Asunción

The Asunción metropolitan area is home to 2.2 million of Paraguay's 6.9 million inhabitants. It is a cosmopolitan and demographically young city with 65% of its residents under the age of 30.

Many landmarks and historical buildings in the old city centre have recovered their past splendour thanks to Paraguay's bicentennial independence celebrations that took place during 2011 and demanded a lot of restoration works throughout the city. In 2012, a new riverside promenade (costanera) was opened along the Bay of Asunción which added a much needed space for running, walking and family recreation. Around the city tree-lined avenues, small parks and shady squares break up the rigid grid system of streets in the downtown area. From July to September the whole city is drenched in colour with the prolific pink and yellow bloom of lapacho trees, which grow everywhere.

Asunción was founded in 1537 by Juan de Salazar y Espinosa, a Spaniard and member of the Pedro de Mendoza expedition which was set to colonize the Rio de la Plata basin, on 15th August the day of the feast of the Assumption of Mary, that is why is so named. It is the longest continually inhabited settlement in the Río de la Plata basin and in early colonial times it was referred to as Madre de Ciudades (mother of cities) because it was from here that numerous expeditions and missionaries set off to colonize the region founding many other settlements like Corrientes, Santa Fe, Buenos Aires and Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Asunción was established on the eastern bank of a calm bay in the river Paraguay, rendering it a good lookout post. In 1541 the first Cabildo (town council) was created transforming Asunción from a military fort to a civilian town with a local government.

The first president after independence, José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, who ruled Paraguay from 1814 to 1840, began to put some town planning. Under his successor, Carlos Antonio López, the railway was inaugurated, and some of the handsome 19th century buildings went up. The following president, Mariscal Francisco Solano López, in the short period before he embarked on his catastrophic War of the Triple Alliance, built the grandest of the city's buildings, his own residence, known today as the Palacio de López. The city centre is an old testament to 19th century historic ideals, with names reflecting local heroes and battles. During the Chaco War against Bolivia of 1932-35 many buildings in the city were improvised as hospitals and military barracks.

Since the 1970-80s internal migration from the countryside to Asunción has made the city to increase in size and population until becoming one continuous urban spread comprising more than a dozen different cities that form the Greater Asunción metro area. The most interesting for tourists to visit are Luque, San Lorenzo, Capiatá, Itauguá and Villa Hayes among others.

Today Asunción is a bustling, chaotic city with some 600,000 inhabitants within its city limits, and around 2.5 million people in its metro area. However, behind the new tall glassy buildings, corporate headquarters and shopping malls, Asunción retains a laid back atmosphere. When visiting the city a mix of three different architectural styles will be present: colonial style (present in the oldest houses and buildings of the city centre); italianate public buildings and manors (with beautiful gardens) and modern Latin American architecture (including a large shopping malls next to residential houses).

Tourism has become important for Asunción and it is specially visible in the Business District and Villa Morra neighbourhoods where economic growth has resulted in a plethora of new hotels and shops, as well as innovative new bars and restaurants. The majority of visitors are businessmen of neighboring Latin American countries and day trippers from Argentina. They come to enjoy low prices on practically all goods and services from restaurant meals to electronics and even car tyres.

• 1 Senatur (National Tourism Board), Palma 468, ☏ , toll-free: , fax: +595 21 491230. The main national tourist information office also called Turista roga (visitors house). It has a visitors information centre and an exhibition hall for sale of traditional arts, crafts and books. Additional information booth at Silvio Pettirossi International Airport. 
• 2 Centro de Información Turística (Tourist Information Centre), Avenida Costanera. Municipal tourist office on the riverside promenade. 

Asunción
Climate chart (explanation)
J F M A M J J A S O N D       133     34 23       146     33 23       131     32 22       152     29 19       134     25 16       71     24 14       48     22 14       39     26 15       79     28 17       158     30 20       195     31 20       177     33 22 Average max. and min. temperatures in °C Precipitation+Snow totals in mm Average high and low temperatures and mean precipitation from Wikipedia
Imperial conversion J F M A M J J A S O N D       5.2     93 74       5.8     91 73       5.2     89 71       6     85 66       5.3     77 60       2.8     74 58       1.9     71 56       1.5     79 58       3.1     82 62       6.2     86 67       7.7     88 69       6.9     91 72 Average max. and min. temperatures in °F Precipitation+Snow totals in inches

Asunción is just south of the Tropic of Capricorn so the climate is subtropical. That means hot weather, especially in the South American summer (winter in the Northern Hemisphere). Between November and March, the temperature can consistently climb over 38 °C (100 °F) and the humidity can be high and uncomfortable. Nevertheless, the weather changes frequently from one week to another. When the sun shines you bake and it can be very dry when the rains hold off for just a few days. Rains can be heavy and make the temperature drop precipitously. Then the clouds build and it becomes cold.

The city, as the whole country, is officially bilingual, with 79% of people speaking Spanish as their first language, and 20% have Guaraní as their first tongue. English is not widely spoken outside of hotels and tour operators so without some basic Spanish phrases it might be hard to get by. Public transportation, street signs and all road signalization are in Spanish. Business people and the younger generations have some knowledge of English. Although locals will appreciate an effort to say a few words in Spanish, they will try to communicate in English if they can. The majority of restaurants have Spanish-only menus and waiters seldom speak other languages than Spanish or Guaraní.