Río Paraguay Riverfront

The riverfront at Concepción is where the town's identity as a river port comes through most clearly. The Río Paraguay here is wide and brown, lined with camalote (water hyacinth) mats that drift slowly downstream. Fishing boats work the edges, and the occasional larger vessel ties up at the embarcadero.

This is the traditional departure point for river journeys heading north toward the Pantanal and the Brazilian border. The boats — primarily cargo vessels that take on a few passengers — operate on informal schedules tied to loading and river conditions rather than timetables. If you are planning to travel by boat, arrive in Concepción with time to spare and ask at the port about departures. The journey itself, strung in your own hammock among sacks of rice and fellow travelers, is one of the great slow-travel experiences remaining in South America.

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The passenger-cargo boats that still ply the upper Río Paraguay are among the last working river vessels of their kind in South America. Travelling on one — sleeping in a hammock strung on deck, eating communal meals, watching the caiman-spotted banks slide by — is an experience that has largely disappeared elsewhere on the continent.