Roaming South America

Quevedo, Ecuador

December 26, 2022

Quevedo, Ecuador: Quevedo has a population of around 150,000. This small city has a bustling city center that is walking-friendly—very wide sidewalks with lots of benches and many statues of animals make it fun for children. The main industries in this area are agriculture and livestock. The name "Quevedo" comes from a surveyor named Timoteo Quevedo. He was the first to measure the lands of what would become the city. After that, they started rubber production in 1857 and the city took off from there.

Quevedo dates back to around 500 BC and those people lasted until the Spanish conquistadors wiped them out in 1526.

The climate here is classified as monsoonal. It has a wet winter and a dry summer and high temps throughout the year. The daily average high is 25° C (76° F) and the nightly low average is 22° C (71° F). It does get a fair bit of rain—2600mm (102 inches) per year. During my few days here it didn't rain, but it was misty-wet one morning.

So, my impressions: Nothing particularly beautiful or pretty. The riverbank could be cleaned up and made more attractive. They do have a decent boardwalk along a large portion of the river, on both sides. The downtown is nice for walking with its wide sidewalks, I estimate 3-4 meters (9-12 feet) wide for most of them. The animal statues add color and fun to the city center. But, would I choose to live here? Probably not.

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, and 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. I analyzed climate and population data of around 700 towns in the above-mentioned countries and 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 an inland town. 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. I've also decided that any town with more than 100,000 population will be too big. I've decided that any small town that meets the temp specifications and has a supermarket and ATM is one worth considering to live in.

At this point in my journey I have two towns on my top-20 list - Jipijapa, Montecristi, and Playas.

Next up: Ambato.