This is the Paraguay chapter from Lonely Planet's South America on a Shoestring guidebook.

Tourism in Paraguay is underdeveloped and lacks the mega-attractions of some of its neighbors, but those who make it here are invariably glad they do. For a truly authentic South American experience, Paraguay can't be beat.

• National Parks in the Chaco: watch a jaguar race through the scrub and sleep under billions of stars
• maps
• Itaipú Dam: visit what is now the second-biggest dam in the world (but it's still damned big!)
• transport & directory
• Trinidad: explore the picturesque remnants of the Jesuit settlement at one of the world's least-visited Unesco World Heritage Sites
• restaurants & accommodation

Coverage includes: Asunción, Itauguá & Areguá, San Bernardino, Caacupé, Yaguarón & Piribebuy, Southern Paraguay, Encarnación, Trinidad & Jesús, Parque Nacional San Rafael, Eastern Paraguay, Ciudad del Este, Itaipú Dam, Salto del Monday, Itaipú Ecological Reserves, Mbaracayú Biosphere Reserve, Northern Paraguay, Concepción, Vallemí, Parque Nacional Cerro Corá, Laguna Blanca, The Chaco, The Mennonite Colonies, Northwestern National Parks.