Things to do in Capiatá

Culture · The old town centre, off Ruta PY02

Capiatá's Franciscan-era parish church and the reason the town exists — a seventeenth-century foundation whose interior carries one of the finest collections of colonial religious woodcarving in Paraguay.

Local tip: Go on a weekday morning when it is open and empty. The carved retablo and the santos are the work of the Franciscan mission workshops, and there is nothing comparable in Asunción — which is precisely why almost no foreign resident of the metro has ever seen it.

Landmark · The spine of the city

The Mariscal Estigarribia highway, running from Asunción to Ciudad del Este — supermarkets, wholesalers, tyre shops and the entire commercial life of the city strung along it.

Local tip: It is not pretty, but it is the city's high street and it works at hours nothing else does. Learn which side of it you live on before you rent, because crossing it on foot at rush hour is genuinely unpleasant.

Food · Central Capiatá

The everyday produce market — mandioca, tomatoes, herbs for tereré, and comedores serving lunch to market workers.

Local tip: Prices here are a fraction of the highway supermarkets' and the yuyera stalls will sort you a bag of tereré herbs for the heat. Come before ten and bring cash in small notes.

Nature · About 20 km north-east

The lake that Paraguay sings about and the ceramic-and-strawberry town on its shore — the metro's standard Sunday escape.

Local tip: Areguá is a twenty-minute drive from Capiatá and an hour-plus from central Asunción, which is one of the genuine geographic advantages of living out here. Go for the pottery workshops and the cobbled streets rather than for swimming; the lake's water quality has been a long-running problem.

Food · All along Ruta PY02

Baskets of warm chipa sold at traffic lights and bus stops — the most Paraguayan thing on the road.

Local tip: The stands near the Capiatá and Itauguá stretches have a reputation among people who drive this road daily. Buy from a basket that is being refilled rather than one that has been sitting; chipa is best within the hour.

Culture · The next town east on Ruta PY02

The home of ñandutí, the radial 'spiderweb' lace that is Paraguay's most recognisable craft, still made in family workshops.

Local tip: Ten minutes further out on the same road. Buy from the workshops in the side streets rather than the highway stalls — the price is similar and the piece is likelier to be handmade in the town rather than imported.