Republic of Paraguay
América del Sur
Landlocked · Quiet · Guaraní
Paraguay is one of the few countries where an indigenous language, Guaraní, is co-official and spoken by the majority of the population — around 90% of Paraguayans speak Guaraní regardless of ethnicity.
Más allá de la capital, las principales ciudades son Ciudad del Este, San Lorenzo, Encarnación — cada una un centro de cultura regional, economía e historia. Asunción is South America's oldest capital city, founded in 1537 and serving as the base for Spanish conquistadors who pushed out in all directions to found Buenos Aires and other colonial cities — now a city of 2 million sitting on a bluff above the Paraguay River where the colonial-era Palacio de los López government building and the Catedral Metropolitana anchor a modest historical centre.
Los principales idiomas hablados son español, Guaraní, que reflejan el patrimonio cultural del país y abren puertas a una amplia comunidad internacional. Internacionalmente, Paraguay se contacta mediante el código +595. Paraguayans maintain one of Latin America's most distinctive bilingual societies — both Spanish and Guaraní are official languages and 90% of the population speaks Guaraní in a linguistic survival unique among indigenous languages in the Americas, with Guaraní spoken not only by indigenous communities but as a first language by mestizo urban Paraguayans who use it for intimate conversation even when they work in Spanish.
Paraguay comparte sus fronteras con Argentina, Bolivia, Brasil. El tráfico rodado circula por la derecha, en consonancia con la convención de
La vida económica y cotidiana se rige por la zona horaria de UTC-04:00, alineando el país con sus vecinos regionales.
Sopa paraguaya — a savoury corn flour cake baked with cheese, onion, and fat — is paradoxically named 'Paraguayan soup' despite being solid rather than liquid, with legend attributing the recipe to a cook who added too much flour to a corn soup and accidentally invented the national dish for a presidential state dinner, an origin story that is probably false but culturally irreplaceable.
Football is Paraguay's defining competitive sport, with the national team's 2011 Copa América runner-up finish and multiple qualifier appearances representing achievements significant for a landlocked country of 7 million — but the traditional sport of piki-volley (a hand-volleyball hybrid played with a heavy ball that requires different technique from standard volleyball) represents the grassroots athletic culture of Paraguayan barrios.
The Chaco — a vast subtropical dry forest occupying 60% of Paraguay's territory but only 3% of its population — is one of South America's most complete wilderness areas, sheltering the world's largest remaining population of jaguars (the Chaco Jaguar Conservation Program tracks individuals across the entire Gran Chaco), giant anteaters, and giant armadillos in a landscape of thorn forest and palm savannas that few visitors reach.