Pilar

Pilar sits on the Río Paraguay in the southwest corner of the country, the capital of Ñeembucú, and it has been a textile town since the Manufactura de Pilar was established in 1930, spinning and weaving cotton on a scale that made it the largest industrial employer in the region and gave the town a character unusual in rural Paraguay.n rural Paraguay. The department around it is wetland: the Ñeembucú marshes, a vast system of lagoons, esteros and flooded grassland running east from the river, holding waterbirds in numbers, capybaras and caimans, and crossed by causeways and boats. The town has a nineteenth-century centre, a river beach and a ferry crossing to Argentina.

What you actually see

• The textile mill - the works that has run since 1918.
• The Neembucu wetlands - the marshes and lagoons east of the town.
• The river front - the Paraguay and the beach and ferry.
• The old centre - the nineteenth-century buildings of the town.

When to go

April to October in the cooler dry season for the wetlands and the roads; the wet season floods large areas. Bird numbers are highest in the drier months when water concentrates.

Honest expectations

Pilar is remote and the roads in are long. Wetland access needs local boats and arrangements. The mill is a working factory rather than a visitor attraction. Facilities in town are modest.

Nearby

The Neembucu wetlands lie east; the Argentine bank is across the river.