Roaming South America

Libertado General San Martín, Argentina

April 13, 2023

Libertador General San Martín, (AKA Ledesma), Argentina, population: about 47,000. 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."

There is almost no historical information available for this town, but I did read that a Spaniard was here in 1623 leading an expedition. He founded a fort in 1625, but that only lasted until 1623 due to attacks from the local indigenous people. Skip forward to 1778 and a man named Zegada began processing sugar here. Skip forward again to 1899 and we have the founding of the town of Ledesma. In 1902, the leaders of the town started laying out the grid for roads and subdivisions within 8 blocks around the central square. In 1906, the railroad arrived which helped the town grow very quickly. In 1950, the name was changed to Libertado General San Martín.

San Martín has a humit subtropical climate. The average daytime high of 25° C (76° F), and the night average low of 14° C (58° F). The city's elevation is 472 meters (1548 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 nine towns.

Next up: Oran, Argentina.