Bradt Travel Guide: Paraguay

Bradt's Paraguay was the first standalone guide to Paraguay published outside Paraguay itself and still remains the most comprehensive guide available, covering the whole country from the best-known sights to off-the-beaten track attractions well beyond the tourist trail, plus a cross-border excursion to the Iguazú Falls. Bradt's Paraguay offers all the background information required for a successful trip, from customs and etiquette to curious snippets such as the fact that football is believed to have been invented here in the Jesuit missions in 1793 in a game that corresponds to the game known today. Nature and wildlife are also covered, from the Pantanal in the north to the wetlands of Ñeembucú to the south, and to the Mbaracayu reserve to the east. Immensely detailed, Bradt's Paraguay is written by a well-established journalist who has lived in the country for almost 20 years, who runs an educational charity and who has founded a small hotel which offers tours around Paraguay and is run for the profit of local people. With everything from phone numbers of local keyholders to museums and churches to a map of how to reach remote waterfalls, Bradt's Paraguay is the definitive source for a rewarding trip. AUTHORS: Margaret Hebblethwaite graduated in Theology and Philosophy from Oxford, and began her writing career as the author of ten religious books in the areas of feminist theology, spirituality and Latin American liberation theology. She worked as assistant editor on the international Catholic weekly The Tablet from 1991 to 2000, when she gave up her job to pursue her interest in Latin American liberation theology, by moving to a poor campesino community in South America. She works there on a voluntary basis, as a freelance lay missionary, funding herself through letting her property in England. Her work in Paraguay has led her into two more professional areas, hitherto unexplored: hotel management (for a few years, to set up a local project now run by Paraguayans), and English language teaching (in which she is now qualified with the Cambridge Delta diploma). She is the widow of the late Catholic writer and former Jesuit Peter Hebblethwaite, and has three children (one living in Asunción, Paraguay) and two grandchildren. Updaters for this edition Caitlin and Huw Hennessy are seasoned travel writers specialising in Latin America. AUTHOR: On her first visit to Paraguay, in 1996, Margaret Hebblethwaite fell in love with Santa Maria de Fe, a small town in rural Misiones, which had originally been a Jesuit mission (or Reduction) for the indigenous Guaraní people. After four years waiting for her youngest child to grow up, she moved to the town in 2000 ? initially for a year ? to deepen her knowledge of Latin American communities to inform her work on liberation theology. She never left, setting up a local hotel (now run by the local community), founded a charity called the Santa Maria Education Fund, worked with a local sewing co-operative, taught English and written Bradt's Paraguay travel guide, which has run to four editions. She is also the author of ten religious books in the areas of feminist theology, spirituality and Latin American liberation theology. 47 colour photos, 43 maps