Things to do in Sapucai: railway workshops and English village

Sapucai makes an easy half-day trip from Asunción: the draw is the old Carlos Antonio López railway complex, with the workshops where locomotives were built and repaired, a small museum, a yard of retired trains and the houses of the "English village". The town is about 92 km away in Paraguarí department, and the road is paved all the way.

Getting to Sapucai

• By car: take Route PY01 to Paraguarí (66 km from Asunción), then a 24 km paved branch road to the town. Other roads between Sapucai and Paraguarí are dirt or gravel (Wikipedia⁠⁠ (opens in a new tab)⁠).
• How long to stay: about three hours covers the workshops, the museum and a walk through the English village. Leave early and drive back in daylight.

What to see at the railway complex

The heritage complex belongs to the state railway company Fepasa and includes the station, the workshops, the "living museum", the warehouses with an interpretation centre, and the English village (ABC Color, 2023⁠⁠ (opens in a new tab)⁠).

1. Railway workshops (Museo Vivo). From 1894 this is where carriages and locomotives for the whole network were assembled and repaired, and the belts, pulleys and steam boilers are still in place. The metalworkers' association CIME restored it in 2011 (ABC Color, 2019⁠⁠ (opens in a new tab)⁠). The boilers are not fired every day, only on busy dates such as Holy Week and the town's July anniversary (Última Hora, 2018⁠⁠ (opens in a new tab)⁠).
2. Museum in the old warehouses. First-class seats, station bells, scales, ticket machines, tools, ledgers and a guard's uniform. In 2016 the guided tour took about 20 minutes and visitors got a replica period ticket at the station (Última Hora, 2016⁠⁠ (opens in a new tab)⁠).
3. The train graveyard. Carriages and locomotives sit on the grass in the yard, the most photographed corner of the site. This depot inspired Augusto Roa Bastos's novel Son of Man (Wikipedia⁠⁠ (opens in a new tab)⁠).
4. The station and locomotive 151. A steam locomotive stands by the platform. In 2023 the town hoped to run the "151 Encarnación" a few hundred metres as a tourist ride; we found no sign the project went ahead (ABC Color, 2023⁠⁠ (opens in a new tab)⁠).

Hours and entry: according to Última Hora (2018)⁠⁠ (opens in a new tab)⁠, the site opens daily from 8:00 to 16:00 and adult entry is G. 10,000. That is the latest published figure; bring cash.

What else to do in town

• The English village (Villa Inglesa). More than 30 houses were built opposite the workshops for the British railway engineers; about twenty remain, some lived in, others badly run down (ABC Color, 2019⁠⁠ (opens in a new tab)⁠). Look from the street and respect the residents.
• Cerro Rokê stone path. Local tradition says Bolivian prisoners from the Chaco War built it; about 500 m of the original 2,000 m survive. On Saturday mornings the "burreritas", women riding donkeys loaded with farm produce, come down it to the market (Wikipedia⁠⁠ (opens in a new tab)⁠).
• The hillside church. The town sits in a green valley ringed by hills, and its church is built into one of the slopes (Wikipedia⁠⁠ (opens in a new tab)⁠).

When to go

• Holy Week: the busiest time and your best chance to see a boiler fired up (Última Hora, 2017⁠⁠ (opens in a new tab)⁠).
• July anniversary: Sapucai was founded on 16 July 1910 and marks the date with community celebrations (Wikipedia⁠⁠ (opens in a new tab)⁠).
• Sacred Heart patron saint festival: draws many visitors, and the boilers have been run on those dates (ABC Color, 2016⁠⁠ (opens in a new tab)⁠).
• A Saturday morning if you want to see the burreritas heading to market.

Tips for your visit

• Arrive in the morning: the published hours end at 16:00 and the sheds get hot at midday in summer.
• Bring water, a hat and closed shoes; the yard has rails, grass and scrap iron underfoot.
• If you want to see the machines moving, pick Holy Week or July rather than a random weekday.
• For a nature day in the same department, Ybycuí National Park works as a separate day trip.