Paraguay is a country of remarkable contrasts: it’s rustic and sophisticated; it boasts spectacular natural reserves and massive human-made dams; it is a place where horses and carts pull up alongside Mercedes Benz vehicles, artisans’ workshops abut glitzy shopping centers, and Jesuit ruins in rural villages lie just a few kilometers from interesting colonial towns. The steamy subtropical Atlantic Forest of the east is a stark contrast to the dry, spiny wilderness of the Chaco, the location of the isolated Mennonite colonies.