Paraguay - The Rough Guide to South America on a Budget - page 700

THE MUSEUMS OF MISIONES
It's all well and good roaming the ruins of Itapúa department - these are Paraguay's stellar
attractions after all - but if these have piqued your interest in the Jesuits, there is a lot more
to see in the neighbouring Misiones department with its four museums containing some
of the finest remaining Jesuit-Guaraní art of all the Treinta Pueblos . There are five designated
buses daily to San Ignacio, or any bus heading south along Ruta 1 will drop you there too
(3-4hr from Asunción). From here it's easy to hop on local colectivos to the other towns, or
alternatively, taxis between the towns will cost upwards of Gs75,000.

Museo Diocesano del Arte Jesuítico
Guaraní Two blocks from Ruta 1 South at
Iturbe 870, San Ignacio T 097 291 0669,
E [e-mail]. San
Ignacio was the first Jesuit-Guaraní mission
established in Paraguay. The museum here
contains art and history from this mission
and is housed in a seventeenth-century
adobe building, which was the Jesuit
college then and, amazingly, now. Mon-Sat
2-5pm. Gs10,000.
Museo de Santa María de Fe To the right
of the church in the fenced building in
Santa María T 0781 283 332, T 098 578
8011. In nearby Santa María, the unrivalled
collection of carved wooden statues
displays the Guaraní Baroque style at its
best, and you can see the differences
between the carvings done by the
Italian-Jesuit masters and those done by

their indigenous pupils. Daily until 5pm
- you need to ask for a guide from their
home across the plaza to get in. Gs10,000.
Loreto Chapel On Santa Rosa's main square
T 0858 285 221. The village of Santa Rosa has
the only remaining Jesuit Loreto Chapel,
with beautiful, muralled walls and some
more fine carved pieces, as well as a full
terrace of casas de indios from the original
mission and a surviving high bell tower.
Mon-Sat 7.30-11.30am; ask at the parochial
o ce next door for it to be opened. Free.
Museo Tesoros Jesuíticos 18km south of
Ruta 1 on the road to Ayolas, in the village
of Santiago next to the church on the main
plaza T 097 576 2008. Museum where the
only remaining wooden altarpiece of any of
the Jesuit ruins is displayed, along with other
Jesuit treasures. Mon-Sat 8-11am & 2-5pm,
Sun 9-11am. Gs10,000 for the guide.

8

ACCOMMODATION

Ì Santa María Hotel Opposite the museum
across the plaza in Santa María T 0781 283 311,
W santamariahotel.org. The best place to stay in
Misiones department, started by a Brit with the aim

of generating employment for locals, this pint-size
hotel has great food, excellent English is spoken, and
country-wide tours are offer ed. Include s American
breakfast. Rooms (per person) Gs140,000

Coronel Bogado is a sizeable town with
ATM and money-changing facilities. San
Cosme's only accommodation option (and
a good one) is its posada (see box, p.703).

Presidente Stroessner, it grew rapidly as
people flocked to the jobs and homes
created by the Itaipú Dam . Capitalizing
on its position on the triple frontier,
the town provides cheap duty-free -
and frequently contraband - goods to
Brazilians and Argentines hungry for
bargains; almost everything is priced in
US dollars.

CIUDAD DEL ESTE
Commercial, tacky, frequently
intimidating and occasionally sordid,
CIUDAD DEL ESTE (“city of the east”) is
a shock to the system for many entering
Paraguay for the first time; you'd be
forgiven if your first instinct is to escape
across the Puente de la Amistad into
Brazil. Paraguay's second city, with
a population of some 220,000, is hard
to love, but do stick around and explore
the sights: it does get better. Founded in
1957 as a garden city named Puerto

WHAT TO SEE AND DO
The city's relative modernity means that it
has little in the way of sights, but you
might want to whizz round the small
Museo el Mensú (Pioneros del Este between
Paí Pérez and Eusebio Ayala; Mon-Fri
7am-1pm; T 06150 170 610) based in
CDE's first house, now enclosed in the
summer-camp-like Municipality complex.