Roaming South America

Palpalá, Argentina

April 3, 2023

Palpalá, Argentina, population: about 65,000 for the entire metropolitan area. Palpalá is a relatively new city having been founded in April 1948.

The city came to be when the steel production factory was founded here. That was followed by many other industries including a borate processing plant, a sulfuric acid factory, a lead smelter, and various metal smelters and plastics factories, as well as others. The nickname of the city is "Mother city of industries."

Palpalá has a warm and temperate climate. The average daytime high of 24° C (76° F), and the night average low of 13° C (56° F). The city's elevation is 1125 meters (3690 feet) and averages 778 mm (30.6 inches) of rain per year.

So, my impressions: Palpalá isn't a terrible town, but, on Sundays it shuts down, even the restaurants. All I could find open were a couple tiny corner neighborhood stores and a couple ice cream shops. I finally found out from a taxi driver that there was a resto-bar at the edge of town that was open so I asked him to take me there. It wasn't much, and wasn't serving any real meals. I had three small empanadas for dinner. There were t businesses that make up the town, which isn't a lot. So, I don't much care for this town.

My goal is 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, 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 countries mentioned above 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. And, now that I have visited more than 30 towns/cities, 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/city (less than around 80,000 population) that meets the temp specifications and has a supermarket and ATM is one worth considering to live in.

My goal is to visit the towns and discover which one calls out to me - "Chip, Chip, make your new home here, this is your new home town". That hasn't happened yet, but the seven towns listed below are very close to giving me that feeling. At any rate, I am not visiting tourist attractions or archeological sites, etc, those will have to wait for another trip through South America.

At this point in my journey I have five towns on my Top 10 list - Tingo Maria, Moyobamba, La Merced, Perú, and Catamayo and Puyo, Ecuador. In my travels in Ecuador, I visited 32 towns/cities. In Perú, I visited 26 towns/cities, in Chile, only five towns, and now in Argentina I've visited two towns.

Next up: Ciudad Perico, Argentina.