Zig-zag trenches, barbed wire and machine gun nests were built by the garrison around a horseshoe-shaped defence.

After this failure, the Bolivian troops attempted to dig a trench around the Nanawa complex to isolate it but were met by Paraguayan reinforcements.

Heavy rains forced the Bolivians to abandon what they had captured of the complex and the Paraguayans soon recovered these positions.

The Bolivian troops did not leave the area after the costly attempt but fortified themselves in a semicircle around the Paraguayan trenches.

A Paraguayan polka, Regimiento 13 Tuyutí, composed by Ramón Vargas Colman and written in Guaraní by Emiliano R. Fernández, was inspired by the battle.