Asuncion, Paraguay

Asuncion is not a tourist city. One of the early dictators, soon after independence, removed all the original Spanish buildings. Nothing much was built to replace them, so, therefore, today Asuncion does not have much to attract the tourist. We did have a guide, and he had difficulty filling a few hours with things for us to see, much of the time with him being spent in cruising round middle class suburbs.

• The only photogenic building is the old senate. We did go inside and saw the legatislative chamber and a small museum (which quite oddly had a large model of ancient Rome, for reasons I could not understand). But in the fact the building is better from the outside than the inside.
• The cathedral is fairly nondescript
• The old prison, next door to the cathedral, is a run down university building today
• The old P04, a still used Paraguayan Navy river patrol boat, could be seen in the distance. This is a Patrol gunboat TENIENTE FARIÑA, ex Argentinian PY built in 1938 and commisioned in the Paraguay Armada in 1968.
• Plaza de los Desaparicidos, should, as a memorial to the disappeared during Stroessner's rule, be better than this. As a reviewer on TripAdvisor said, "no es vale la pena"
• Recent river flooding has displaced around 100,000 people, who now live in a plywood shanty town, which runs right up to the government buildings
• The most interesting place we found, at a short walk from the hotel was the Recoleta Cemetery - reminiscent of the one in Buenos Aires.

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La Mision Hotel, Asuncion

To be frank Asuncion does not have much to offer the tourist, but if you have to go to Asuncion, then you really must stay at La Mision It claims to be, and is, a 5 star hotel. One of the nicest places I have ever stayed at.

• The service is excellent, and friendly and efficient
• The public areas are spacious and well decorated. You don't get drab hotel corridors here. Each floor has a really spacious, light, lobby area
• The bedroom was light and airy. Well decorated and well maintained
• Bar area was comfortable and the service good. For example if you order a fresh orange juice, you get a fresh juice, not a packeted produce
• Breakfast was very good
• We had 2 dinners and enjoyed the quality of the food and the service
• For foreigners, Paraguay is a cheap country. so the hotel offered exceptional value for money in all departments

If I were to return to Asuncion, I would not consider anywhere else to stay other than La Mision

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And from Asuncion it was back home, Business Class

Paraguay Holiday