Filadelfia and the Mennonite Colonies

Three Mennonite colonies occupy the central Chaco: Menno, founded in 1927 by families from Canada, Fernheim in 1930 and Neuland in 1947 by others arriving from the Soviet Union, all settling land that was considered uninhabitable and building an agricultural economy on it through cooperatives. Filadelfia, Loma Plata and Neu-Halbstadt are the centres, laid out on grids with wide streets, and the cooperatives now produce a substantial share of Paraguay's dairy and beef. Plautdietsch is spoken alongside German and Spanish. Museums in Filadelfia and Loma Plata cover the settlement and the Chaco's indigenous peoples, who make up much of the workforce and live in settlements around the colonies.

What to look for

• The colony towns - the grid layouts of Filadelfia and Loma Plata.
• The cooperatives - the dairy and beef operations that run the economy.
• The museums - the collections on settlement and the Chaco peoples.
• The Chaco setting - the thorn scrub the colonies were cut from.

When to go

May to September in the cooler dry months; summer temperatures in the Chaco regularly exceed forty degrees. The Transchaco road journey from Asuncion takes most of a day. Sundays close almost everything in the colonies.

Good to know

The colonies are working towns, not attractions, and Sunday closure is near total. Summer heat is severe. The relationship between the colonies and the indigenous population is a live subject and museums treat it unevenly. Distances are long.

Nearby

Laguna Capitan lies east; Medanos del Chaco is far northwest.