Still wandering thru downtown Asuncion i noticed the abandonment of the buildings that not long ago were full of live, now they show somehow a nostalgia of better moments.

There you can see a big contrast between old “antique” and modern.

In normal days you will find all kind of people on the streets, most of them selling things, “watching cars”, recollection garbage with carouses or selling clothes, fruits or handcrafted things.

A day in downtown can be, well, it actually is very exciting.

There are many buses going downtown from everywhere, so getting there is pretty easy, in Paraguay there are no subways, so here the main transportation are cars, taxis and buses.

Once you get to downtown there are a lot to see and everything is very close by, you can make the “tour” by foot.

The architecture is very diverse and that is shown by the different architectural styles, from colonial to very modern and sophisticated.

Most of the houses and buildings show the pass of time and that makes the town somehow melancholic, even romantic.

Even though downtown is mostly safe but sill would recommended to take care of your belongings (camera, purses, etc) while walking around.

The main downtown street is called calle Palma, where you can find most shops, electronics, (mostly run by chinese, arabic or korean people), also very easy to find on Calle Palma are Paraguayan handmade crafts. I have to say that I’m very proud of our handcrafts because they are not only original but also excellent quality and very beautiful.

There are a Permanent Artisan fair called in Spanish La Feria de los hippies (the hippie fair), where the sell all kind of handcrafts, like Aho Poi clothes, Encaje yu table cloths, leather items, ceramic, handmade jewelry, you name it (check it out when you around there) it is  located on calle Independecia Nacional and Estrella, in front of the icon of the city the popular Hotel Guarani, now abandoned, almost in ruins

Along calle Palma and other parallel and perpendicular streets you will find most of the attractions, restaurants, hotels and stores and the only post office in the city (hard to believe, buy very true) It is located on Calle Alberdi and Benjamin Constant.

I personally would rather stay in a not so expensive hotel but more traditional and with more personality that big chains, and in downtown you can find a few, most are clean and decent.

Some great places in downtown to check out are the renovated Teatro Municipal (over Paraguayo Independiente), La recova (over calle colon and Presidente Franco) an antique place next to the Port where there about 20 stores that sell handmade fabric, ceramic, Sterling silver filigree handmade jewelry, leather and tons of souvenirs which are very well made, excellent for gifts.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 11th, 2006 at 5:58 am and is filed under Paraguay. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.