Cabañas Itakua

Cabañas Itakua is a perfect place to go for a weekend with the family or friends and forget about everything for a little bit; some people say that is the “Hidden Paradise”. At this place you have a combination of hills, rocks, streams, pond, animals, flowers and all the green of nature.

 The stream going through this place, called “Yhaguy,” is very popular, and the water completely transparent. It also has different activities like horseback rides, a lake where you can take boat rides, canoeing, diving, fishing, camping area and a walking trail, which allows the visitors to interact with nature.

This place was private, where a family was going to have a good time but one day they decided to open to the public because it was “extremely beautiful” and they wanted to make a tourism place for the Paraguayan people or even for the people for other countries.

 The cost of the cabins per couple is 90 dollars, if you want to do camping is 10 dollars, and if you want to go just for a day is 5 dollars. So, this is a perfect place to go and enjoy all the nature and activities this place has to offer to you.

Ypacarai Lake

The Ypacarai Lake is located in approximately 50 kilometers away from Asunción, the capital. It is world famous thanks to the guarania "Memories of Ypacarai". Surrounding the lake are three cities: Aregua, Ypacarai and San Bernardino. This lake has a surface around 90 km² and its dimensions are 24 kilometers from North to South and 6 kilometers from East to West. Its average depth is 3 meters.

This is the favorite place to go on vacations in Paraguay for most of the people, especially in the summer, when you can see this lake completely full of people coming from the whole country. The temperature during the summer could be between 25 and 42 degrees Celsius.

The view is just spectacular, as it is surrounded by hills with thick vegetation and beautiful cities.

This lake drains into the Salado River, which in turn reaches the Paraguay River. Also, several of the following streams flow into this lake; Yaguá Resau, Yuquyry bridge, and Pirayú Star.

Laguna Blanca

Laguna Blanca is an ecologicel place for tourism in Paraguay with a surface of 1.47 km² . It is an establishment that has a lake that is really good to go for a couple of days to relax and have a really good time. The water is completely transparent, more than you can imagine, this is because the type of sand that is in the place. Anybody with diving equipment can see all kind of fishes, plants, even those with more than 7 meters of depth.

Laguna Blanca is also considered as the unique natural lake in the country. It has approximately 147 hectares of water.

There is a lot of activities that you can do at this place like beach soccer, volleyball, horseback riding, boat rides, kayaks, swimming, riding the dunes, watersports, etc. The activities that need a specific leader need to be scheduled in advance.

Laguna Blanca also has a camping area with capacity for around 40 families, also has rustic house accommodation with breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner, with typical foods of Paraguay.

In February of 2010, Laguna Blanca was declared “Protected Wild Area under Private Domain”, including 804 hectares, which means more control all the time from the authorities on this área.

Salto Cristal

This beatiful place in Paraguay is located 158 kilometers from Asuncion (the capital), in the city of Ybycui, department of Paraguari. To be more specific it is located at the “National Park of Ybycui” which was created in 1973. 

There you can find camping areas, restrooms, and comfortable places for the visitors. The city is really nice with a lot of gardens, streets, and wooded areas. This is one of the most beautiful views in Paraguay as you can see in the picture.

Also, you will find a walking trail for tracking practice where you will be able to see all the Atlantic Forest Ecosystem with incredible representatives of endangered flora, such as tree fern or shashi, and a lot of interesting species of birds of this type of ecosystem. 

You will also be able to see wild lilies that seduce us with their delicious fragrance. Springs form waterfalls inside the mountain, forming geological dream sites and more.

Jesuit Ruins

These historical places are called Jesuit Mission of Jesus of Tavarangue and Trinity Jesuit Mission of Parana, and are located in the department of Itapua in Paraguay, 2 kilometers away from each other. 

Both are considered one of the most impressive creations by the Jesuits and are a testament to the rich history of Paraguay. Both were also declared a world heritage site by Unesco in 1993. 

According to Unesco, they are amazing remains of seven Jesuit missions, built in the territory of Guarani during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Originally, there were 80 Jesuit Ruins, but now there are only 30 left and seven of them are in Paraguay.

Definitely, this is one of the main places to visit in Paraguay if you are interested in learning about historic places and want to know more about the past.

Yacyreta Dam

Yacyreta is another hydroelectric dam in Paraguay. It is also a binational company between Paraguay and Argentina. It is number 8 in the ranking of the biggest hydroelectric dam in Latin America. It is located in the city of Corrientes, Argentina and in Ayolas in Paraguay. Yacyreta produce 22% of the hydroelectric energy using in Argentina and 60% of the hydroelectric energy in Paraguay.

Yacyreta has 20 turbines. Through each turbine can go 2.63 million liters of water per hour, meaning that the 20 turbines Yacyretá hourly can spend the equivalent water consumption 13 days of the city of Asuncion (capital of Paraguay) or 2 days of the city of Buenos Aires.

Yacyreta also has some attractions like a museum where archaeological pieces, minerals, and specimens of native wildlife are exhibited. There is a place of 100 hectares called Atinguy that is 18 kilometers away from Ayolas where you can see a lot of different kind of plants and animals. 

This place has perfect conditions for the animals to live naturally.

The inauguration of this dam was on 1998, the Annual Gross Production Central jumped from 12,149 GWh to 16.7382 GWh during the period 2004-2009, which represents a growth of it by 37.7%.

Itaipú Dam

The biggest hydroelectric dam in the world, in terms of annual energy generation, is in Paraguay, generating 94.7 TWh in 2008 and 91.6 TWh in 2009, while the annual energy generation of the ThreeGeorges Dam was 80.8 TWh in 2008 and 79.4 TWh in 2009. The name "Itaipu" was taken from an isle that existed near the construction site. In the Guarani language, Itaipu means "the sounding stone". 

Itaipu is a binational company. The hydroelectric dam on the Paraná River is located on the border between Brazil and Paraguay, more specificly on the cities of Ciudad del Este in Paraguay and Foz de Iguazu in Brazil. 

Normally, more people go to visit on the winter vacations, with the purpose of learning more about all the attractions the dam has like the zoo, the museum, and the biological refuge. Also, Itaipu has an artificial lake with 29000 hm³ of water. Anybody can visit at any time during the year, Monday through Sunday and even holidays, all you need to do is present you I.D. at the reception and be accepted.  

All the visits start with a video all about the construction procces and all the attractive places inside the hydroelectric dam, then you go to look at the different areas. The visits to Itaipu started in 1977, when they were just starting the construction. Since that moment, more than 15 million people from 188 countries came to visit this amazing place.

Iguazu Falls

The Iguazu Falls is one of the most beautiful places in South America to see. It is located between Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, more specificly at Foz de Iguacu in Brazil, Ciudad del Este in Paraguay and Puerto Iguazu in Argentina. It is considered one of the most wonderful natural beauties of the world and is part of World Heritage by UNESCO declared in 1984 and 1986. 

The falls are 2.5 miles (4km) wide and 269´ (82 meters) height. This is four times the width of Niagara Falls. The longest drop of the Iguazu Falls is from 82 meters. The falls are divided by various islands into some 275 separate waterfalls, one of the best known is the “Garganta del Diablo”.

 Between November and March, the rate of flow reaches a maximum of 450,000 cubic feet per second because of the rain. From the base of the falls, a veil of mist rises some 500 feet (150 m) into the air, creating a spectacular rainbow effect.

Definitely, if you want to see such an amazing place with a lot of water around and enjoy nature, this is a great option. In Paraguay, the Iguazu Falls is the favorite place for tourism.

Diego Galeano Harrison

My name is Diego Galeano Harrison from Paraguay. I am studying at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. I am a sophomore at Baylor now studying business. I wanted to show a little bit about my country, the places you can go for vacations, etc.