Roaming South America

A map of my route for my journey of South America

July 6, 2023

This is an overview of my journey so far, as of July 5, 2023. But this time it is only a view of the route, as you can see in the map.

In the map you see the yellow line, that starts in Barranquilla, Colombia and extends southwest to Roldanillo, Colombia. I lived in Barranquill for about 9 1/2 years, then Roldanillo for a year. That was before my journey started, whence the yellow line.

My journey started from Roldanillo, Colombia (the red line) and went south to Popayán, then crossed the mountains to visit a few towns, then crossed the mountains again to Pasto, Colombia, then I continued south to Ecuador.

From the border crossing at Tulcán, Ecuador, I headed south to Quito, then west to the Pacific coast at the city of Pedernales. From Pedernales I went south along the coast to Manta and visted a few towns in the general area, before following the coast south and around eastward. At that point, I headed north into the center of Ecuador to Quevedo, then crossed the mountains to the east side and visited some towns there before crossing to the west side, again.

I crossed into Perú and visited a few coastal towns before crossing the mountains to visit towns on the east side of the Andes Mountains. After visiting those towns I crossed the mountains again, visited a few more towns along the coast, and head east across the mountains, again. I stayed along the east side of the mountains for a few towns, including one town that is at the very top of the Andes Mountains, and so is very cold. I didn't like it there and contined, after one night, to visit towns on the east side of the mountains. At the city of Mazamari I cross westward to the city of Lima, the capital of Perú. I continued south down the coast. My original plan was to cross the mountains and visit Cuzco and maybe Macchu Picchu, but that didn't work out because of the civil unrest problems in those areas, and all of southeast Perú. So, I continued south along the coast and crossed into Chile.

I entered Chile in the town of Arica. Northern Chile is all Atacama Desert, very dry, sandy, rocky, dusty, dirty, brown, gray. One day is enought of all of that, but my journey took through six towns in Northern Chile. The only green stuff growing is the plant-life that people have planted. At the city of Tocopilla I head east through the desert and finally into more mountains, more green, and it was beautiful. The border crossing between Chile and Argentina here is in the middle of the desert. No town, no nothing. There was one restaurant/convenience store.

The first town in Argentina I passed through was San Salvador de Jujy. I visited a couple of towns on my was south to the city of Salta. From Salta, I headed north to the border of Bolivia, visiting several towns along the way. I had read many blogs and websites about the border crossing into Bolivia and they all said basically the same thing - it's easy, they will help you with all the requirements. Now, a note: for a US citizen entering most of the countries of South America you simply arrive at the border and they stamp your passport with you visitor stamp (it's not a visitor visa). This is not true for Bolivia. For US citizens there is a list of at least six requirements that you have to get together before you arrive at the border because they do absolutely nothing to help you with any of it. At least, that was the experience I had at the border crossing between Salvador Mazza, Argentina, and Bermejo, Bolivia. Now, Salvador Mazza is small, as in very small. It has a tiny Bolivia consolate office, which you will need to visit before going to the border. The two young women working that day I was there did nothing but gave me a piece of paper with the list of requirements. To get all of the requirements one has to return south to Salta because you can't get them in Mazza. And, when I was there it was raining, the dirt streets were mud, and it was not a friendly or pleasant place. I spent one night and got a bus south to Formosa, Argentina, at the border with Paraguay. Bolivia is crying for US dollars yet they put up road blocks to prevent US dollars from entering. What's wrong with this picture? Salta was nice, a town that I actually liked, but Formosa, well, that is even better. I like it enough that I put it on my list of possible new hometowns. From Formosa, crossing into Paraguay meant taking boat across the river, not a bad trip except the boat was jam-packed.

The crossing went as they all had - very easy (except the aforementioned mess). Paraguay, lots of green and lots of ponds and streams literally everywhere. I read on some website that Paraguay is a "water-rich country". And that is absolutely true. So, from the border town of Alberdi, Paraguay, I went north to Asunción, then east visiting numerous towns along the way to the eastern-most city righfully called, Ciudad del Este (City of the East). I didn't like CDE so I headed south to Encarnación. I like Encarnación enough to put it on my list of possible new hometowns. I spent a week there, before heading south to visit Uruguay.

To get to Uruguay one passes through Argentina and depending on your route, maybe along the border of Brazil. Then finally you can cross into Uruguay. I took the route along the Brazil side and visted a couple of Brazilian border towns, nothing to get excited about with those places.

I finally entered Uruguay at the Quaraí, Brazil - Artigas, Uruguay, border. I contined along the border to Rivera, then turned inland where the temperature too a very sudden and very large drop. It was at that point that my body decided it didn't like that sudden temperature change and I started hiccuping, strong, persistant, hiccups that would last for hours. I did some research and discovered that yes, indeed, the temperature change like that could cause such hiccups. At that point, I went southeast to vist a town called Melo and the hiccups continued. It was bad, even keeping me awake at night. I figured I had to get to warmer climes and fast. So, I headed to Montevideo and stayed only one night. I got a bus heading north the next morning. It was so cold! I found out a week or so later that at that time all of southern South America had gone through a cold snap. Yeah, a very cold one, at that, I though. On my way into Salto, Uruguay, on the bus, my hiccups stopped. They just stopped, out of the blue, the same as they started days before. And since then they have not returned. Salto was also much warmer than Montevideo.

At Salto, I crossed into Concordia, Argentina, for a long bus ride back to Encarnación, Paraguay. This time I visted many towns in southern Paraguay and three different Ruins. I made my was west to Pilar, Paraguay, then north back to Asuncion for one night. I then worked through numerous towns heading north and into the center of the country. And finally, north again and into the north of the country, which is where I am now as I write this.

I will be heading northwest in the morning of the 6th to the border crossing of Pozo Hondo, Paraguay, and Mision La Paz, Argentina. Supposedly this is a foot-crossing only, but I am not sure. And hopefully, there will be some kind of bus service to a bigger town. So far, here in Filadelfia, Paraguay, not a single person I spoken with, and there has been many, knows anything about Mision la Paz. The internet has nothing, even ChatAI knows nothing. So, here's hoping...