Calle 15 de Agosto, Asuncion
This is a typical side street. The photograph was taken from the balcony of the second story of the Hotel Hispano-Americano
Street Scene, outskirts of Asuncion
The climate of Asuncion is hot, terribly so, and damp. In heat it compares very favorably with Panama. It is enervating and gives the people amorous inclinations, especially when it blows from the north and east. Many foreigners cannot become acclimated on account of their inability in adapting themselves to a change in their mode of life, and many of the wives of foreign diplomats have to return home on account of the heat. Many people have red spots on their faces and bodies caused by the heat. The hottest month is December. The rainfall is heavy, and in Asuncion it is regular. March is the wettest month, with April and October following in order. July is the driest month. The average annual rainfall is 60.2 inches. (The average for Detroit is 37 inches.) The driest year recorded in Asuncion was 1883 when 44.7 inches fell and the wettest year was 1878 with a precipitation of 101.9 inches. The rains are of short duration, but several are apt to occur in one day. They are tropical and come straight down in sheets as if a bucket of water had been turned upside down in the sky. These rains, which are heaviest in summer, come up suddenly, and if there are any clouds to be seen, it is advisable to carry an umbrella for it often happens that these showers are local, there being a great downpour in one part of the town and no rainfall at all in the other. After and between rains, the sun comes out and steam arises from the earth. Many a hacking cough heard from behind the shutters of a window and many a gob of phlegm seen on the street sidewalk has its origin from this climatic change. Hurricanes are unknown although water spouts are an occasional phenomenon. The thunder makes terrific crashings, and at each loud blast, the inhabitants make the sign of the cross. Even on days when it does not rain, the sky is frequently overcast and the atmosphere has the muggy feeling that is always present before a storm.
Perspiration runs from one in streams, not like the heavy sweat of the hard-working laborer but a malodorous vitality sapping sweat which takes the place of urine, making it necessary to change one's under-clothing several times daily and to indulge in frequent shower or sponge baths. For the omnipresent prickly heat, one should never besmear himself with ointment nor take cold baths; these have the tendency to augment it. One should bathe in warm or lukewarm water. Clothes sent to the laundry come back damp and the bed linen seldom dries. The houses are covered with a black mold which no amount of frequent painting can stop coming back. During the summer if you draw your finger across the wall of a church interior it will leave a streak on the dampness. Regardless of the heat, for sanitation's sake, hot air furnaces should be installed in the hotels and residences and a drying out should be given them once a week.
With the rains come myriads of bugs and beetles. A black-winged one, half as big as a saucer, whose aviation produced a noise like a rip-saw, assailed me one night while at dinner in the Hotel Hispano-Americano. It flew on my coat, and as I tried to brush it away it implanted a sting on the back of my hand that made me wince in agony. A lady, at a neighboring table, thought it was funny, for she smiled at my discomfiture. God punished her, for presently a huge green darning-needle shaped bug lighted on her neck and the sting it gave her made her emit squawks that rivaled in rancorousness those of a carrion crow. Bugs, beetles, reptiles, etc., the Paraguayans and Correntinos call bich and the large ones they call gran bich without any distinction as to their specie. A person cannot fondle with impunity the cucurú as one can the common American garden toad. The cucurú will bite you and then close its jaws. It has to be killed to pry its mouth apart and its bite is said to be poisonous. The suburban sidewalks of Asuncion teem with them evenings. The village of Areguá near Asuncion is especially prolific in this variety of amphibian. It would not take many of them to fill a bushel basket. I got about a dozen of these by dropping my hat over them and chloroforming them. I had them stuffed and brought them home as mantelpiece presents for my friends. Paraguay is also abundant in ophidians; the nasty, poisonous mboy-chumbé or black, white, and red-ringed coral snakes being the most common. There is mboy-jhoby, a green snake; the ñuazo, a dark brown snake; the viper; the ñandurié, a small stick-like snake and the rattlesnake are common venomous species, while the huge boa, or curiyu, and the mboy-yaguá, or water snake, belong to the unpoisonous kind. The great viper called ñacaniná is semi-poisonous. Among the quelonians is the carumbé a Brobdingnagian snapping turtle and in the hydrosaurian class is the crocodile, cayman alligator, and the iguana or teyú, the latter being esteemed for its white meat not unlike spring chicken in taste.
There are two species of jaguar called tiger by the natives, the aguareté and the yaguareté-popé. The word jaguar is derived from the Guarani yaguareté. There are several kinds of wild-cat, misnamed by the natives "lions," plenty of tapirs or mborevi, ant-eaters, wild pigs, armadillos, deer, monkeys, besides many species of phlebotomists such as the vampire-bat and the common belfry-bat. The trees are alive with owls, macaws, parrots, toucans, zorzals, and wild-pigeons, while in the swamps and clearings are found egrets, martinets, sarias, cassowaries, flamingoes, herons, and ibises.