Second Week in Asuncion: Part 1

April 28 

By now, we were really on the mend, settling into a routine, and getting out to explore the beauty of Asuncion. Nothing that we did this week was super jaw dropping but if a person enjoys history, old architecture, and eating well then Asuncion delivers on all that. What was inspiring is with each place we visited, it led me to add more places. Here is how it happened. We saw the Hall of Heroes (El Panteon de Los Heroes) lit up in all it's glory during our first outing on the evening of Good Friday. After a little research, we determined we should go back there during the day. There was a possibility to see the changing of the guards. Nearby there was an artisanal marketplace.  Our first attempt to see the Hall of Heros fell through which meant we took a walk about to discover what is in the vicinity. This led us to a building we hadn't previously noticed: Museo de Cabildo and after seeing that one, not far from there we happened into the new legislative house, essentially the capital building. That one isn't open to the public. The picture tour in this post documents our journey.

A military base

Scultpture in the park behind the Hall of Heroes

This is line of tents where locals sell Paraguayan souveniers unique to the country: hand stamped leather goods, nanduti lace, flags, and traditional embroidered linen shirts and dresses.

Pidgeons in the park

Shoe shining booths are still a thing here.

The National Bank

Art

A mate vendor

They put the herbs in the mortar and grind them with water.

El Museo de Economia

El Cabildo (Original seat of the legislature)

The window enclosed staircase in the Cabildo.

The lighting and view is incredible. Unbeknownst to me at the time, the neighborhood below this window is La Chacarita. The place is known for its danger and drugs. One blogger I read wrote his interpretation which I will paraphrase: Imagine a neighborhood built to house 30,000 residents, basically "the projects", the lowest of society and visible from the White House.

 

Except in this case, the wealthiest, most prominent leaders of the nation come on a daily basis to write and vote on laws to govern the people below. It's a surreal and ironic realization that these two worlds existed within hundreds of feet of each other. I wonder if this scene provided these men with a daily reminder of the weight of their decisions and if the design was intentional?

At the top of the stairs after looking over the "slums", we walked directly across the tiled corridor into the legislative hall...this is SO COOL to see in person...I could feel the presence of the history that was made in this room. It still smelled like men's cologne albeit stale. The grave responsibility of leadership remains the same no matter where in the world it exists. The black board high on the wall is the electronic tally board to track the representatives' votes. 

The front terrace of the Cabildo. I might have passed through a door I shouldn't have but it was open?

As we continued our walk after the tour of the Cabildo we came to this park and this statue situated at what I learned later is the entrance to La Chacarita.

An old wall from a building that existed on the location of the new legislative hall. They incorporated it into the new building. What a fantastic way to preserve a beautiful piece of historic architecture. As creative as the Costa Ricans are, I wish they had thought of this before razing all their historic buildings.

This is the Harp Museum inside the Manzana de La Rivera. It wasn't open the day we visited so we wanted to return to understand why this would exist in Asuncion. We learned the harp is the national instrument of Paraguay. It's called the Paraguayan harp because of some distinct differences compared to other harp designs.

                            

I took this opportunity to check out the terrace above the Harp and Jose Flores Museums.

View of the courtyard below.

The "bibleoteca" (library) inside the Manzana de La Rivera

Lunch a nearby cafe after our self-guided foot tour:

Burger

Quiche

Traditional Mbeyu

This guy was selling traditional chipa. I find something about this amusing.

Later the kids and I tried the restaurant across the street called The Keggar. It's a mid-end bar with decent food. I ordered a cesar con pollo wrap (not pictured) but it wasn't the typical thing. It was more like a fajita wrap.

Shredded pork sammy

Burger