San Bernadino

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What a lovely day! 😊

Last weekend Jose and I went on a random, spontaneous trip to San Bernadino, a little holiday town about 45 minutes outside of Asunción on the edge of Lake Ypacarai (pronounced: Ee-pak-a-ra-ee). At this time of the year, San Bernadino is a quiet, tranquil kind of place, however in the summer it is the hang out of Asunción's rich. There are huge houses lining many of the streets in the town, all locked up, gathering dust, waiting for the family to come visit a for a few weekends in summer. Seems like a massive waste of money to me... having a house, 45 minutes from your city, just to go stay there a few times a year. Especially when taking into acount all the poverty here. Some people have too much money...

Anyways... back to this amazing day out.

We stopped by the lake in a place where there were a few shops, a few places to eat, some stalls selling traditional Paraguayan goods, clothing, hats, lace, hammacks, leather goods, all really interesting to look round. Jose bought me a beautiful, white ao poi blouse and I bought some pretty, handmade jewellery, made from seeds, from some girls in the street, before heading to the shore.

The lake there is beautiful, and it seemed an immense size as we walked long the edge trying not to get our feet wet (there had been an amazing storm the night before so the water level was high and the ground was soaking wet! Wellies would have been good!), although I suppose I only have the likes of Windermere and Coniston in the Lake District back home to compare it with.

The weather was wonderful and there was only a slight breeze so the water was serene and still, allowing us to go on a little boat trip along the shore where there were people on jet skis, in pedalos, even someone looking like they were preparing to go parasailing off the back of a motorboat. It appeared that there were quite a few different watersports available, although the water is said to be highly polluted... therefore swimming, unfortunately, would not be advisable.

After the boat trip, we decided to go crazy and hire a pedalo for half an hour just as the sun was setting over the horizon at the opposite side of the lake. The last rays of the orange sun reflecting of the water made for some lovely photographs. We got back to shore just before it went dark and headed off to find some food...

We stopped at a picturesque little French cafe, called Café Francés (easy to remember!), hoping to get some crepes... Well, we did get crepes... however we were given the mixture and and assortment of toppings, and a strange machine to make our own crepes with. The lovely lady working there, Angela, showed us how to use the machine first and then left us to it. It was great fun! And really tasty too! Perfect end to a great day. 😊

I'd love to go back sometime and stay a few days. It is so relaxing at this time of year compared to Asunción. Although in summer I hear it turns into a party town, which I think I will give a miss!

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