Encarnacion

Hotel Puesta del Sol & Canela Fina Restaurant, Paraguay

We decided to meet our Norway friends in Encarnacion. It is always nice meeting people you know while on a family travel since it eliminates the need for luxury travel experts advice. This, therefore, means that we save so much during our single parent travel.

On this day, we wanted to see Jesuit ruins. While we were earlier told that this was going to be a 4 Hours bus trip, it ended up being almost 7 Hours.

We had earlier booked a hotel called Hotel Itapua. It was near the bus terminal and the pictures we saw on the internet were very lovely. Well, we were so disappointed. It looked more or less like a prison and the security guard at the entrance was weird looking. To make matters worse, the shower was directly over the toilet.

The bed was mended, and the fluoro light hummed and made my headache.  We asked to change rooms – big mistake.  We got a mattress that had a curve like a hammock.

The ‘Chicken Schnitzel’ is known as ‘Pollo Milanese’, and we got the biggest bowl of ‘Mashed Potato” or ‘Puree de papas’ for $1 AU.  Along with a few other dishes like “Bora-Bora”, which was a lovely ‘Gnocchi like Soup’ which I really liked too.

So feeling a bit more relaxed, we returned for lock-up in the jail.  I just about cried out in pain since my back started hurting as the night went on.  There was no way I was putting our friends in that dump, so we left early for a hunt for a new hotel.

We were given directions as well as the number of blocks we had to pass to the next hotel. In fact, we walked along the river and could see Argentina! We also passed some lovely church along the way.

Oh boy – and here is another one – we walked and walked!

Then a lovely monument and mosaic, and tiled artwork in a park.

After a few (of which the price or décor was not suitable) we asked a girl.  She spoke English and took us two blocks in the opposite direction and we found Puesta del Sol, a really lovely little hotel one street from the river and beach.

So we raced back and packed our things. We found a horse and wagon by the market. Ideal to make a fun shift from a horrid start to this city.

For approx $6 he and 2 other guys juggled collecting our bags from the ‘prison hotel’, where I literally threw the key on the desk and made a dash for it as we were right on the check out time, and we had booked for 3 days. We gave the 2 extra guys a bit of a tip, and off we went.

Just after we arrived, another horse and cart appeared – the fruit and vegetable salesman.

We couldn’t believe the difference in rooms. And in the service. A lovely man William greeted us and showed us our room. Complete with minibar, and a lovely bathroom – and breakfast. It is a pretty new hotel, and we were happy!

We had the rest of the day to relax and catch up on emails and some much-needed spelling words for my son.

I raced off to get a glimpse of the fantastic sunset on the man-made beach on the river. I have so many fabulous pictures I could add here. It is a really beautiful beach.

Our friends arrived, and we wandered down to a supermarket nearby and grabbed some food for dinner.

Next day was a shopping day.  I met a lovely girl Candy who has a huge store right near the bus terminal.  She is Canadian / Korean, and I promised her I would add her in my blog (sorry Candy I lost your card) – but her store is well known and has thousands of bargain clothes – so if you go to Encarnacion, please ask for her store.

I experience the joy of spending time on my own when my friend offered to have my son for an hour or so, so I could have some “me time”.  This is the first in months, and I so appreciated it.  In fact, I was nervous!

We all then dressed up and went out for a nice dinner.  We went to Canela Fina which is 2 blocks up from the hotel.

We had a great night and the owners spoke English. But what was great was that the menu on a Wednesday is the chef’s specials, and you can eat all they bring out for about $8 US and this included dessert.

So as the football final was on, and the TV was set up in the courtyard, we settled in for the night with a nice bottle of wine.  To make the night even nicer, we met a couple from California at the next table and had a chat with them too. It was a lovely restaurant and I would go back again in a flash.

We recommend Canela Fina as a fabulous restaurant with quality food, and great service. So good, we are still friends on Facebook!

Finally, we definitely recommend Hotel Puesta Del Sol.  

Please tell William we sent you!