Asunción, Paraguay

One more card for today... and it's a new country to me! It was all quite spontaneous, too; Ana in Paraguya sent me a message asking if I'd like to swap with her, and of course I said yes. :) ..so now I have not one, but two written and stamped postcards from Paraguyay! I hope mine will reach her soon, too.



This is a view of the capital city of Paraguay, Asunción, and the Paraguay river, which is the one that gives the name to the country. The river divides the country into two regions, the eastern and western region. The city of Asunción is one of the oldest in South America, it was founded on August 15, 1537 by Spanish conquerors. In 2007 and 2008 the city of Asunción was found to be the world's least expensive city.

Population is approximately 520,000 people in the city proper. Roughly 30% of Paraguay's 6 million people live within Greater Asunción. Sixty-five percent of the total population in the city are under the age of 30. The population of Asunción has increased greatly during the last few decades as a consequence of internal migration from other Departments of Paraguay, at first because of the economic boom in the 1970s, and later because of economic recession in the countryside. The adjacent cities in the Gran Asunción area, such as Luque, Lambaré, San Lorenzo, Fernando de la Mora and Mariano Roque Alonso, have absorbed most of this influx due to the low cost of the land and easy access to Asunción.



The stamp is a Christmas stamp from 2010.