Filadelfia, Paraguay

Filadelfia is a town in the Paraguayan Chaco that was founded by Mennonites in 1930. It operates as a cooperative, where everyone sells their agricultural products to the cooperative and  everyone shares the benefits.  The town looks different than other Paraguyan towns and the German influence is obvious in the  look and feel of the town.   There is also a prominent indigenous presence , which is also unique to Paraguay, as there are not many indigenous people left in the  country.

This is a "bottle tree" which is unique to the dry Chaco region. It stores water in the wide bottom part of the trunk. We were also told that the early Mennonite settlers  used them as coffins during a cholera epidemic shortly after the founding of the colony.

We arrived early in the morning after an overnight bus ride. We couldn't check into our hotel so I took a nap in the city park.

One of the many crops growing here were peanuts.  The colony also produces sesame, chia, and dairy products.

This is a "peccari"or wild boar.  They have been hunted extensively in the country.  We visited a project that raises them and then releases them into the wild, attempting to rebuild the population.

An old bunker from the Chaco War (with Bolivia). 

Thorn of the bottle tree

Main street