Although it may not be the first or most popular of South American capital cities, Assunção has its advantages as a starting point for this most charming continent. Some would say it is a perfect berthing location and perhaps because of its distance from any coastline, it is probably more representative of the fundamental SouthAmericanism that you may be searching for. I’d like to add that never having visited Paraguay this piece may be inaccurate and is certainly a challenge for me to do justice with these few simple words but this is exactly what this blog is designed to do; create communications on South America by and for, firstly South Americans and also for our global peoples. Let’s begin by considering the importance of one of the main indigenous languages of the continent: Guarani. Paraguay means ‘big river’ and it is the country where you can learn more Guarani, more quickly and as Guarani is primarily an oral language it is particularly appropriately named as a primarily spoken language it is intrinsically, characteristically fluid and dynamic.
To summarise, Paraguay is a democratic republic and there is no historical evidence of any monarchism. Rivers are important in this central nation. Assunção is the largest city with an expanding population of over half a million. Including the surrounding cities which together form a single metropolitan conglomeration of almost 2 and a half million inhabitants with advanced human development indicators. The central part of Assunção is between the river Paraguai and its confluence with Pilcomayo but there are many hills each with their own economic and social functions, for example, Lomo Cachinga, where you can find medical care. In addition to its modernity, there is a remarkable natural proximity with a species diversity to be envied within easy distances of the capital. Its characteristic climatic conditions have enabled its progress with a pleasant annual average of 23 degrees with over a metre of precipitation. In the southern summer some find the temperatures are unpleasantly oppressive.
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug
maximum (°C) 33 33 32 28 25 23 23 24
Sep Oct Nov Dec Ave
26 29 31 32 28,2
minimum(°C) 23 22 21 19 16 14 14 14 Sep Oct Nov Dec Ave
16 18 20 22 18,2
Precipitation (mm) Ja 4 013,2 F 3 098,8 Mar 2 921 Ap 3 987,8
M 2 794 J 1 828,8 Jy 1 066,8 Au 1 955,8 S 2 006,6
O 2 946,4 N 3 886,2 D 3 352,8 Annual 33 858,2
Fonte: The Weather Network[13] 9 de Novembro de 2008
That's over 33 metres every year!
Although only a little over 60% of residents speak Spanish as a first language, surprisingly few speak Guarani, slightly more than 10%, it is actually Jopará, which is the second most spoken language in Assunção.
Palacio de los López
Panteão Nacional dos Heróis
Cabildo
Catedral Metropolitana de Assunção
Hotel Guaraní
Teatro Municipal Ignacio A. Pane
Igreja da Santísima Trindade
The number of schools has doubled since 1982 and Assunção’s educational indices are developed world statistics with a doubling of university students since 1962. The mercosul’s best public technical college is claimed to be in this capital, amongst all the member states. As tourists, there’s a lot to see and do in Assunção and it could be the best starting point for better learning what it is, to be truly South American. It is also ranked as being one of the safest of all American cities of medium to large scale.
Estádio Defensores del Chaco located in Bairro Sajonia
Like most South American cities, football is the first sport and recently Paraguai has undergone a resurgence, with growth and development the envy of most nations, both in its club teams’ international representations and also in its traditional red, white and blue national colours.
Comparing Assunção with Geneva would be folly but Switzerland or any continentally landlocked nation often brings comparative geographical case studies. However, superficial academic studies will not provide you with a South American living experience and it is usually with communications we can get close to a real life experience. So without further ado, ‘kuavã’ and welcome with a hug to the world of Guarani. In Paraguay, if you want to know something you can access internet freely without censorship but most people learn and get information by asking a question and most Paraguayos are happy to give ‘mongeta’ or advice. The accuracy of the advice is another matter for interpretation It may seem difficult but in a short while you can ‘aúva’ or get hold of Guarani, the most widely recognised indigenous language of all the Americas. It may be because that language ‘mbovyá’, simply makes people happy.
Historically, Gaurani has travelled more than any other American language with examples of it popping up in every continent, like ‘piraña’ or piranha, one of the most infamous fish species on the planet. More suave are the various plant and tree species that we find all around the world, like ‘araucaria’, the exquisite monkey puzzle, which flourishes in drier, acidic soils and at altitude or in cooler climate areas more towards the southern cone. Another, often associated with colonial Africa is the ‘jacarandã’, simplified in English to jacaranda with a syllable stress movement. Some consider it a shrub but it can grow to reasonable height, a few diminutive metres and is usually planted by town planners in central islands on multiple lane high streets as a traffic divider or creating shaded avenues for cyclists, walkers or market stallholders. It flowers in various colours and although it has no nutritional value for us it has already been widely distributed and utilised with minimal effect on indigenous species beyond South America. However, you will probably find more of those in Bulawayo than Assunçâo!
You may wish to see more of Paraguay than its organic sprawling cityscapes, so planning your trip to the country may take some forethought.
If your guide or travel agent says ‘koè rã’ he is referring to the next day and you could be invited to ‘ereko’, walk together in his office or anyplace really. If you take a trip to a national park or forest area you may see people and livestock, who are ‘karu’ or hungry and although Paraguay has no ocean or saltwater, fishing is how many still avoid malnutrition and it can be considered to be a national past-time. If you like fishing there are few nations better to follow your passion with a ‘pinda’, which you will need to catch any, and I can assure you, even piranha fishing is fun. As you know, it can be hot in the sun, so you may want to find a waterfall, river or a modern ‘jau’ to freshen up from your sweat and toil.
While it is not a requirement as most of us speak Spanish in Paraguay I highly recommend buying a Guarani dictionary for everyone in South America and before arriving you should seek to buy at least a pocket dictionary for Guarani in your country. There are several publishers and there probably ought to be more in the future. Additionally, you can expect to be able to find dictionaries and phrasebooks for Aymara and Chechua, although these are most closely associated with northern neighbours to Paraguay.
Assunção is undergoing a period of urban transformation in its approximation of Paraguay’s bicentennial centennial celebrations. These reformations are physical, while almost 100% have potable water and electricity, the superficial architectural aspects are being renovated and many new buildings are in construction. Simultaneously, the city’s transportation systems are being renewed with practical solutions for automotive congestion and the city council is providing better bus networks and cycle routes while the international airport is already up to standard. Like many Spanish speaking neighbours when we’ll be marking 200 years of independence from Spain.
Aeroporto Internacional Silvio Pettirossi
There are many sister cities;
• La Plata, Argentina, 20/02/1993[56]
• Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Resistencia, Argentina
• Posadas, Argentina
• Santa Fé, Argentina
• Iquique, Chile
• Campinas, Brasil
• Curitiba, Brasil
• São Paulo, Brasil
• Caracas, Venezuela, 1982[57]
• Trujillo, Perú
• Chimbote, Perú
• Santo Domingo, República Dominicana
• Chiba, Japão
• Madrid, España
• Miami, Estados Unidos
• Nova Iorque, Estados Unidos
• Taipé, República da China (Taiwan)
• Bogotá, Colombia
• Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia
• Ciudad de México, México
• Puebla de Zaragoza, México, 2009[58]
Writing system
Main article: Guaraní alphabet
Guaraní became a written language relatively recently. The modern Guaraní alphabet is basically a subset of the Latin alphabet (with "J", "K" and "Y" but not "W"), complemented with two diacritics and six digraphs. Its orthography is largely phonemic, with letter values mostly similar to those of Spanish. The tilde is used with many letters that are considered part of the alphabet. In the case of Ñ/ñ, it differentiates the palatal nasal from the alveolar nasal (as in Spanish), whereas it marks stressed nasalisation when used over a vowel (as in Portuguese): ã, ẽ, ĩ, õ, ũ, ỹ. (Nasal vowels have been written with several other diacritics: ä, ā, â, ã.) The tilde also marks nasality in the case of G̃/g̃, used to represent the nasalized velar approximant by combining the velar approximant "G" with the nasalising tilde (note that the letter G/g with tilde, which is unique to this language, was introduced into the orthography relatively recently during the mid-20th century and there is disagreement over its use, and it has not been made available as a precomposed character in Unicode, which may cause typographic inconveniences or imperfect rendering when using computers and fonts that do not properly support the complex layout feature of glyph composition).
Only stressed nasal vowels are written as nasal. If an oral vowel is stressed, and it's not the final syllable, it's marked with an acute accent: á, é, í, ó, ú, ý. That is, stress falls on the vowel marked as nasalized, if any, else on the accent-marked syllable, and if neither appears, then on the final syllable.
