Paraneña Geography & Climate

The Paranena region is everything east of the Paraguay river — about 40 per cent of the country’s area and around 98 per cent of its people.

Red earth and hills

Rolling country on deep lateritic soil, coloured a startling red by iron oxide, rising to low ranges called cordilleras that reach only a few hundred metres. The soil is fertile, which is why this side of the country is settled and the Chaco is not, and why it has been almost entirely converted to farmland.

The rivers

The Paraguay river on the west and the Parana on the east and south form the boundaries and were the region’s highways before roads. The Parana is enormous — the second-longest river in South America — and carries so much water through a steep section at the Brazilian border that it became the site of one of the largest hydroelectric schemes ever built.

Itaipu

The dam, completed in 1984 and shared with Brazil, generates more energy in a typical year than almost any other power station on earth and supplies the great majority of Paraguay’s electricity. Its reservoir drowned the Guaira falls, once among the highest-volume waterfalls in the world.

Atlantic Forest

The region was covered in subtropical Bosque Atlantico, contiguous with Brazil’s. Well over 90 per cent has been cleared since the 1940s; what remains is in scattered reserves.

Ypacarai

A shallow lake of about sixty square kilometres east of the capital, ringed by resort towns and the subject of the country’s best-known song. It has suffered badly from sewage and agricultural runoff, with cyanobacteria blooms closing it to swimming in recent years, and its restoration is a standing national argument.

Wetlands

The Nembucu floodplain in the south, seasonally inundated grassland and marsh.

Eastern Paraguay has a humid subtropical climate, much wetter and greener than the Chaco across the river.

Summer

October to March is hot and humid, with Asuncion averaging 24 to 34°C and readings above 40 common. Humidity keeps nights warm, and the combination is draining — the city moves slowly and takes a long midday pause. Heavy afternoon thunderstorms are frequent and can be violent.

Winter

May to September is mild and much more comfortable: 12 to 25°C, with plenty of sun. Occasionally a surazo pushes cold air up from Patagonia across flat country and the temperature drops sharply within hours, sometimes close to freezing — a genuine shock in a subtropical country where few buildings have heating.

Rain

Between 1,300 and 1,800 millimetres a year, increasing eastward toward the Brazilian border, and falling in every month. There is no dry season here, only a wetter summer.

Storms

The region sits in one of the more active convective zones on earth, and summer storms produce hail, damaging wind and spectacular lightning.

Flooding

The Paraguay river floods the low-lying neighbourhoods of the capital in high-water years, displacing thousands.

Living with the heat

The response is architectural and social: deep verandas, high ceilings, shuttered windows, and a working day split around a long pause from midday. Terere is part of it too — iced mate drunk continuously through the afternoon is a genuine cooling strategy rather than only a custom, which is why the whole country carries a thermos.

Practical effect

Visit in winter if you can.