Paraguay [ paragva ɪ, paragu a ː i, Spanish para ɣ a ], officially República del Paraguay, German Republic of Paraguay, state in the south of South America with (2018) 7 million residents; The capital is Asunción.
Besides Bolivia, Paraguay is the only state in South America without access to the sea. Paraguay borders Brazil in the east, Argentina in the south and west of the country and Bolivia in the north and west. The name Paraguay means “water that goes to the water” in the Guarani language, the indigenous people of Paraguay. Originally only applied to the capital Asunción, today the name refers to the entire national territory.
According to mathgeneral, Paraguay is populated differently. Most of the population has settled in the east of the Rio Paraguay and around Asuncion. Fewer people live in the Gran Chaco plain, which extends to the north and west of Paraguay. The total population in this area is only 5 percent of the total population of Paraguay.
95 percent of the population of Paraguay are mestizo. This group of people are descendants of Indians and Spanish immigrants. These connections emerged mainly in the 16th to the 18th century. Descendants of the indigenous people of Paraguay still live in the country. The Aché Indiansare represented by around 1,000 to 1,2000 people and live in the subtropical east of the country. The first Guarani groups reached the country around 500 BC and displaced the Indians into the forest regions. Where the Aché lived back then, fields were created.
Nowadays emigrants from Europe keep coming to Paraguay. But people from Brazil and Argentina also come here to build a new life.
The Guarani language, which is spoken and understood by around 80 percent of the population of Paraguay, has been the official language since 1992 and is used alongside the official language Spanish. If you travel to Paraguay, you might be surprised: German is sometimes even spoken here. The German emigrants and Mennonites speak this language, but as a Low German dialect. The German language plays a certain role in the media, schools and in large parts of public life.
Paraguay – Map and Geography
Paraguay is a landlocked South American country (the only one besides Bolivia). The neighboring countries are Bolivia in the north and northwest, Brazil in the east and Argentina in the west and south. The area of Paraguay covers 406,750 square kilometers, which roughly corresponds to the combined area of Switzerland and Germany.
The Río Paraguay, a tributary of the Rio Paraná, flows through Paraguay in a north-south direction and divides the country into two different natural regions: the western, relatively sparsely populated Gran Chaco (also known as the Occidental Zone) takes up about 60% of the territory. More than 97% of the population live in the eastern region, in the Oriente.
The uniform alluvial plain of the Gran Chaco rises slightly in a westerly direction, from about 100 m on the Río Paraguay to about 450 m at the foot of the Andes. In the east and south is theregion characterized by swamps, for the most part it consists of gray clay.
In the Oriente, east of the Río Paraguay, the table and mountainous country rises in the Cordillera de Caaguazu range of hills to almost 700 m above sea level. The plateau breaks off in a step to the fertile Paraná-Paraguay Depression, which is characterized in the south by large floodplains and marshland. The Mato Grosso Plateau is located in the north of the Oriente.
In the east and south-east of the capital Asunción are the oldest settlements in Paraguay, where a large part of the country’s population lives.
Paraguay climate
Paraguay is located in central South America. Since the elevations in Paraguay rarely exceed 600 m, the temperatures almost equally high in summer – the humidity is slightly higher in the east of the country. The average summer temperatures range between 25 ° C and 43 ° C.
In winter, the temperatures can sometimes fall below 0 ° C due to the cold southern polar air – the average minimum temperature is 6 ° C. AverageMaximum temperatures July, the coldest month, is a mild 22 ° C.
The climate in Paraguay can be divided into two regions along the Rio Paraguay. In the west lies the tropical Gran Chaco, with the western part of the plain being drier (between 500 and 1,000 mm of precipitation per year) than the eastern Gran Chaco (between 1,000 and 1,300 mm of precipitation per year). Most of the rain falls between November and May.
To the east of the Rio Paraguay is the more humid, subtropical region of Paranena. Here are the weather conditions more humid than in the west, the annual precipitation averages 2,000 mm, but in the region around Asunción the precipitation is only around 1,500 mm. In Paranena it is quite warm to hot from November to March, from May to August it can get very cold here, and the nighttime temperatures can sometimes drop below zero. Most of the rain falls here between March and May and October and November.
In southern Paraguay, rainfall is fairly evenly distributed throughout the year.
Best travel time for Paraguay
Due to the summer heat in Paraguay, visits in the winter months of the southern hemisphere (May to September) are preferable when it is a little cooler (the coldest month is July).
Paraguay’s Carnival in February is a good time to visit the country – the liveliest carnival takes place in Asunción. The religious center of Caacupé is the main place for Día de la Virgen (Immaculate Conception Day) in December.
Ciudad del Este
Ciudad del Este [s and Dad -], city in Paraguay, the Parana, opposite the Brazilian city of Foz do Iguaçu, (2019) 301 800 residents (in the agglomeration 483 000 residents, many Lebanese).
Catholic bishopric; University (founded in 1993); Commercial center, food, electronic and others Industry; Tourism. Guaraní International Airport is to the west of the city .
Founded in 1957 during the construction of the Paraná Bridge (opened in 1964) as Puerto Flor de Lis, the city was named Puerto Presidente Stroessner until 1989 . With the construction of the Itaipú power station, Ciudad del Este experienced rapid development into the second most important city in the country. Due to the location in the tri-border triangle Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, a lively smuggling economy developed.
