society of Jesus.
Among the main mysteries that Jesuits left after the abolition of their Order in 1767, visitors can explore the Jesus de Tavarengue Mission, an imposing building left unfinished. The church, meant to be one the greatest of the time, shows an innovative design that makes it different from the rest built by the Order in those lands. The current walls of the church are decorated by artworks from contemporary Guarani’s artists as expression of the cultural merging brought by Jesuits. This site was declared World Heritage by UNESCO and other imprints of the Society of Jesus can be observed from its scenic overlook.
Santiago, 163 miles away from Asuncion, capital city of Paraguay, is another town in the route. This town houses one of the most popular Jesuit-Urban historical centers around which structures built on adobe are raised and the original American inhabitants lived. The Museum Tesoros Jesuísticos treasures a sample of the best wooden carvings —namely, San Isidro’s, the Virgen de la Cabeza, and the Risen Jesus.
Asuncion, better known as the Mother of Cities, is also marked by the Jesuit imprint. The city is the doorway to the Gran Chaco Region’s plains and you can breathe the strength of that evangelist crusade in its Cathedral Our Lady of Asuncion, among other places.
The very same crusade describes in its maps one of the largest freshwater wetlands in the world, the Paraguayan Pantanal, welcomed by the city Fuerte Olimpo. It is a 150,000 km2 area in surface in the Upper Basin of Paraguay River, which extends to Brazil and Bolivia. In its inland delta, the waters’ level rise several meters every year, leading to flooding. Afterwards, these waters recede portraying a natural, lovely scene that showcases birds, fishes, amphibian, reptiles, and mammals.
No wonder that fluvial tourism is getting a boost in the country to the speed of luxury cruise ships traveling by the Paraguay River far upstream to El Pantanal.