Santo Tomás Hill Works

The Cerro Santo Tomas is an elevation of approx. 400 m south of Asuncion. For its peculiar characteristics it is widely used as ramp of hang gliders and para gliders.

 

 

The project involves the construction of recreational facilities and resort on the top as the first stage.

 

Because of its vertical slopes, building on the summit creates complex challenges.

 

 

In order to carry materials it was necessary to build a road of 1 km length in one of its slopes that, given its verticality and sinuosity, could only be passable with some confidence with a cobbled pavement. More than 300,000 stones were put hand placed. One by one.

 

 

One of the main materials that will be used is Lapacho wood. However the idea was not to cut or remove a single live tree from the jungle so it was decided to send scouts to locate and identify the fallen trees.
Once marked a specialized team is responsible for removing them.

 

 

The pillars of one of the project areas are lathed lapacho columns . After they were sawed them were carry to the biggest lathe existing in Paraguay, 3 meters long, to be processed. But once start with the first piece the lathe not stand and broke. So it was necessary to build a special new one 4 meters long to produce the designed columns.

 

 

The quality of work is very eyes. Once finished natural wood literally shines due to excellent polishing, which demonstrates the capacity of local operators in handling the lathe. A century-old tradition in Paraguay that comes from the era of the Jesuit Missions.

 

 

Follow some photos of the works