About Paraguay. Heart of South America, two languages, one identity.

UNESCO heritage

Five elements protected by international convention.

Paraguay holds four UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage inscriptions and one World Heritage property. The newest addition came in December 2025; the most internationally familiar (Tereré) was inscribed five years earlier. *(UNESCO ICH 15.COM; Agencia IP, 9 Dec 2025; UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Property 648.)*

• Poncho Para'í de 60 Listas (2023)

  The technique for weaving Paraguay's '60-stripe poncho', used by soldiers during the 1864–1870 Triple Alliance war for warmth, protection, and camouflage, was inscribed in 2023 on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding. Only a handful of master weavers still know the full cycle. Master weaver Rosa Segovia, recognised as a Living National Treasure, opened the School for the Safeguarding of the Poncho de 60 Listas in her own home in 2019. *(UNESCO, 2023.)*

• Ñai'ũpo (December 2025)

  Hand-built ceramics without a potter's wheel, passed down through generations of women in the towns of Itá and Tobatí, was inscribed on the Urgent Safeguarding list at the 20th session of UNESCO's Intergovernmental Committee in New Delhi on 9 December 2025. The element covers not only technique but the full body of associated knowledge, ritual, and clay-source relationships. *(Agencia IP, 9 Dec 2025.)*

• Tereré practice (2020)

  The practices and traditional knowledge of Tereré (the cold yerba-mate infusion drunk through a metal straw, prepared with pohã ñana medicinal herbs from the Guaraní pharmacopoeia) was inscribed in 2020 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (Decision 15.COM 8.b.41). Tereré is less a beverage than a social ritual that organises the rhythm of a Paraguayan day. *(UNESCO ICH 15.COM, 2020.)*

• Ñandutí lace (national heritage)

  A unique colonial-era lace-making technique that produces geometric, web-like patterns; the name is Guaraní for 'spiderweb'. The masters of Ñandutí work in the town of Itauguá, where the craft is part of the local economy and identity. Recognised as national cultural heritage of Paraguay and a defining symbol of its folk art.

• Jesuit Missions (1993, World Heritage)

  The ruins of La Santísima Trinidad de Paraná and Jesús de Tavarangue (surviving fragments of the 17th–18th-century Jesuit reductions) were inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1993 (Property 648). They document the unprecedented synthesis of European Baroque architecture and Guaraní culture that ran across the Río de la Plata basin until the Jesuit expulsion of 1767. *(UNESCO WHC, Property 648.)*

The Urgent Safeguarding list is reserved for elements where transmission is at risk. Two of Paraguay's ICH inscriptions sit there, which says something about the fragility of the master-knowledge pipeline and the urgency of state and community programmes around it.

Creative scene

Asunción's arts and startup ecosystem.

Pinta Asunción art week, Museo del Barro's 4,000-piece collection, Cateura's Recycled Orchestra, EXPYLAB immersive-tech scholarships, KOGA accelerator (Paraguay's first B Corp), and a record US$ 2.15M in venture-capital funding (2023–2024). See creative life for the full breakdown.

Nature

Jaguars, dunes, and a waterfall the world hasn't found.

Paraguay's natural inventory is undersold. The Gran Chaco hosts a large jaguar population outside the Amazon basin, and the country's flagship waterfall has the geometry of Iguazú without the crowds.

• Gran Chaco jaguars

  The Gran Chaco hosts a major jaguar population outside the Amazon. In the dry season, river-safari operators on the Paraguay River report sighting probability above 90%. Beyond jaguars: giant otters, capybaras, ocelots, jaguarundi, and hundreds of tropical bird species. *(SPECIES — Chaco Jaguar Conservation Project.)*

• El Chaco UNESCO Biosphere Reserve

  The El Chaco Biosphere Reserve, recognised by UNESCO, bundles Defensores del Chaco, Médanos del Chaco, and Teniente Agripino Enciso national parks with adjacent protected areas. Médanos del Chaco alone covers 600,000+ hectares of dunes, palm savanna, and dry forest unique to South America. *(UNESCO MAB Programme.)*

• Saltos del Monday

  A waterfall 45 m tall and 120 m wide outside Ciudad del Este; basalt formations geologically identical to Iguazú, a fraction of the visitors. Three main falls plus minor rivulets near the mouth of the Río Monday, a tributary of the Paraná. For people who liked Iguazú but disliked the queue, this is the answer. *(Wikipedia.)*

• Ybycuí National Park

  In Paraguarí department, Ybycuí is one of Paraguay's earliest protected areas: Atlantic-Forest hills, multiple cascades, and the ruins of an early-19th-century Jesuit-era ironworks (La Rosada). A weekend trip from Asunción, technical hiking optional.

Jaguars in the Chaco, dunes at Médanos, Saltos del Monday in the east, and Atlantic Forest at Ybycuí mean Paraguay covers four major ecoregions inside its borders. Useful context if biodiversity is on your list of move-criteria.

Cuisine

Cassava and corn, in twelve different forms.

Paraguayan food is its own coherent system, where Spanish technique met Guaraní ingredients (cassava and corn) and stayed put. Pira Chyryry, a fish soup from Ayolas, was declared National Intangible Cultural Heritage in September 2025 by the Secretaría Nacional de Cultura. *(Paraguay TV, 8 Sep 2025.)*

• Chipa: cassava-flour cheese bread; the Holy Week (Semana Santa) ritual food, baked in extended-family batches.
• Sopa Paraguaya: paradoxically, not a soup. A dense corn-flour cake with cheese and onion, served in slabs alongside grilled meat.
• Mbeju: crispy cassava-starch and cheese flatbread, traditionally cooked on rainy days.
• Chipa Guasu: corn, egg, and cheese casserole, a fixture at every asado. ('Guasu' is Guaraní for 'big'.)
• Bori-Bori: broth with corn-and-cheese dumplings, the year-round comfort soup.
• Kibebe: pumpkin purée with cornmeal and cheese, the taste of childhood for anyone who grew up here.
• Pira Chyryry: Ayolas-region pan-fried river fish; declared national intangible heritage in September 2025.

People & community

Paraguayans the world has heard of. Communities the country was built on.

Agustín Barrios Mangoré (1885-1944, classical guitar). José Luis Chilavert (goalkeeper, 67 career goals). Santiago Peña (current president, since 2023). Ana Ivanova (1973-2025, Maestra del Arte). On the immigrant side: 28-40,000 Mennonites in roughly 17–19 Chaco colonies, 23,526 Brazilian residencies in 2025, 4,366 Argentine residencies, plus large German-heritage and post-Soviet communities. See diaspora for the full community list and contact channels.

Engineering

Itaipú: world-record hydropower.

Paraguay shares the Itaipú dam with Brazil: 7,919 m long, 196 m tall, blocking the Río Paraná on the eastern border. Operational since 1984; 50/50 binational ownership; the source of nearly all of Paraguay's domestic electricity.

• Guinness World Record (1 November 2024)

  On 1 November 2024, Itaipú received the Guinness World Records certificate for highest cumulative hydroelectric energy production globally: 3,038 million MWh generated as of 30 October 2024, across the plant's first 40 years of operation. The certificate was delivered by adjudicator Natalia Ramírez to Paraguayan and Brazilian directors. Per the citation, that quantity of energy would power the entire world for about 43 days. *(Agencia IP, 1 Nov 2024.)*

• Why this matters for movers

  Itaipú plus Yacyretá give Paraguay an electricity grid that is close to 100% hydropower, and industrial-tariff prices that sit 30–60% below Brazilian and Argentine equivalents. The country exports surplus power to its neighbours; the same surplus is what makes Paraguay a credible base for energy-intensive activity (data centres, electrolysis, green-fuel projects). Cross-link: see /free-zones/ for the Omega Green and Atome cases.

Football

Albirroja, Olimpia, and the national code.

In Paraguay, football sits close to the centre of public life. Both the club game and the national team carry weight beyond pure sport.

• Olimpia (Asunción): three-time Copa Libertadores champion (1979, 1990, 2002), the most-titled Paraguayan club in continental competition.
• La Albirroja: Paraguay's red-and-white national side; regular FIFA World Cup participant (last appearance 2010 quarter-final, 2026 qualifying cycle in progress).
• Defensores del Chaco: the national stadium in Asunción, named for Paraguayan veterans of the 1932–35 Chaco War.
• Football overlaps everything: businesses close around national-team kickoffs, neighbourhood pickup games run from primary school through retirement, and the Sunday afternoon asado-with-match is the canonical Paraguayan family weekend.

Verified May 2026

YouTube channels worth following, by language.

If video research helps you decide, this is the curated list of YouTube channels that cover life in Paraguay in each language. Verified by hand in May 2026; channels with no video output, no Paraguay-specific content, or broken links have been dropped from the list. 36 channels across 10 languages.

Channels marked as empty, inactive, or unverifiable in the May 2026 manual review have been excluded, including the only Dutch-language channel surfaced in research (last upload nine years ago). When a channel later becomes active, it can be added in a future revision.