Roaming South America

Bahía de Caráquez, Ecuador

December 6, 2022

Bahía de Caráquez, Ecuador, a city of about 21,000, is a tourist destination city on the Pacific coast. The city is actually two distinct halves separated by the new bridge. There is a new mall located at the end of the bridge, too. The city was founded in 1628, so you'd expect to see a lot of historical buildings, but no, there aren't any left after the various natural disasters that have hit the town. Anyway, the half of the town on the coast, with the beaches, condos, hotels, etc, is the new side (the tourists' side). The other side, to the east of the bridge, is the city-proper. It is long and narrow, sitting between the hills and the bay.

So, my impressions: It's definitely a nice place to visit. I'm not attracted to the tourist locations so I looked more closely at the other side of town, which I like except for this—it is quit long and quite narrow. I prefer a town with a solid central area preferably around a central plaza/park. Such towns are much more friendly to walking.

Finally, since entering Ecuador, I had a couple of mostly sunny days. Almost every day in this country the sky has been overcast. In Quito I saw some rain a couple of afternoons. But that's it - a tiny bit of rain in Quito and overcast skies for a month or so. Then Bahía gave me some sunshine, finally. But, this is the coast...

This is my goal: to find a new place to live. So to reach that goal I am traveling most of South America, visiting the countries of Ecuador, Perú, Bolivia, Chile, passing through Argentina, visiting Paraguay, passing through a bit of Brazil, and finally visiting Uruguay. I have a list of towns, about 70 towns, that meet these qualifications: Cities with average day temperatures of 22-28°C (72-83°F) and night temps of 14°C (57°F) and higher; and a population between 28,000-300,000 (preferably under 100,000). I analyzed climage and population data of around 700 towns in the above mentioned countries then pulled out the ones that meet the previously mentioned criteria, which leaves about 70. My preference leans towards towns of less than 100,000 people. Of the 70 towns about 20 have populations of 100,000 - 300,000. And, now that I've been here on the coast for a few days I've decided I will probably want a town more inland. I love the beach and walking in the warm water, but, getting sunburned is just too easy, even on a cloudy day. At least, here in Ecuador.

Next up: Tosagua.