Floating it allto remote folk

The ‘Aquidaban’, the only ferry in one of South America’s most remote stretches, making its way down the Paraguay River toward Concepcion, Paraguay. — ©2023 The New York Times Company

UP the wooden gangplank in a single-file line, nearly an entire indigenous village squeezed onto the Aquidaban’s front deck. The Tomarahos had taken the boat downriver to vote in Paraguay’s national elections and then had slept outside for four days, waiting for the Aquidaban to take them home.

Now more than 200 of them squatted on overturned buckets, crowded on hammocks and sprawled on the floor. No one was quite sure how many life jackets were aboard, but just about everyone was sure the Tomarahos outnumbered them.