Areguá, Lake Ypacaraí and San Bernardino Day Trip from Asunción

Less than 30 kilometres east of Asunción lies Lake Ypacaraí (Lago Ypacaraí), a shallow 90-square-kilometre tectonic lake (roughly 24 kilometres long by 5 to 6 kilometres wide) immortalised across the Spanish-speaking world by the 1948 Guarania song Recuerdos de Ypacaraí, composed by Demetrio Ortiz with lyrics by Zulema de Mirkin. Framed by the forested escarpment of the Cordillera de los Altos, the lake's western and eastern shores hold two of Paraguay's most atmospheric towns: the red-clay artisan capital of Areguá and the late nineteenth-century lakeside resort of San Bernardino.

Areguá: UNESCO Creative City, Pottery Studios, and Colonial Arches

Founded in 1538 by Governor Domingo Martínez de Irala on a gentle sandstone hill rising from the western shore of Lake Ypacaraí, Areguá serves as the capital of the Central Department and was designated a UNESCO Creative City of Crafts and Folk Art in October 2019. After the Carlos Antonio López steam railway reached the lakeshore in 1862, intellectuals, bohemian writers built turn-of-the-century brick villas with wide colonnaded galleries along cobbled Avenida del Lago.

• Iglesia Virgen de la Candelaria and Loma de Areguá: Built between 1862 and 1914 on the site of a former Mercedarian chapel at the crest of the hill, this church encircled by a whitewashed semicircular arcade frames a sweeping view straight down Avenida del Lago to the waters of Lake Ypacaraí.
• Castillo Carlota Palmerola (1898): A striking pink-and-stone neo-Gothic castle crowned by crenellated battlements and a four-storey lookout tower, completed in 1898 by landowner Carlota Palmerola and later bequeathed to the Congregation of Dominican Sisters, who open its period salons, chapel, and tower as a museum (check the official site for current visiting days).
• Permanent Pottery Fair and Strawberry Harvest: Along Calle La Candelaria, hundreds of family workshops shape local kaolin-rich lake clay into terracotta planters, painted water jugs (kambuchi), piggy banks, multi-piece Christmas nativity scenes (pesebres), and contemporary sculptures. From July to September during Expo Frutilla, stalls serve fresh Areguá strawberries with cream and tarts.

Cerro Koi Sandstone Columns and San Bernardino ("San Ber")

Just 2 kilometres outside downtown Areguá rises Cerro Koi (declared a National Natural Monument in 1993 alongside neighbouring Cerro Chororí), famous for its rare horizontal octagonal sandstone columns formed millions of years ago by volcanic igneous intrusion and rapid cooling. Similar horizontal polygonal sandstone formations are documented in only two other regions on earth (in Canada and South Africa). Shaded trails lead up through native forest to a cliff-top viewpoint over the Ypacaraí basin.

On the opposite eastern shore of Lake Ypacaraí (45 kilometres from Asunción via Ruta PY02) sits San Bernardino ("San Ber"), founded on 24 August 1881 by German immigrants from Berlin and Saxony under President Bernardino Caballero. Stroll the lakeside pier and boardwalk, visit the historic 1880s Hotel del Lago and Museo Hassler, and pause on your drive back along Ruta PY02 in Capiatá or Ypacaraí for warm chipa and mbejú. You can easily combine Areguá and San Bernardino with Itauguá and Yaguarón on a single full-day loop.