It's a Long Way to Filadelfia

Imagine a road which seems never to end, 400 kilometer straight ahead and only two villages in between Paraguay's capital town Asunción and the settlement Filadelfia. The initial palm tree groves are gradually ceding to bush and near desert. Late in the afternoon we arrive at a town which is like a wonderland in the desolate semiarid landscape of the Gran Chaco. Neat facebrick houses gather along the tree lined streets. A church spire is looming in the background.

 60 years ago Mennonite German settlers came from Russia where they had been expelled and created a prosperous agricultural centre in the middle of nowhere. 


Nowadays they speak Spanish and German and employ the Indios of the Chaco in their cattle and dairy farms. There life is evolving around their farms and their church. They adopted the Latin American culture blending it with their German roots. At the weekend dancing there were ponchos everywhere and I had to take one along. 
                                                                     





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