Paraguay · PY

Ypacaraí Lake

Ypacaraí Lake is Paraguay's most celebrated body of water — a broad, shallow sheet stretching 24 kilometers through a valley ringed by the green Cordillera de los Altos, just 50 kilometers east of Asunción. Its Guaraní name means something close to sacred lake or lake of spirits, and it has become a national symbol, immortalized worldwide by the guarania Recuerdos de Ypacaraí, recorded by artists from Julio Iglesias to Mercedes Sosa. Whether you come for a sunset stroll along a lakeside promenade, a morning of kayaking through reed-lined channels, or a lazy afternoon in one of the charming shore towns, Ypacaraí is Paraguay at its most relaxed. Covering roughly 60 square kilometers with an average depth of barely three meters, the lake is intimate enough to feel on a paddleboard yet large enough to lose a sunset in. Around its edges sit towns with very different personalities: the resort energy of San Bernardino, the artisan calm of Areguá, the lace-making heritage of Itauguá, and the silver filigree workshops of Luque. Each shore reveals a different face of Paraguayan life.