Hotel Del Lago

Loving the Hotel del Lago

The Hotel del Lago is set on the shores of beautiful Lake Ypacarai in San Bernardino, Paraguay. It was built in 1888, flourished for many years as people took the wood-burning steam train from Asuncion, the capitol city, to Aregua, where they boarded a boat and steamed across the lake arriving at the hotel dock. It remained open all these years, but fell into disrepair. In June 2006 Memoria Activa, S.A. created the Del Lago Living Museum and Cultural Center and we began our lease to purchase this hotel. However, the lovely Victorian lady needed a facelift! We began by scraping the walls to find the original 1888 paint and schemes, which we found. We then repainted the hotel in those colors and motifs. We had all the furniture from the turn of the century refinished and refurbished and added only period fuurniture circa 1900. We put in a beautiful garden featuring native plants of Paraguay, named it after a famous botanist of the era, Emil Hassler, who stayed at the hotel. We then redid the bathrooms in a 1900 style. We added a huge patio and refurbished the swimming pools. We redid the entire dining room floor in the same wood as the original, which had been eaten by termites, and rebuilt the massive fireplace, a gathering point for guests. We researched everything about the hotel, as well as famous Paraguayans and other who had stayed there. We printed and framed hundreds of prints and prepared captions in Spanish and English, and placed them in the lobby, dining room and halls. Each room is themed for a guest who stayed there from famous Paraguayan composer Augustin Barrios Mangore to a woman pilot La Tigresa, who flew around the world and stayed at the Hotel del Lago to write her memoirs. The result is a fabulous trip back in time to the turn of the 19th century, where people can relax, revive and revist the past. The hotel has 26 rooms, all restored, and the sunsets are fabulous! People from all over Latin America used to come for their honeymoon or "luna de miel" as they do again today. Many people return to the hotel and enjoy the antique photos on the wall. It is a meeting place for people from all over the world, including backpackers who have special rooms for their use.

Sitting on the veranda or terrace overlooking the Lake, listening to traditional Paraguay music, one can have a cup of terere or yerba mate, other teas or coffee, taste the fabulous recipies of the Uruturu restaurant, named after a bird that calls in the night, and snack on fabulous chocolate mouse and cake with merange in the middle! I keep photos of the Hotel and the lake as my screensavers on my computers, keep photos with me all the time, and come back as often as I can to enjoy the ambience of stepping back in time, relaxing and loving the Hotel del Lago and its Living Museum and Cultural Center. For those who are familiar with cinema, the only thing I can compare it to is the trip in time Christopher Reeve takes in the movie "Somewhere in Time" to find his love Jane Seymour, which is set at the Grand Hotel on Macinac Island, Michigan!

ParaguayCarol, United States - 04 November 2008