San Bernadino didn’t figure into my original plans for Paraguay.
Neither had a road trip, quite honestly. But after I changed my plans from traveling overland from Brasilia to Asunción to flying via Buenos Aires, I had to reconfigure. A road trip was the best option, and lying just 45 minutes from Asunción is the town of San Bernadino – a nice short distance for me to get my sea (or road, as it was) legs, and on the shores of Lake Ypacaraí, a favorite holiday destination for elite Asuncenos.
But San Bernadino contains much more than my superficial understanding of it at the time. Despite being a relatively young city, founded in the early 1880s, its history is profoundly deep and relevant, especially considering current political trends in the world today.
German Nationalism and Nazism in San Bernadino, Paraguay
San Bernadino’s founding was a direct result of Paraguayan history in the latter half of the 20th century. The War of the Triple Alliance ended with a loss of 90% of Paraguay’s male population. In response to the near-literal holes in the population, Paraguay opened its borders to outsiders en masse, offering cash and land to willing immigrants. As is perennially en vogue with radical communities (looking at you, Puritans), a group of German nationalist and antisemites made their way to Paraguay to found a racially pure Shangri-La.
That village was not San Bernadino. Rather, it was Nueva Germania, and it did not last long. Founded by Bernhard Förster and Elisabeth Nietzsche (sister of Friedrich, in case you were wondering), and floundered after less than a decade. San Bernadino, as it happened, was also founded by German and Swiss expatriates, and was where Bernhard and Elisabeth chose to set up shop after the quick demise of their Aryan paradise. Powered by the male ego, Förster languished in booze and the failure of his white supremacist town-in-Paraguay experiment at Nueva Germania for over a decade, before killing himself in the newly built Hotel del Lago in 1899. Today he is buried in San Bernadino, and no, I did not visit his grave.
Regardless of his less than humble end, Förster was revered as a hero among the German diaspora in South America – thanks in large part to Elisabeth’s skill at creating propaganda.. As radical nationalism is wont to do, things got bad and Nazis happened. The German community in San Bernadino at the time were quick to latch onto an ideology that established them as the top of the human hierarchy, so actively participated in the Nazi and antisemite movement leading up to World War 2.
What happened after the war, however, is more interesting and sinister. It’s said that San Bernadino and the Hotel del Lago in particular, hosted a number of prominent Nazis who’d fled to South America to avoid arrest and war criminal trials. Included in the list of who’s who among most wanted Nazis: Josef Mengele, the father of Nazi eugenics and the so-called “Angel of Death.”
My Experience in San Bernadino, Paraguay
The cosmos chose to reveal this history to me just before I arrived, and I’d have trouble saying it didn’t add a lens to my experience in what appeared to me as a sleepy, beach side town.
October is low season in Paraguay, if you can say there is a low season at all – I encountered only two tourists my entire time in the country. I had picked up my car earlier in the day, and arrived to San Bernadino after about an hour on the road getting to know my new whip. But the weather was good, though rain had been predicted for the whole day, and I was excited to have my big boy solo travel pants on for the first time in a long while.
I pulled into town and trundled over loosely placed cobblestones a couple blocks to the Hotel del Lago. The hotel is located right in the center of town, just off the main plaza, and in addition to being the best accommodation I had in all of Paraguay, it was also the creepiest.
My big splurge of the trip was to upgrade to a suite from a single room – sending my room tariff from $40 to $60USD, approximately. For that, I stayed in the best room in the hotel, complete with a restroom in a turret of the castle, veranda, satellite TV, and some really strange vibes.
The main tourist area of town is just a few blocks from the hotel. Near the beach, there are about five food and five souvenir shops. In mid-October, in Paraguay’s rainy season, about two of each were open, and I patronized them all. I ate the most delicious, simple chicken breast with a salad, and the positive response from my body was deafening after a period of significant meat ingestion in Brazil.
But I was a bit worn thin after two consecutive nights of late night flying, so rebuffed the advances of men trying to sell me a boat ride. I have no knowledge of costs, but considering the cost of my luxury hotel stay, I would think you could take a little putter for $100K Paraguayan Guaranis (less than $20). Instead, I wandered on the deserted beach among grazing cows with no apparent owner or direction. Besieged by sand flies, I high-tailed it back to the Hotel del Lago.
From there it was a brisk walk back through the main plaza to stealthily observe Paraguayan Zumba rituals, then to the room. I washed my socks in the one of the turrets of the hotel, wondering if my impromptu clothesline was hanging in the same room where Bernard Förster poisoned himself with strychnine and morphine 120 years before.
San Bernadino doesn’t deserve the ire it gets for its less than perfect past. It’s true of most places known for a single traumatic event – places whose names become synonymous with tragedy. Guyana for Jonestown, Ukraine for Chernobyl, and Kosovo for, well, Kosovo. If only quickly studied, it would be easy to label San Bernadino as a sinister place, but ignores the plight of the Paraguayans that live there today. The citizens of San Bernadino were proud of the town, for its cleanliness, and even its history. Any why shouldn’t they – despite shady goings on at the time of construction, the Hotel del Lago is a beautiful example of fin de siècle architecture, and the local population takes pride in their efforts to maintain it. I’d go so far as to argue that it could be a real flagship-type of destination for the country.
Why you should go to San Bernadino, Paraguay
And while there may not be, dictionary-speaking, a whole lot to do in San Bernadino. But for me, San Bernadino was a perfect stop on the first solo adventure I’d taken in seven or so years. Creepy history aside, it was exactly the slow-paced type of place I needed to ease me into the solitude of the following days, and I’m sure I’ll be back sooner than later with David in tow.
Logistical Information about San Bernadino, Paraguay
San Bernadino is located about an hour’s drive from Asunción’s Silvio Pettirossi International Airport, where I picked up my car. I think this is generally a wise move, as driving in Asunción was one of the more terrifying experiences of my life. By starting from the airport at Luque, you can take advantage of the lesser used and finely paved Ruta Luque-San Bernadino taking you around the north end of Lake Ypacaraí, rather than around the more congested Ruta 2 via Ypacaraí. I returned to the city on this route, opting to drop off all of the goods I’d acquired before returning the car. I kept on wondering my my GPS kept saying 40 minutes for 5 kilometers, but a full 50 minutes of Billy from Family Circusing around questionable Asuncion neighborhoods later, I arrived to my hotel looking like Doc from “Back to the Future” and in a very heightened, aggressive state. I could be easily rattled, but I don’t think that kind of driving is good for anyone’s mental or physical well being.
I guess that’s my very long-winded way of saying, get your car and drop it off at the airport.
If you’re traveling by bus from Asunción, buses leave from Asunción’s main bus terminal (Terminal de Omnibus – located outside the city center, see map) almost every hour from dawn until dusk. Fare is around 5K Guaranis, or just under $1USD, and the trip takes about two hours.
Rooms at the Hotel del Lago were expensive by Paraguayan standards, but still quite affordable. Single rooms started at 240K Guarani (around $40USD), and the “Historic Suite” I selected was 400K Guarani (around $65USD), including a fantastic breakfast made to order. (Note that the prices on the website say they are for 2013 – in October 2018, the prices were the same as those listed at the link)
My meal at the stretch of restaurants shore side included a fantastic filleted chicken breast and a salad I didn’t have any anxiety about eating – it cost 15K Guarani (around $2.50USD). Bring bug spray or wear long pants, my ankles haven’t been the same since.
And I guess I thought this would go without saying, but don’t swim in the lake. Lake Ypacaraí has been unsafe for swimming due to the volume of waste contained within its shores for many years. I hope that’s not a terrible buzzkill for anyone…
