Paraguay, Asunción - peaceful capital city
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The most of usable land is split between farmers who breed cows. Roads are absolutley broken covered in layers of thick red dust which rises whenever a bus passes by and covers any view from bus window. As we are travellin on what seems to be the first bus imported on this continent there is a lot of dust inside of it as well. Shock absorbers seem to be gone. There is one thing which comes in plenty - police controls. They always check the bus and baggage to find if drugs are not smuggled out of Bolivia.
They even force us to leave the car even with our luggage which we have to place in one line on concrete area. Then a trained dog runs around every suitcase or backpack several times to check it out. It doesn't find anything. Then anti-drug police check out luggage themselves and they are much more thorough in case of Bolivians and Paraguyans.
We arrive in Asuncion at night. We drive trough the the upper middle class area of the city. All buildings have lights on them. There are many casinos and night clubs as well as many lit foreign billboards. To be honest, I have not expected much from this place but I like it. Our accommodation is near the terminal. The immediate area doesn't look very pleasant for there are many pubs and drunks looking weird at us. Perhaps they just have troubles beliving what they are seeing and they think they drunk little bit too much this night. The district is quiet in the morning and, according to our hotel owner, even safe. Yet the night before he told us to not to walk around from midnight till five in the morning.
Asunción was founded in 1537. It is one of the oldest cities in South America. It is also the capital of Paraguay and home to about one million people. Its metro area is large and about two and half million people live within it. We reach the historical center by bus. First, we walk around PLaza de los Héroes. The most interesting building on this square is Panteón de los Héroes holding bodily remains of Marshal Francisco Solano López. In the opposite corner, there is a huge yellow building. Paraguay national flags are placed on it. This is the national bank.
There is a large orange-yellow palace Palacio Lopéz which is the home of the governemnt and is situated on the river Paraguay. Across the street, there is Manzana de la River museum which is a compound of nine luxurious buildings. This museum is split to several houses. Somewher there are paintings, at some other place you can find some interesting art objects such as snake skin made of bubble plastic film. At another place, there is a room dedicated only to music. Asuncion is the city of harpists. There is even one world record held by the city - the highest number (420) of musicians playing a song on this instrument. Felix Perez CArdozo and Digno Garcia were among the most famous Paraguayan players who played harph.
We take a look also at a river creating border with Argentina and continue to the port where a cruiser which fought in the battle of Chaco is stationed. On our way back to the city center, we see some vistas of the city which are rather unpleasant for it looks dilapidated. There are many buildings in the need of renovation or skyscrapers which are unfinished or buildings which are abandoned and close to the historical center and Casa de la Independencia. In the latter, Paraguay declared its independence as the first countryi on the continent.
We pass by Plaza de Armas and city cathedral which gets us tu Uruguaya squre. You can find there the Museum of Railroad. People use the square to spend siesta at, drink their cup of or rather a kettle of cold tea called tereré. Warm this beverage is called "maté", cold "tereré"..
Asunción is not the most beautiful but also the most interesting city in the world nor South America. Still, its easy-going atmosphere, nice, always smiling people create harmonic and energic aura which one easily veils oneself into.
GPS: 25°17'39.1"S 57°34'52.3"W
Text and photos: Tomáš Novák
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