Asunción

Asunción, South America's most low-key capital, lines the Río Paraguay with a historic centre compact enough to cover on foot. The National Pantheon of Heroes keeps the tombs of the nation under its dome, and the Independence House Museum occupies the low colonial house of 1772 where the country broke with Spain in 1811. Facing the river, the Manzana de la Rivera Cultural Center gathers a block of restored houses, the oldest from the eighteenth century. The Museo del Barro shows another Paraguay altogether: indigenous art, popular saints and ceramics. In the streets, vendors sell chipá and bunches of herbs for tereré, the yerba mate drunk iced through a metal straw. An hour or two out, Cerro Perõ (Paraguarí) rises over the plain, and the San Buenaventura Church – Yaguarón hides a carved and painted Franciscan interior.