Essential Spanish phrases

The Paraguayan ID card. Residence gets you one, and without it there is no bank account, no municipal driving licence and no postpaid phone line.

The transfer between buses. Since December 2025 the Viceministerio de Transporte's universal scheme lets you combine services within 120 minutes at a discount — and on Capiatá S.R.L. the first and second transfers are free.

Ruta PY02, the Mariscal Estigarribia highway that runs through the middle of Capiatá to Asunción one way and Ciudad del Este the other. Everything here is described by its position on it.

The metropolitan area — Asunción plus the Central department cities. Capiatá is one of them, and it is where a great many people who work in the capital actually live.

The corner shop that sells everything and knows everybody. In a city with few supermarkets outside the highway strip, this is where daily shopping actually happens.

The city hall. In Paraguay it is not a minor institution: your driving licence, your property rates and your commercial licence all come from it — and Capiatá's is a different one from Asunción's.

'Dormitory' — the honest local word for a city that empties at seven in the morning and refills at seven in the evening. Capiatá has 236,999 people and nothing like 236,999 jobs.

The daily minimum wage — Gs 117,077 since 1 July 2026, giving a monthly minimum of Gs 3,044,000. Government fees are quoted in jornales, so they reprice every July.

The cheese-and-mandioca-starch bread sold from baskets at every bus stop and traffic light along Ruta Dos. It is the national snack and the Central-department roadside is where it is best.

Cold yerba mate with iced water and crushed herbs, passed round one guampa. Non-negotiable equipment for a Paraguayan summer and the standard opening move socially.

'How are you?' and 'good' in Guaraní. Central department is more Guaraní-speaking than the capital's professional districts, and using it here is not a party trick.

The state electricity utility. Paraguay is a huge net exporter of hydroelectricity, and a Capiatá summer will still hand you the largest bill of your year.