Roaming South America

San Bernardino, Paraguay

May 2, 2023

San Bernardino, AKA San Ber, Paraguay, population: about 12,000 people (although the Wikipedia claims double that). The source their pages typically refer to is citypopulation.de, and I also use that page, but for this town, San Ber, the data doesn't match.

The city was founded in August 1881, so it is not very old. The town was founded by German/Swiss immigrants. The name of the founder was Santiago Schaerer. The story says he sent a letter to the president of Paraguay, President Caballero, asking about immigrants from Germany relocating to Paraguay. The Paraguayan government sent a letter to Mr. Schaerer telling him that any family of 2 or 3 or more would recieve land, a team of oxen, seeds to plant, a free trip from Buenos Aires to Asunción, and money for six months. A few months later, President Caballero died and the new President, President Bareiro, agreed to maintain the previous agreements. Until, that it, it was discovered that the land they had in mind was quite expensive, so the government renegged on their agreement. But, by then some of the immigrants were already here and had founded a club in 1889. It eventually became the San Bernardino Nautical Club. It was around the end of the 19th century that the new town was becoming known as the Summer City of San Bernardino. And to this day, San Ber is loaded with weekend homes/vacation homes of the rich and well-to-do of the Asunción area. In the my walking through some of the neighborhood streets just about every house I saw was big and beautiful. Some 85% of the population of San Ber is white and of German, Swiss, or Spanish descent.

Asunción has a warm and temperate climate. The average daytime high of 27° C (81° F), and the nightly average low of 19° C (66° F). The city's elevation averages 80 meters (260 feet). The yearly average rainfall amounts to 1,633 mm (64.3 in).

So, my impressions: It's a very pretty, very small town. They have a couple of gas stations, a couple of grocery stores, and most other types of stores you might need, but no big hardware or building supplies stores. The park alongside the lake is quite nice, the town is clean and well-kept. Many of the roads, like in other towns in Paraguay, are cobblestone, only the few main roads are paved. On the day I was here, it was a holiday, and pretty much everything was closed except a couple of restaurants, and they were the expensive ones, and the few grocery stores/convenience stores. Would I live here? No. There are other towns I like more than this and are more at my level of cost of living, as well as being a little closer to the city of Asunción for major shopping. San Ber isn't much further, but it is enough of a distance to make a difference.

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 in Argentina, I visited 13 towns. I have now visited seven cities in Paraguay.

Next up: Caacupé, Paraguay.