Paraguay Travel
Paraguay Tourism
Paraguay Tourism
Asuncion, the capital and
largest city, is built on hills above the Rio Paraguay. Most of the city's key sights are found within an
area bound by the riverfront, Avenida Colon in the west, calles Haedo
and Luis A Herrera in the south, and Estados Unidos to the east. There
are few colonial remains and little attempt at zoning, so the city has
become a jumble of new, eclectic buildings and squatter settlements
along the riverfront and the railway.
It's now safe to approach and
photograph the Palacio de Gobierno, which is a major
improvement
on the situation which existed during El Supremo's Rodriguez de
Francia's rule - he ordered anyone gazing upon the palace to be shot on
sight. Nearby is the Casa Viola, one of the few surviving
colonial buildings, which is now a museum. Other city sights include the
Casa de Cultura Paraguaya, the 19th-century Cathedral and
its museum, and the Casa de la Independencia, Asuncion's oldest
building (1772) and site of the declaration of independence. There are
also excellent parks, such as the Jardin Botˇnico, and the
Museo del Barro, the city's foremost repository of modern art.
Asuncion's zoo - has reportedly improved under a new
management plan and is seeking to properly house the unique flora and
fauna of Paraguay.
Budget accommodation and cheap eats are mostly to be
found in the city center, towards the riverfront. Shopping is best along calles Colon, Pettirossi, Palma and Estrella.
Encarnacion is a city of 50,000,
which is famous for its chipa
(a hard corn-and-cheese bread), is
where many visitors stay while
visiting the ruined Jesuit missions to
the north in Jesus and
Trinidad. While ruins of Jesuit
settlements can be found in all parts
of the country, these are being
restored and are the most frequently
visited. Comfortable, reliable
air-conditioned buses leave Asuncion
hourly for the six-hour trip to
Encarnacion. From Encarnacion, you can
take an excursion across the river to
Posades, Argentina.
Many of Paraguay's finest
attractions are just a short hop from the capital and include the
weaving capital of Itagua, where the famous spiderweb lace is made, and the lakeside resorts of
Areguˇ and
San Bernadino, both on Lago Ypacarai.
West of here is Caacupo,
Paraguay's most important religious center and the site of an annual
pilgrimage. The tranquil and undeveloped Parque Nacional Ybycui,
preserving one of the few remaining areas of rainforest in the country,
is to the south. Southeast of the capital is Trinidad, a hilltop
site of a Jesuit reduccion, which was built between 1706-60. Its
centerpiece, a church, has been beautifully preserved.
Jesuit ruins are in San Ignacio Guazu and Santa Maria.
Something
a little more contemporary is the Itaipu Dam, the world's
largest hydroelectric project (526 sq mi), which is well
worth a visit. Another sight not to be overlooked is the Parque
Nacional Cerro Cora, an area of dry tropical forest and savanna
nestled among steep, isolated hills. It possesses many important
cultural and historical features such as pre-Columbian caves,
petroglyphs and the site of Francisco Solano Lopez's death at the end of
the War of the Triple Alliance.
The
Chaco is an area of almost featureless plain, with a
substantial population of Indian peoples. Its only paved highway, the Ruta Trans-Chaco, leads to the religious community of Filadelfia,
which was settled by the Mennonites in the late 1920s. Other Mennonite
colonies include Loma Plata, the oldest and most traditional
settlement, and Neu-Halbstadt, which is a great place to purchase
Indian handicrafts. Towards the Bolivian border is the Parque
Nacional Defensores del Chaco, a wooded alluvial plain whose major
feature is the 1640ft Cerro Leon. Some of Paraguays most endangered wildlife,
offers a
chance of spotting large cats like jaguars, pumas and ocelots.
Paraguay is a landlocked country
surrounded by Brazil, Argentina and
Bolivia. The country is divided into
two unequal portions by the Rio
Paraguay, the third largest river in
the western hemisphere. To the west of
the river is the Chaco, a largely
infertile and sparsely populated tract
of land that makes up nearly 60% of
the country's area. To the east, where
almost all the population is
concentrated, is a well-watered,
elevated plateau of grasslands, with
patches of subtropical forest
stretching all the way to the Rio
Parana on the Brazilian and
Argentinian borders.
Wildlife is diverse and includes a
number of birds such as the parrot and
parakeet, wood stork, hyacinth macaw
and the once-thought-to-be-extinct Chacoan peccary, plus large reptiles
such as caiman, anaconda and the boa
constrictor. However, due to the dense
human population of rural eastern
Paraguay, mammals such as the giant
anteater, maned wolf, Brazilian tapir
and jaguar are fast disappearing.
A popular
tourist itinerary is the ‘Central
Circuit’, a route of some 125 miles
that takes in some of the country’s
most interesting sites, including the
famous Iguazú waterfalls located near
Paraguay’s fastest developing towns
