Roaming South America

San Pedro de Jujuy, Argentina

April 12, 2023

San Pedro de Jujuy, Argentina, population: about 60,000. Yet another basic agricultural town with nothing of interest to tourists. And, nothing here that says to me, "Chip, you need to make this your next hometown."

San Pedro de Jujuy was founded in May 1883. At the time of its founding the town already had a working sugar mill for some 13 years. It grew slowly and in 1913 was declared a municipality and had two flour mills. The railroad helped the city to grow a bit more. There is not much available in regard to the history of San Pedro.

The biggest part of the economy of San Pedro is farming and ranching. As for the town, there is nothing but worn-out buildings, sidewalks that are crumbling, very few city parks, the two plazas, and many shuttered businesses even around the plazas.

San Pedro de Jujuy has a humid subtropical climate. The average daytime high of 27° C (80° F), and the night average low of 16° C (60° F). The city's elevation is 587 meters (1930 feet.

So, my impressions: San Pedro de Jujuy is an agricultural town. There is nothing particularly interesting or pretty here, nothing to attract tourists, and nothing that makes me want to put this town on my list of potential new hometowns. This town is tired and in general disrepair

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 eight towns.

Next up: Libertador General San Martíne, Argentina.