Aerial view of Ybytyruzú Mountains with flat plain below, Guairá, Paraguay

Peaks of Paraguay

What’s in a name? In this case, a lot of the letter Y. The Ybytyruzú mountain range gets its name from Guarani, an indigenous language with 6.5 million speakers that’s one of two official ones here in Paraguay. ‘Ybyty’ means mountain and ‘ruzú’ means big, and the name ‘Big Mountains’ is relatively accurate: Cerro Tres Kandú, the highest point in Paraguay, rises within the Ybytyruzú. While not an especially lofty peak at 840 metres, it’s impressively prominent against the low plains that abut the range.