Central Department
Central is a department in Paraguay, it is one of 17 administrative districts.
Areguá is since July 2, 1993 capital of the department, before the administrative district of Asunción was co-supervised.
The smallest administrative district of Paraguay, Central is the most densely populated. Live here 35% of the country's population and 58 % of the total industry in the country has their headquarters here
Geography
Central is located on the Paraguay River, the main waterway of the country. A bridge, the Puente Remanso that connects Central with the Departamento Presidente Hayes and thus the two halves of the country, the eastern region and the western region, better known as the Chaco.
Numerous rivers cross this department. An important river is the Río Salado which springs from the second largest lake in Central, Lake Ypacaraí. The largest mountain is Cerro Lambaré with about 250 meters above the sea level.
Economy
Main source of income are service and trade. International corporations such as Coca Cola, Pepsi and Parmalat, have regional subsidiaries in Central. Also important are the oil crops processing industry, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industry, leather industry, cement industry, plus various small food producers.
In addition to industry, is the second source of income for cultivation of various fruits and vegetables, such as tomatoes, strawberries, and citrus fruits. Furthermore, enhanced sweet grass ( Stevia rebaudiana ) is grown. Central in this sense is not representative of Paraguay, since there is neither the country where the cultivation of soybeans, wheat, cotton, yerba mate and sugar cane, nor is there for the cattle or the timber industry usable space.
Tourism is still in development. The Lago Ypacaraí is a popular tourist destination in the summer for several decades. The largest lake in Central, Lake Ypoá the other hand, is surrounded by swamps and so complicates the development of mass tourism. It is, however, driven by climatic possibility of a moderate kind of ecotourism.
Traffic
Except for a few byways all roads in Central are attached. The main connecting roads are asphalted or paved. Every place in Central is connected by buses with Asunción. They run in any regular rhythm and have no European standard, in contrast to the inter-city buses that are very modern. The Paraguay River is the connecting path between Central and the northern regions as Amambay or Concepción. In particular, the timber trade is conducted in this way.
The Asunción Silvio Pettirossi international airport connects Asunción with the hinterland and the neighboring countries and is also located in Central Paraguay.
Attractions
- Areguá: town with colonial buildings and special geological features, the Cerro Koi, which consists of hexagonal sandstone. In summer, a very popular beach town on the shores of Lake Ypacaraí.
- Itá: known for its ceramic artists.
- Itauguá: known for its weavers who make the typical Ñandutí.
- Lambaré: with the same mountain; a unique opportunity to see all of Asunción from a bird's perspective.
- Luque: stronghold of the manufacturing country typical musical instruments like guitars and the Paraguayan harp.
- Lago Ypoá: above the town Carapeguá that in IX. Departamento Paraguarí lies; Lake is but partly also in Central.
- Ypacaraí: the worship Tuparenda of Saint Mary of Schoenstatt.
- Churches: recommended are the colonial churches in San Lorenzo, limpio, Itauguá and Guarambaré
Districts
- Areguá
- Capiatá
- Fernando de la Mora
- Guarambaré
- Itá
- Itauguá
- Juan Augusto Saldivar
- Lambaré
- Limpio
- Luque
- Mariano Roque Alonso
- Ñemby
- Nueva Italia
- San Antonio
- San Lorenzo
- Villa Elisa
- Villeta
- Ypacaraí
- Ypané