Reviving the Guaraní Route

Tourists soon will be able to follow the network of paths in Paraguay and Brazil that Guaraní Indians followed centuries ago in search of the ''Land Without Evil''.

ASUNCION - In 1524 Spanish Conquistador Alejo García walked the paths of Tapé Avirú. Today the network of paths is being rescued from oblivion by scientists and government officials from Paraguay and Brazil as they attempt to protect the indigenous Guaraní culture.

The ancient web of pathways was woven in the Guaraní people's constant search for the ''Land Without Evil'', and connected what is currently the southern Brazil state of Santa Catarina with the Peruvian Andes, passing through Paraguay and Bolivia.

A semi-nomadic people, ''the Guaraní Indians organized migrations that combined economics with religions,'' historian Rubén Darío Lugo explained to Tierramérica.

On the one hand, they were looking for a mythical land where they believed evil did not exist, ''a sort of heaven, in the Christian sense, where people live in eternal joy,'' added Lugo, an expert from the National University of Asunción (UNA).

But the tribes also left behind the lands that no longer provided them with sustenance, and searched for precious metals, like those they knew the Incas had. ''It was not to accumulate the metals as riches,'' but because for them the shining brilliance of gold, for example, ''was the symbol of something holy,'' said the historian.

When Alejo García was shipwrecked in 1516 off the coast of what is now Brazil's Santa Catarina state, he had no other choice but to stay and live in the region. Eight years later, after learning the Guaraní language, he led an expedition of 2,000 Indians towards Peru.

Guided by the South American natives, the expedition traversed the territory of what is now Paraguay and Bolivia, and even obtained the much dreamed-of treasures. But on the return trip García was killed by the Guaraní in San Pedro de Ycuamandiyú, capital of the northern Paraguayan department of San Pedro.

Paraguay's national tourism department, SENATUR, has embarked on a project to transform the Tapé Avirú paths into an adventure for tourists that ''will help recover this part of Guaraní culture from oblivion and revitalize the story of the Land Without Evil,'' Rosana González, another UNA historian, told Tierramérica.

González is part of an expert team advising SENATUR and of the Paraguayan delegation that visited Brazil in mid-2004 to delve into similar efforts being made by Brazilian specialists under the Peabirú Project.

The Brazilians ''are 10 years ahead of us, and have made a great deal of progress,'' she said.

Santa Catarina and the neighboring state of Paraná seek to attract tourists with activities that include re-creating what researchers believe were the routes of the Tapé Avirú.

The pre-Hispanic route was indicated with very specific geographic references, among them rivers, waterfalls and mountains, for example the Salto del Monday, in the city of Presidente Franco, or the Cerro Lambaré hill in Asunción.

''Following the stretches of existing highways, they also propose eco-tourism, contact with indigenous communities, museum tours and an in-depth look at the historic Guaraní worldview,'' said González, underscoring an idea for a traveling planetarium in which the constellations identified by this native culture would be presented.

Now, Asunción and the Brazilian state governments are studying ways to integrate their projects.

On the Paraguayan side, they would like to see tourists visiting the country's eastern departments that Alejo García passed through, and, after a stop in Asunción, continue the trek through the arid Chaco region in the west.

''We are looking at ways in which Bolivia could also form part of the route,'' González said.

The promoters of the Tapé Avirú project have requested funding from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), says Juan Manuel Prieto, SENATUR advisor.

The initiative was presented in June in the southeastern Ciudad del Este, on the border across from Brazil's Foz de Iguacu. In late October the Paraguayan Geographic Society organized an ''eco-adventure'' from the Tres Kandú mountain, the tallest in the country, to Itá Letra, where there are pre-Colombian runic inscriptions.

Authorities from both sides of the border have consulted with Guaraní representatives on the project. In Brazil, says González, they won support ''as long as the indigenous culture and traditions are respected.''

Meanwhile in Paraguay the project includes the participation of Margarita Mbywangy, chief of the Aché (from the Tupí branch of the Guaraní) in the northeastern area of Kuetuby.

Mbywangy ''has provided us with valuable information and gave an noteworthy presentation at the conference we held in Ciudad del Este,'' said Prieto.

But ''Tapé Avirú will entail a long-term process, because even though we have already identified several stations of the Guaraní's pre-Hispanic route, research is needed to trace out the definitive paths,'' added the SENATUR advisor.

On the Paraguayan side, there is a lack of road and hotel infrastructure for the tourist aspect of the project, and there are areas where social conflicts continue to simmer -- related to the demands of landless rural workers -- in the department of San Pedro, where Conquistador Alejo García was killed five centuries ago.

* Alejandro Sciscioli is an IPS correspondent.