Roaming South America

My South America Journey - Update Part 2

April 24, 2023

My South America Journey Update - Part 2

First, a recap: Part 1 covered leavingColombia, about 2 1/2 months passing through Ecuador, where Ifound two towns that I like as potential new homes, and about twomonths passing through Perú, where I found three towns inparticular that I like.

So far in my journey, I have visited 24 targettowns. Of those 24, I have added five to my top 10 list. Thosetowns are:

• Puyo, Ecuador
• Catamayo, Ecuador
• La Merced, Perú
• Moyobamba, Perú
• Tingo Maria, Perú

Those five towns are located on the easternside of the Andes Mtns. I found several towns along the coaststhat were quite nice places to visit, but due to thedusty/sandy/salty air, I decided I didn't want to live on thecoast.

I entered Chile on March 24. The northern halfof Chile is all Atacama desert, a depressing brown/grey/tan,stony, barren, other-worldly place, where the only green is whathas been planted there. I prefer the mountains and the areasalongside them where it's green and the air is clear and clean.The coastal cities/towns and this applies to both Chile and Perúhave much more litter than the inland cities/towns. And one morepoint of import, and this also applies to both Chile and Perú -the coastal regions have no coffee culture. Outside of the bigcities, you'll be hard-pressed to find a coffee shop orrestaurant that serves proper, filtered, ground coffee. Prettymuch all you'll find is instant coffee. On the east side of themountains, they know how to make coffee properly. The northernhalf of Chile is not my cup of tea. It's simply too bleak of aplace to live. So, I decided to cut my visit short and move on toArgentina, expecting things to brighten on the other side of themountains.

I arrived in San Salvador, Argentina, on March31. And, yes, it is green and beautiful. I visited seven towns ofinterest in Northern Argentina. I find Argentina a depressingplace, as well, but for a different reason. The economy has beenvery bad for a few years now, and inflation is terrible (causedby a many-years-long major drought that has devastated theagriculture industry and the country's economy). All of this isevident in the towns - sidewalks are crumbling into pieces andmany businesses are closed permanently (even around the main townplazas), the Argentine people, in general, do not look at youeye-to-eye in the streets (they look down), I've seen very fewthat look directly at me. I've noticed this is common for most ofthem throughout the towns I've visited. I asked one person in ahotel about this, and he said it is because they are all so poorthey cannot look at another person face-to-face, then he laughed.So, was he serious or joking? I don't know. The towns in northernArgentina are very run-down, worn out, and in desperate need ofmuch work to clean them up. But, the economy doesn't allow forthat and high inflation is ruining the country. I've noticed thisfeeling of dread or depression, even in myself, in Argentina. Ofthe aforementioned towns of interest, there were two or threethat might have made it onto my top 10 list except for the badeconomy in this country. The Spanish spoken in Argentina isnoticeably different from the other countries I've been to. I'vehad more difficulty understanding these people than any of theothers.

I arrived in the town of Salvador Mazza on theArgentina/Bolivia border at mid-day, April 18. I was to enterBolivia there, and spend about two months exploring some towns inthe southern half of Bolivia. When I arrived in town, I wentdirectly to the border crossing and expected the border-crossingexperience to go smoothly, after all, I had read severaldifferent websites/blogs that talked about the crossingexperience here, so I was ready. I got my Argentine exit donewith no problems, then went to the Bolivia entry office, and theyasked me for several papers, which included a certificate ofvaccination for yellow fever, my itinerary including a returnticket by bus or plane, reservation in a hotel or a letter from afamily member in Bolivia, where I would be staying, and proof ofsufficient income to cover my costs while in the country. Oh, anda passport-size photo of myself. Now, in all those websites/blogsI had read, there was nothing mentioned about any of them, butthey did say that everything needed would be handled at theborder crossing, which would be the cost of the visa (yes,gringos must get a paper visa to enter Bolivia). The Bolivian Visa has a fee of $160 and is good for a maximum of 30 days, it can be extended another 30 days, and that's it for the entire year. All the other countries, that I have visited, have free 90-day entry stamps which can be extended another 90 days. At any rate, so I hadnone of that stuff and asked about getting it. The woman at theoffice told me to go to the Embassy of Bolivia, just three blocksor so away. I went there, and they told me I had to get all thosepapers myself. But where? Where do you get a yellow fevervaccination? Proof of a ticket to leave the country? No, I toldthem I planned to visit a few towns on my way through the countryand then cross into Paraguay. I could probably download a bankstatement and print it, but where in this crappy little town? Anew photo? In walking around town, I hadn't seen any place to getone. So, being that it would not be easy to gather everythingtogether, I decided to skip Bolivia and go directly to Paraguay.I got a hotel for the night and caught a bus the next morning.What I don't understand is this: Bolivia is a country that iscrying for dollars, they are desperate for dollars. So, if theywant more dollars, shouldn't they be letting tourists in aseasily as possible? Putting up all these hurdles and blocking thedollars they desperately need from coming in makes absolutely nosense.

So, having written all of that, my planchanged again. I decided not to go into Bolivia and instead godirectly to Paraguay. I caught a bus and headed for Formosa,Argentina, a border town that crosses into Paraguay a littlesouth of Asunción. Asunción is the capital of Paraguayand has a population of a little over half a million. I plan tovisit four towns just outside of the capital, three towns to theeast in the central part of the country, then further east at theborder with Brazil are two more towns I will visit. Then thereare two more towns in the southern part of Paraguay before Icross a bit of Argentina to enter Uraguay. In northern Uruguay,there are four towns of interest that I will be visiting, plus acouple of others. By the time I visit the fourth of those, itshould be early June, the middle of winter for this part of theworld. At this time, I don't have any further plans thoughtout.

For new readers, this is my plan: I leftColombia with the goal of finding another town in another countryto make my home. I'm not interested in living in the US anymorebecause that place has gone plumb crazy, and my pension (SocialSecurity) probably isn't enough for me to live life anything nearthe life I can live here in South America. And life here isbetter in many ways, including much less stress, much less of bigbrother watching you, none of the Republican BS trying to takeaway your personal freedoms (what you have left of them), here aperson eats a much healthier diet, the laws are laxer which isboth good and bad, but in the end, makes life easier overallbecause you have more freedom of choice and fewer likelihoods ofgovernment poking its head into your personal business. All ofthat means you have more personal freedom here in South America.So, I'm going to find a town to make my new home, and I don'tcare too much about which country it's in (more about thatbelow).

On my website, at the very bottom of the homepage, you will find a Google map with my journey indicated withcolor-coded icons. The icons are:

• Green & Numbered: A town I need to pass through to do thejourney, this is my planned route. My planned route changes oftenand has changed many times.
• Yellow with an Arrow: These are my target towns, the onesthat fit my original criteria for a possible new home (more onthat below).
• Red X: These are the target towns that I decided on aftervisiting them, I wouldn't want to live in.
• Blue with a house: These are the towns on my top 10 list, ofwhich there are five at this time.

So, the next point to clarify is how did Idecide which towns to target? That took a lot of work. I starteda spreadsheet with the town/department(province orstate)/population/Monthly Avg High Temp/Avg High Temp -Year/Monthly Avg Low Temp/Avg Low Temp - Year/Notes. The monthlytemperature averages came from either of two websites -climate-data.org or weatherspark.com - the majority came fromclimate-data.org. The population data came fromcitypopulation.de. The towns I researched had a population ofaround 10,000 and above.

The spreadsheet includes:

• Colombia (135 cities/towns)
• Ecuador (89 cities/towns)
• Perú (168 cities/towns)
• Chile - northern half (135 cities/towns)
• Aregentina - northern half (18 cities/towns)
• Bolivia (53 cities/towns)
• Paraguay (49 cities/towns)
• Uruguay (40 cities/towns)

From that data of 687 towns/cities, I sortedeach country by population pulled out the towns with populationsbetween 25,000 and 80,000. Then I sorted those by average yearlyhigh temperature and pulled out the towns in the range of22-28° C (71-83° F). Then I sorted those and pulled outthe towns with an average yearly low temperature of 14° C(57° F) or higher. All of that narrowed the target townslist to 62 towns. I did all of this data collection work over aperiod of about six months.

I have visited 12 towns in the northern halfof Argentina. There are quite a few towns of interest in Bolivia,all of which are in the southern half of the country. From thereI will continue south and a bit eastward into Paraguay, wherethere are more than a few towns of interest, then a little moresoutheast into Uruguay, where there are a few towns of interest.I will possibly pass through a bit of Brazil on the route fromParaguay to Uruguay. I have no towns in Chile to my top 10 listbecause they are all desert towns—brown, brown, brown. Andthe Uruguayan towns, well, again, probably not on my top 10 listbecause Uruguay is the most expensive country in South America.It's still less expensive than the US, though.

I am enjoying my journey, enjoying exploringall these towns and cities. I have ignored most touristattractions along the way and concentrated on the cities andneighborhoods, looking to see if a place might call out to me,"Chip, make this town your new home." I have enjoyed meeting somany people, both locals, and foreigners, and I have experienceda lot of growth in my grasp of the Spanish language. Granted, myuse of verbs is still lacking, but I can converse with localpeople, and that makes me happy.

How will I decide which town on my top 10 listwill be my new hometown? Good question. I will, of course, visiteach one at least two times before I can make such a decision.And, well, they all have very similar yearly temperatureaverages, but the differences come in the individual months. Onething I will have to consider is this: do I want year-roundsummer, southeastern Ecuador, or northeastern Perú, or do I wantfour seasons as in the others a bit further south?

I use an app on my phone called Polar Steps.If you have it, or decide to install it, you can follow me on myjourney. It's really just a slightly different version of what'salready on my website. Here is a link to my profile: Polar Steps: My South American Journey

I look forward to what is yet to come, and Ihope you will continue to follow me here on my website.