Roaming South America

Santa Rosa de Lima, Paraguay

June 22, 2023

Santa Rosa de Lima (Santa Rosa), Paraguay, has a population of about 25,000. The town was founded in 1698, and for such an old town there is surprisingly little left to show for it. The only thing remaining from the original Jesuit Mission is a bell tower, see photos in the photo album. There is a small museum and an old chapel. That's it, nothing else of interest. There are a couple of area well outside the city that might be interesting to see, a wetlands, for example, if you have a car to get to them.

There is little historical information available. A Jesuit Father Jacobo Ranzonier, had been out and about when he came across the area that is now the town central square, and he though so much of it that he returned home to Santa Maria and convinced some of the local families to move out there and found a new town, to be named Santa Rosa de Lima. It was in April 1698 that they founded the town.

Economically, the town depends on—Agriculture, rice, cotton, sugar cane and more.

Santa Rosa has a warm temperate climate. The average daytime high of 26° C (79° F), and the nightly average low of 17° C (63° F). The city's elevation averages 130 meters (426 feet). The average yearly rainfall amounts to 1861 mm (73.3 inches) of rain.

So, my impressions: Santa Rosa is a pleasant little town. I saw one supermarket and one ATM, there are a few restaurants, the plaza has a lot of work happening in it right now - new sidewalks and so on. It's quiet as are all of the Paraguayan towns and cities I have visited.

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 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 had ten towns on my Top 10 list, but I narrowed it down to four:

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

During 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 15 towns. In Uruguay, I visited five towns, and in Brazil, three. So far, I have visited 18 cities in Paraguay.

Next up: San Ignacio, Paraguay.