Asunción on foot, from the port to the new city

Asunción does not give itself away at first glance. It is a low, green capital, built in different eras with no plan holding them together, and that makes it far more interesting than a first hour in a car would suggest. On foot it makes much more sense.

Morning: the historic centre

Start in the upper part of downtown, where the public buildings of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries face short, sloping streets. The façades are neoclassical, the colours pastel, the wooden shutters run floor to ceiling. Many buildings have been restored, others are waiting, and that alternation is the district's real character: no stage set, no frozen old town.

From here it is a ten-minute walk to the river. It is the reason the city exists where it does: Paraguay is landlocked, and for centuries water was its only infrastructure to the outside world. Watching container barges push upstream explains more about the local economy than most presentations.

Midday: the costanera

The Costanera, the riverside boulevard built over recent years, is where the city decided to reclaim its own bank. It is a wide, windy axis, busy at sunset: runners, families, ice-cream sellers, people who come only to look at the water.

The contrast is sharp and worth noticing. Behind you are the low-lying neighbourhoods built on ground the river has historically taken back during major floods. In front of you, the river itself. This is where Asunción shows its ambitions and its fragilities at the same time, with nothing in between.

Afternoon: the new city

Then there is the other Asunción, the one that has grown eastward over the last fifteen years: glass towers, offices, hotels, restaurants, the headquarters of banks and service companies. The streets are wide, the blocks large, the distances designed for cars.

People who come for work spend almost all their time here, and risk taking home a single image of the country: modern, efficient, without history. People who visit only the old centre leave with the opposite image. The two halves explain each other, and the half-hour drive between them is probably the most instructive journey in the city.

One practical note

Climate decides the route more than any guidebook. From November to March you walk only in the early hours and after five in the afternoon; the middle of the day is spent indoors. In the dry months, May to August, you can walk all day in a low light that is excellent for photographs.

The rest is a willingness to stop. In a city that lives on its pavements, the conversation with the herb seller on the corner is part of the itinerary.