PARAGUAY
Paraguay is South America's 'empty quarter,' a country little known even to its neighbors.
For much of its history it has distanced itself from the Latin American mainstream, and for a
substantial period of this century was South America's most notorious and durable police
state. PJ O'Rourke summed it up bluntly when he wrote 'Paraguay is nowhere and famous
for nothing,' and then, on a short visit to cover elections, promptly fell in love with the place
You might do the same since Paraguay has taken steps to overcome its political, economic
and geographic isolation and now welcomes visitors. The country has a relaxed riverside
capital, impressive Jesuit missions, several national parks and the vast, arid Chaco - one of
South America's great wilderness areas.
Statistics
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- Full country name: Républica del Paraguay
- Area: 407,000 sq km (158,730 sq mi)
- Population: 5,585,828
- Capital city: Asunción (pop 550,060)
- People: 95% Mestizo
- Language: Officially Spanish, but Guaraní is widely spoken
- Religion: 97% Roman Catholic, 3% Mennonite and other Protestants
- Government: Republic
- President: Luis González Macchi
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- GDP: US$19.8 billion
- GDP per head: US$3,700
- Annual growth: -0.5%
- Inflation:14.6%
- Major industries: Soybeans, cotton, timber, oilseed crushing, milling, brewing, textiles,
hides & skins, meatpacking, sugarcane (and contraband)
- Major trading partners: Brazil, the Netherlands, Argentina, USA
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I lived in Paraguay for 4 years, working at the Centro Anglo Paraguayo. This is the best private English language school in Asuncion and one of the largest. I had a great time on the whole, and many adventures which I can't really tell on this page . . .
Paraguay holds a very special place in my life for a number of reasons. I made some great friends, I learnt a lot, I saw and did things I might otherwise have never seen, I travelled around South America and, of course, I drank copious amounts of beer at Brittania pub which is by far the best pub in the world!
The main reason, though is that it was there, in the pub actually, where I met my wife-to-be, Sonia. Little did I know that day in 1998 that a few years later I would marry her.
