Roaming South America

Arica, Chile and journey update

July 15, 2023

Arica, Chile. First, my final opinion about Calama, after my second visit to the town - I still am not enamored with the town, mostly because of the desert - it is very polluted with trash all around the city, and the dust that hangs in the air. You can't see it when you're in the city, but from outside the city you sure can see it. One visit to the Atacama Desert is enough, two was more than enough.

I left San Salvador de Jujuy, Argentina, late in the night on the 11th and arrived in Calama, Chile in the morning on the 12th. I don't like night buses—I can't sleep on a bus or a plane, or in a car, for that matter, so I end up being wiped out by the time I get to the target town. From Calama I took another very long bus ride, but during the day, to Arica near the border with Perú. The trip took 14 hours and 45 minutes. Terrible! It was just getting light when the bus left Calama and it was well past dark when it arrived in Arica. I don't like looking for a hotel or hostel after dark, it's simply no fun. I looked at six different hostels near the bus station but didn't like any of them, so then followed Google map to a hotel about a 20 minute walk away. That place was full. So, I followed Google Map to another which appeared to be decent so I checked-in there. But, I didn't like it after all so I checked out in the morning and found a much better hotel for a much lower cost, which is where I am now - Hotel Amaru Express. I will be here another night then head north into Perú, first to Tacna for a night (probably only one), then to Arequipa, a small city that I very much liked when I previously visited it (search for Arequipa for my review/opinion blog). After that I will continue working my way north so I can visit two towns in particular, that is, if Immigrations gives me a 90-day extension so I can spend about three weeks in each (Moyobamba and Tingo Maria). There are a couple of other interesting towns I want to visit that I missed on my original journey heading south.

I wrote an Arica full city review/opinion in a previous blog, you can find it by searching for Arica.

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 26 cities in Paraguay.

Next up: San Salvador de Tacna, Perú (again).