Cerro Tres Kandú — Attraction in Guairá

Cerro Tres Kandú 842m, World Country High Point - Paraguay

Summary So this was a proper little mini three day adventure to Paraguay to hike Cerro Tres Kandu. At 842 meters it’s the country high point for this very lovely country. It involved flying from BA to Asuncion, then a three am start the following day for a four hour drive south to a pretty remote, rough trailhead. Then it was a five hour up, explore and back proper jungle trail hike with nasty snakes and other creepy crawlies. It was a good trail overall but there were quite a few pretty steep and badly constructed ladder, cabled and rope sections. A fantastic wildlife outing though with snakes, large geckos, spiders, vibrant colourful dragonflies and very exotic looking butterflies. A very hot (25-35c), sticky, steep 8km, 500m height gain day overall done in an all in time of 5 hours. Up time is actually about two hours but I had a good explore up there to visit two viewpoints and had lunch. It is a great little hill to do and so much fun!

Note 1 - Route: My Garmin gps did not track very well on this route due to the jungle canopy so this is an edited version of the original gpx to take out all the route misnomers. I have also added the route to OSM and updated routes of the two miradors to the OSM routing of the area. As stated there is about 700m or so of cables, ropes, wooden handrails and a variety of wooden ladders and steps. All of this is not well constructed at all but it is fun.

Note 2 - Hotel. I stayed at the super good Hotel 5 & Residences in Asuncion. I paid $130 for a two night stay in what is a 5* Rochester chain hotel. Ingrid is the manager there and speaks great English. They are also keen to provide a driver facility to Kandu and will be doing so in the future. Hotel - maps.app.goo.gl/wTCgpMJTJjtHu7xq6

Note 3. Travel Agency. The last 10+ kms of the drive is on a rough road which is at the top end of the capability scale of a two wheel drive vehicle so to keep things simple I searched for a travel agency just to get a driver & 4x4 vehicle to get me from Asuncion to the trailhead. I found DeJaVu travel agency which is owned by Armando and Cristina. Lovely lovely people. They don't speak English. Armando drove me down and back in a two wheel drive Toyota. I did ask for a 4x4 but in anyway I didn't get one and on the drive in Armando lost the front sill of the Toyota. It is a rough road and if there has been rain the week you do this trip you will not get there in a two wheel drive. The cost for the day in Dec 23 was $120. This included the $4 dollars entry fee to the camping site at the trailhead where you have to register. Travel Agency -...

Don't get me wrong with the 3 star review, the 3 Kandu is amazing, the trail consists of an intense hike with ropes and cables for support in the steepest areas. The nature and the views are beatituful. That being said, the infrastructure and the way people behave are dreadful. They charge 40.000 Gs at the entrance but I don't see that money reflected in basic amenities at the top of the hill (specially with the amount of people camping there). There are no bathrooms, no separate camping spots. There are not appropriate trash cans, people leave their empty bottles everywhere. Even if there is a ranger, this person does not intervene when there is loud music or noises from the campers. Avoid going there in the weekends, at least if you want to experience calmness and nature. It gets super crowded and noisy, with different groups of people playing loud...

Una experiencia realmente inolvidable, a unos kilómetros antes de llegar al punto de inicio del cerro se encuentra un puente, que en ese entonces estaba descompuesto por lo cual debimos caminar unos 13 km aproximadamente por un camino de tierra. Desde esa distancia ya se podía admirar el imponente cerro, al llegar al punto de inicio (privada,habilitada solo los fines de semana) se paga la entrada, y deben comprarse unos guantes (llévenlos por las dudas), estos están a 10 mil gs. pero son realmente necesarios… Cuentan con duchas, baños y hasta cantinas (en la base del cerro). Una vez iniciado el trayecto se ven señalizaciones que indican el camino; este cerro cuenta con estaciones, 13 en total, el grado de dificultad va aumentando desde la octava estación, pasando por piedras, caminos destruidos (todos estos con cuerdas para sujetarse), en la estación 3 se encuentra un mirador, por lo qué hay dos caminos uno al mirador y otro a la cima, en cada estación hay una señalización que indica el número de estación. Es importante llevar ropas cómodas (las más cómodas posibles) mucha agua, caramelos o algo dulce para subir el azúcar. Es necesario tomar múltiples descansos para poder continuar ya que es realmente agotador y necesitará refrescarse o relajarse. Una vez llegado a la estación 13 sentirá una gran satisfacción y esta aumentará al ver tan hermosa vista desde la cima, ya en la cima hay dos miradores, uno con un banco y la otra con un mirador de madera. Realmente agotador pero satisfactorio....