Department of Paraguarí

Paraguarí is the ninth of the seventeen departments that, together with Asunción, Capital District, make up the Republic of Paraguay. Its capital is the homonymous Paraguarí and its most populated city, Carapeguá. It is located in the center of the eastern region of the country, bordering to the north with Cordillera, to the northeast with Caaguazú, to the east with Guairá and Caazapá, to the south with Misiones and to the west with Ñeembucú and Central. With 8705 km², it is the fourth smallest department—ahead of Cordillera, Guairá and Central; and with 199,430 inhabitants in 2022 it is the eighth most populated department.

History

The territory occupied by this department is located in a valley formerly called “Yarigua'a” that was part of the territory of the missionary action of the Jesuit priests at the time of colonization.

Numerous towns were settled in the area, whose inhabitants had the indoctrination of priests and chaplains who were in charge of directing agricultural and livestock activities.

Part of the territory was also occupied by the Dominican missionaries who were in charge of the “Tavapy” town with a black population.

At the end of the XVI century, Franciscan missionaries founded the city of Yaguarón with an indigenous Guaraní population.

The development of the population was consolidated only in the centuryXVII and civilian populations took shape in the centuryXVIII.

This is how the foundations of which are now part of this department took place. In 1725 the city of Carapeguá was founded, in 1733 Quiindy was founded, in 1766 the foundation of Ybycuí, in 1769, Pirayú, was founded in 1775 the current capital of the department: Paraguay. Following the list of successive foundations, Quyquyhó, the cities of Ybytymí and Akahay were founded in 1783 and Caapucus was founded in 1787.

During the government of Don Carlos Antonio López this territory benefited from the inauguration of the railway in 1854. Once the War of the Triple Alliance ended, the tracks reached Villarrica, which generated the founding of new cities such as Cerro León, Escobar, Sapucái and Caballero.

Over time, two lines of towns were formed, those that were on the edge of the route and those that were bordering the railroad tracks. This situation contributed to the formation of two different departments in 1906, on the one hand, the department of Quiindy with the road cities and that of Paraguarí, which was made up of the cities of Carapeguá, Tavapy, Caballero, Escobar, Yaguarón, Pirayú, Ypacarai and Itaguá., the latter two currently belonging to the Central department.

In 1945 the political division was definitively modified, establishing the IX department of Paraguarí as it is today.

Geography

Orography

Paraguarí has a rich variety of lands in its landscape, elevated to the north and made up of hills that are landslides of the Altos mountain range. Towards the central and southwest area it has undulating and flat lands with extensive valleys covered with grasslands good for livestock.

In this department are the Mbatovi, Caré, Chalá, Peró and Ybycuí hills. It also has lower hills such as Pirayú, Azcurra, Verá, León, Paraguarí and Jhú.

Hydrography

The tributaries of the Tebicuary River flow into Paraguarí, thus the Tebicuarymí and Negro rivers and the Mbuyapey stream bathe its coasts.

Another slope located in this area is that of Lake Ypoá and the lagoon Vera, which make up the Ca'añabé, Aguaí'y streams.

Demography

Administrative division

Districts

The department is divided into 18 districts:

N.o	District	km2	Population (2017)	The hive Sapucaí Gral. Knight Ybytymi Tebicuary-mi Quiindy Acahay Caapucus Carapeguá San Roque G. Quyquyhó Mbuyapey Ybycuí Yaguarón Paraguay Escobar Pirayú
1	Acahay	403	16 624
2	Caapucus	2301	20141
3	Carapeguá	442	36 118
4	Escobar	364	8 675
5	General Bernardino Caballero	169	7 250
6	The hive	117	5 804
7	Marie Antonia	312	5 382
8	Mbuyapey	793	14 560
9	Paraguay	273	24 058
10	Pirayú	143	17 727
11	Quiindy	897	21 356
12	Quyquyhó	624	7 495
13	San Roque González de Santa Cruz	299	12 226
14	Sapucai	338	6 788
15	Tebicuarymí	130	4 570
16	Yaguarón	195	31 443
17	Ybycuí	702	24 780
18	Ybytymi	312	7 400

Location

Paraguarí is located in the southwest of the Eastern region, between parallels 25º 25' and 26º and 30' south latitude and between meridians 56º 35' and 57º 40' west longitude.

Limited to the north by the departments of Cordillera and Caaguazú.

To the south, with the department of Misiones.

To the east it borders the departments of Guairá and Caazapá.

To the west, with the Central and Ñeembucú departments.

Climate

In summer, the maximum temperature reached is 39 °C and the minimum temperature in winter is 2 °C. The average annual temperature is 21°C.

Media and roads

In the past, the main communication route was the Carlos Antonio López Railway and route I, Mariscal López, which has branches that extend to the cities of Piribebuy, Carapeguá-Ybycuí, Caapucú-Mbuyapey and Mbuyapey-Ybycu'i. Currently, the railway has stopped operating. Paraguarí has landing strips for small aerial machines.

As for radio communication media, there are Amplitude Modulated stations, such as Radio 1000; and in Modulated Frequency, among which it is worth mentioning some stations by municipalities; in Yaguarón: Radio Yaguarón F.M. 96.1 (C.C.Y.), Emerenciana F.M. 104.1, Radio Yaguarón Poty F.M. 87.9. In Paraguarí: Radio Paraguarí F.M. 96.9; Radio 10 F.M. 106.7; Radio Express F.M. 98.9; My Favorite F.M. 105.5; Radio Connection F.M. 101.5; Radio Santo Tomás F.M. 99.3. In Carapeguá: Radio Panamericana F.M. 93.5; Radio Carapeguá F.M. 90.5, Radio Different F.M. 91.9; Radio Global F.M. 107.9 and Radio Mágica F.M. 91.7. In La Colmena: Radio Colmenar F.M. 92.5 and Community Radio. In Tebicuarymí, Radio Cañaveral F.M. 96.1. In Ybycuí: Radio La Paz F.M. 93.3; Radio Ybycuí F.M. 103.3; Radio Rosedal F.M. 90.1 and Radio Amistad. In Quiindy: Radio Quiindy F.M. 104.7 and Radio Manantial F.M. 96.1.

As for the written press, on August 15, 2011 the first departmental newspaper was published with the name Paraguari.Web which was later called Quincenario La Región, a member of Cadena Comunicación Yaguarón, although this newspaper soon disappeared due to lack of support.

Economy

This department is rich in livestock production. Its inhabitants are mainly dedicated to raising cattle and pigs; on a smaller scale, sheep, horses and goats are raised.

Poultry production also occupies an important place in production, chickens, geese, turkeys and guineas are raised.

Agricultural production occupies a less important place and is mainly aimed at supplying its inhabitants. The department has crops of rice, corn, onion, sweet orange, banana, sweet potato, sour orange, bean, tomato, pineapple, grapefruit, grapevine, pea and potato.

The industries found in Paraguarí are: sugar mills, cotton spinning mills, dairy industries, cane and fuel alcohol distilleries.

Among the crafts, Carapeguá stands out with the production of a fabric called poyvi, ao po'í, jú lace, hammock and others are also produced.

Tourism

This department has very interesting places marked by a long history. The Yaguarón temple whose altar was hand-carved by the indigenous people in 1775.

Its nature is very wide and has attractions such as Lake Ypoá and its tributaries, the numerous hills that allow adventure tourism, among them the Yaguarón hill located at 180 m s. n. m. This hill has the peculiarity of being marked by footprints printed on its rocks. Popular belief attributes the footprints to Saint Thomas during his passage through those lands.

There is also the 672-meter Acahay hill, which was declared a natural monument and is made up of an ancient extinct volcano.

The Mbatoví Eco Reserve is located in this department. This space has adventure tourism programs and is located at the foot of the hill of the same name.

The Dr. Gaspar Rodríguez Museum in France has an interesting exhibition of objects that belonged to the hero.

How to get there

Leaving from the capital of the country, Asunción, you must take Route I Mariscal López, at the height of "km 51" The city of Yaguarón is approximately located. The department capital, Paraguarí, is located at the height of "km 66".

From Asunción, numerous means of public transportation leave from the main bus terminal heading to the capital of the department of Paraguarí at an affordable cost.