Exploring Asuncion

We were up at a reasonable time so that we could have a leisurely breakfast before getting out to explore Asuncion.

Asunción is the capital and the largest city of Paraguay with a population of around half a million. It is one of the oldest cities in South America and the longest continually inhabited area in the Río de la Plata Basin. This is why it is nicknamed 'the Mother of Cities'. From Asunción, Spanish colonial expeditions departed to found other cities, including Buenos Aires.

Paraguay, Asuncion in particular, has a reputation for cheap consumer goods, especially electronics, due to low taxes for customers and suppliers alike. So, the first thing we did this morning was to go out to buy a new phone for me. We were looking in a shop window just round the corner from our hotel when a guy approached and asked if he could help us. When we said we didn't speak much Spanish, he asked us to follow him to where his English-speaking friend was. As he was wearing a T-shirt with the logo of an electronics shop I had already seen online, we decided to do as he asked. It was a real stroke of luck! He led us to his shop where we met Rodriguez who spoke very good English. We explained what we wanted. He didn't try to upsell us or rip us off. We walked out of there 15 minutes later with a Samsung Galaxy A15 (a slightly better model than the one I had stolen) for just under £100, much cheaper than I would have been able to get it elsewhere.

We returned to the hotel briefly to drop my new phone off, and then set out to explore. I had researched a walking route to take in all of the major sites of the city. As we set off, we photographed many of the crumbling buildings covered in faded, peeling artwork. There was a certain charm to our surroundings that I really liked.Read more