Crossing the Remanso Bridge and heading up the Transchaco is like entering another country. First comes the humid Lower Chaco: groves of karanda'y palms, marshes full of herons, storks and jabirus, and cattle estancias. Past Pozo Colorado the landscape dries out and the thorny scrub of the Central Chaco appears, with the Mennonite colonies. Finally, the deep dry Chaco on the way to Bolivia. The highway, paved and being widened to a dual carriageway along its southern section, is the backbone of the whole region and, at dawn, a parade of wildlife along the roadside.

Mennonites and Chaco cattle ranchers pushed for its construction with support from the United States: work began between late 1956 and 1957, and the section to Filadelfia was completed on October 4, 1961. It was inaugurated the next day, and October 5 became “Road Day.” The Remanso Bridge was completed in the late 1970s.