Saludos a Asuncion!

Why are there so few tiled roofs in America?  They are sturdy and cheap and make a striking and characteristic accent to a Spanish-style casa.  When new, these tiles have the tone of clay flowerpots, but they grow more lovely with age.  As with sterling silver or other precious materials, their original color morphs into a rich patina that comes only through use and weather.  The real glory of a red tiled roof comes from above, not from Heaven but from a viewpoint overlooking them.  People living in houses with these wonderful, secure, long-lasting roofs cook, sleep, bathe, raise children, love, and grow old under them but they probably have little notion of the beauty their roof adds to its view from above.  Nor, I imagine, do the occupants have any concept of the sea of sooty, rosy-red roofs that a plane full of anxious passengers flying over might see looking down at the city below, perhaps even wondering what life under one of those roofs might be like. 

From our apartment, Stan and I see tall white buildings and the array of red-tiled roofed houses below, but we are also struck by the green trees and the pink haze that dots the city.  Asuncion is a very green city.  Trees line every street and fill almost every vacant space.  But the Lapacho trees make this place unique.  They have been in their pink bloom stage since we first arrived here.  Commonly called pink trumpet trees, Lapacho trees grow wild across Paraguay and much of South America.  They bloom constantly from July to September, dropping and reproducing flowers week after week, creating a pink haze above and a pink carpet below on streets and sidewalks.  Accented by beds of tall, spear-like snake plants and succulents, the landscapes of many grand casas feature these dramatic flowering trees as ornamentals along with tall Ficus and glossy green-leafed Orange trees.  Not just for residential gardens, Orange, Ficus, and Lapacho trees commonly line boulevards creating shady walks for pedestrians and pleasant, picturesque drives for busy people passing through.  Orange trees are budding here now.  Soon the heady sweet fragrance of Orange blossoms will accompany the pink Lapachos and make the pretty street scene an even more dreamy place to be. 

In Paraguay, the Lapacho is treasured for its beauty and its utility.  The tree grows straight and tall, and its wood is fine-grained and rot-resistant.  These qualities combined with its rich olive brown to black colored wood, make the Lapacho highly desirable for indoor and outdoor furniture.  Its crowning glory, though, is its cloud of pink flowers.  It is no wonder that the Lapacho is the national tree of Paraguay. 

Stan and I love walking . . . or rather we relish the good feeling we have after having walked several miles each day.  Walking is underrated.  A 30-minute walk after dinner can improve a person’s health, but the outing can give so much more.  For example, on our walks, we have made friends with mean-sounding bark-a-holic dogs and aloof cats and discovered gorgeous casas otherwise hidden from view when passing by riding in a bus or car.  Like looking in a diorama, walks enable us to peek through a gate often discovering a jewel-like casa and garden inside. We sometimes jest that we’d give away one of our kids to see inside one.  Walks have enabled us to meet amazing people, find hidden restaurants and shops, watch colonies of noisy parakeets in their condominium-like nests, sniff the flowers, and best of all, our walks have helped us become nimbler as we sometimes must “tap dance” negotiating, stumbling and miraculously surviving the broken sidewalks and paths of this city. 

Saludos a Asuncion!