Day 76

Today we went on a walking tour again. We met up at 9:30 at the Tourist Information and from here on out walked towards the first stop, namely Panteón Nacional de los Héroes. This is one of the national monuments of Paraguay. It is the mausoleum of the country where the coffins of the great heroes of the Paraguayan history are stored and displayed. In front of this Panteon was also 'point zero', meaning that this is where all the distances are measured from. We then continued towards the ministry building on the opposite side of the street. Afterwards, we went to Catedral Metropolitana de Asunción, located in the historic center of the city. The last current model was inaugurated in 1845, after the cathedral that stood there before was destroyed in a fire. We went inside and looked around for some minutes before going to the next highlight of the capitol. This next highlight was Centro Cultural de la Républica el Cabildo, which had been the headquarters of the National Congress for over hundred years, until 2003. In 2005 the Museo del Barro was created in this building, where popular art, indigenous art and urban art of paraguay are exhibited. We walked through all the different exhibitions of the museum. Upstairs was a map of the world's immigration to Paraguay, and there are quite some Dutch people that immigrated which is why there are cities in Paraguay that are named 'Volendam' and 'Friesland'. In this museum is also another point zero, namely the place where the founders of the city decided that Asuncion would be built around that specific point. We walked a little further until we reached Palacio de Gobierno which is the place where the president works. We were told that you can see if the president is currently in the building by checking if there are snipers on the roofs of the surrounding buildings. We did not spot any snipers, thus the president was likely not in the building at the time. We quickly stopped at one of the oldest houses of Asunción and then continued towards Museo Casa de la Independencia. In this museum, there is art, artefacts, and information about the Paraguayan fight for independence on May 14 and 15 of 1811. In the afternoon I Skyped for hours with my best friend Imke while watching movies and eating pineapple.

Geschreven door Romymatse