Coronel Bogado Chipa

Chipa is made from cassava starch, cheese, eggs, fat and anise, kneaded into rings or small loaves and baked, traditionally in a clay tatakua oven, and it is eaten across Paraguay at any hour and especially during Holy Week, when families bake it in quantity. Coronel Bogado on Ruta 1 was declared the national capital of chipa, and the trade is visible along the highway: bakeries with tatakua ovens behind them, and sellers with baskets working the buses and cars that stop, calling the wares. The town holds an annual chipa festival. It is a fixed stop on the drive between Asuncion and Encarnacion and the bread is bought warm from the basket.

What you actually see

• The tatakua ovens - the clay ovens the chipa is baked in.
• Roadside sellers - the basket sellers working the stopped traffic.
• The bakeries - the workshops along the highway through the town.
• The chipa festival - the annual celebration the town holds.

When to go

Year round; the sellers work through the day along the highway. Holy Week is when chipa is made in the greatest quantity across the country. The festival falls annually and is announced locally.

Honest expectations

The town itself has nothing else for visitors and the stop takes an hour. Chipa is dense and dry and not to everyone's taste, and it is best eaten warm. Sellers work assertively around stopped vehicles.

Nearby

Encarnacion lies south; the Jesuit missions are east.