After two weeks of passing through the south of Paraguay of course I could not miss the only world heritage site in the country before re-entering Argentina via Encarnación/ Posadas. Paraguay is really not the place of the top sights but what will be kept in mind is that every Paraguayan I have met in the two weeks was very kind and that the country is fantastically cheap to travel.

Getting to Trinidad from Encarnación is easily possible from the Terminal of Encarnación by asking one of the many people for a bus to Trinidad. Usually you will end up sitting in a bus to Ciudad del Este that can drop you off at Trinidad bus station, a little laterite hut at the side of the Ruta (highway) in front of a gateway marking the entrance of the city when asking the driver or his/her assistant ahead. It costs about 5 USD when I remember it right.

After a 15 minute walk you arrive at the visitor center of Trinidad, where there is a small exhibition about the map of the time of South America (Trinidad was founded in 1706), some paintings showing the situation or interpretation of it and some carvings. Additionally a movie is shown for you which style reminded me of some of the 80´s documentation that I had to watch in biology in school. However it was even available in German and gave some interesting information about the mission and the general situation with the Jesuits in South America.

After a short stop in the simple restaurant opposite site of the visitor center I went into the actual mission. At the entrance there were two employees checking my ticket bought in the visitor center unfortunately not offering me a guided tour as they turned out to be guides in the end. I checked the map at the entrance that showed the names of all the ruins of the missions and afterwards I went through the ruins. In Trinidad there is nicely cut grass around the ruins and the ruins as such are also kept free of any nature. There is a small museum in the former college next to the Cathedral showing some information about the timeline of the mission and the culture of the mission. With my scarce Spanish knowledge I was able to understand a little. However it was hard to understand it all about the mission without any additional knowledge. That only came later when doing a guided tour in Loreto, Argentina.

Very impressive is the ruin of the big church that the guaraní have built just a few years before the life of the mission has ended.