Roaming South America

Concepción, Paraguay

July 3, 2023

Villa Real de la Concepción (Concepción), Paraguay, has a population of about 89,000. This small city sits on the edge of the Paraguay River, seperated from it by a low dike. The riverside has not been developed though there is a short section of 'costenera' (malecon, boardwalk) but it is nothing special, being old and obviously unappreciated by the city.

Concepción was founded in 1773 by Colonel Agustín Fernando de Pinedo, then governor of Paraguay. Originally, the villa was founded as a military settlement. It was in 1812 that it became a town with the founding of the town hall.

Concepción has a tropical savannah climate. The average daytime high of 30° C (86° F), and the nightly average low of 19° C (67° F). The city's elevation averages 44 meters (144 feet). The average yearly rainfall amounts to 1341 mm (52.8 inches) of rain.

So, my impressions: Concepción is a small city, pleasant enough to visit, with many Colonial-era houses and buildings for the fan of architecture, but not much more. The majority of the streets are littered even though there are plenty of garbage cans on the streets, people just don't care to put there empty bottles, wrappers, and bags in the garbage cans. The riverfront is undeveloped so not worth seeing (I walked almost all of it that is walkable). There are a couple of plazas and parks, but they are neglected by the city government and need to be cleaned and renovated. There are a few statues and monuments, but again, there's just not much here to see. I will be here only two nights then leaving in the morning of my third day since arriving, there's no point in staying another night. Needless to say, this city will no be going on my list of possible new home towns. From here I will go northwest to the town of Filadelfia and vist two or three towns in that area before crossing Argentina and Chile and returning to Perú.

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 23 cities in Paraguay.

Next up: Filadelfia, Paraguay.