Roaming South America

Back in Roldanillo, Colombia, where my journey began, almost a year ago.

September 29, 2023

My South America Journey Update - Part 4.

First, a recap: Part 1 covered leavingColombia, about 2 1/2 months passing through Ecuador, where Ifound one town, Puyo, that I like as a potential new home, andabout two months passing through Peru, where I found one town inparticular, Moyobamba, that I like. I narrowed down the list oftowns in those two countries after my second trip through them,revisiting many towns, and finally came to having those two townson my list of potential new hometowns.

Part 2 of my journey picked up upon entering Chile:

I entered Northern Chile on March 24. Thispart of Chile is all Atacama Desert and it is boring, bleak, andbrown. From there I went to San Salvador, Argentina, and arrivedon March 31. Argentina is green and beautiful, but the towns arenot such great places. After visiting many towns in northernArgentina I took a bus southwest to Formosa on theArgentina-Paraguay border. Formosa is very pretty and appears tobe very much a walking/running/cycling-friendly city. This wouldbe my first choice for a place to live if I were to choose tolive in an area with four seasons. To enter Paraguay from Formosaone could take a bus north and cross into Asunción, or do asI did and take the small ferry across and up the river a littleways to Alberdi, Paraguay.

Part 3 picks up in Paraguay:

I entered Paraguay on April 22. In Paraguay, Ifound the area outside of Asunción particularly beautiful,and there are the towns of Itá, Itaguá, Areguá,and San Bernardino. But, I didn't care much for Asunció.Then I crossed the country to the east. On the way, I visited acouple of towns, one is called Villarrica and it too is verynice, a town that I liked. Further east, at the border withBrazil, is the city Ciudad del Este. I found it to be uglyand dirty, with awful traffic, and it has absolutely nothing ofinterest in the city. The city was never properly planned and itshows. One website that I read, an official government site butI don't recall which it was, said Ciudad Del Este was anaccidental city. From there I headed south to Encarnación, asmall city that I really liked, as in enough to live there,again, if I were to choose to live in a place with four seasons.I liked Paraguay, but I did find the version of Spanish theyspeak in Asunción and across to Ciudad del Este to bedifficult to understand. They speak a mix of Spanish andGuaraní, but this isn't the case in Encarnación.Because it is directly across from Argentina the Spanish spokenhere is more of what we might call "typical" or regular Spanish.In northern Paraguay, you can find a town called Filadelfia whereyou're more likely to hear German or English than Spanish.

From Encarnació, on May 16, I crossedinto the town of Posadas, Argentina. To get to Uruguay one has tocross through a bit of Argentina. So, I headed due south to thetown of Santo Tomé and crossed into São Borja, Brazil.Now, I could have gone the route south staying in Argentina andeventually crossing into Uruguay at Concordia, Argentina, andinto Salto, Uruguay, but I chose to go through a bit of Brazil.That allowed me to explore the Uruguay/Brazil border area.

Now, I've read many websites that say in Brazil they speak someSpanish, but don't believe them. According to what I foundon some linguistics websites, the Spanish language is spoken byless than one percent of the population of Brazil. And thatincludes here in the border towns along Argentina and Uruguay. Infact, in the towns of Quaraí, Brazil, and Artigas, Uruguay,you will find a definite division - Spanish on one side of theinvisible border and Portuguese on the other. I wrote invisiblebecause the two towns are one commercial area with shared urbanand suburban neighborhoods, and no wall, no fence, no nothingseparating the two countries. People are free to crossback and forth at will. If one wants to continue further into thecountries they need to check into the immigration office. Iarrived at said office at 6 pm on a Saturday and it was closedfor the night. So, I then had to find a hotel for the night inQuaraí, not what I planned on or wanted to do, but so itgoes.

I struggled with the language barrier inBrazil. Now, both Portuguese and Spanish are romance languagesand are related in many ways, but in this southwestern region ofBrazil has a dialect that makes them even harder tounderstand. There is a dialect called portuñol which is amix of Portuguese and Spanish, and many people in this regionspeak it. And, when I spoke to people in Spanish, and I tried touse a little Portuguese or asked for assistance, they gave none,no help whatsoever. If they figured out what I was asking aboutor talking about they responded in their hundred-mile-per-hourPortuguese. I found the experience in southwestern Brazil to be abit on the frustrating side. I hadn't experienced anything likein any of the other countries I had visited.

In Uruguay, I stayed alongside the border withBrazil and the climate was reasonably warm, but it was gettingtowards the end of Fall. Then I went into the interior andvisited a couple of towns and at night the temps dropped to aslittle as 3° C one night, 5° C the following night, and11° C the next night. I am not used to these kinds oftemperatures. I lived in Southern Arizona for seven years beforerelocating to Barranquilla, Colombia, and both of those areas arequite hot. I was in B'quilla for 9 years before I moved acrossthe country to a valley in the Andes Mountains. So, I am acclimated toa hot climate. When I arrived in the town of Tacuarembó,Uruguay, I started getting very strong hiccups, and they lastedfor hours, then stopped for a little while, then restarted, andthis went on for two days. It continued when I visited Melo,Uruguay, as well. A person at the hotel told me the weather alongthe coast is slightly warmer than in the interior of the country,so I went to Montevideo. That person was incorrect. I wasfriggin' freezing! I caught a cold in addition to the hiccupscontinuing all of those days. And yes, hiccups can be caused by adrastic temperature change. I'd had enough of the cold weatherand decided to start working my way north, so I went to Salto,but just a few kilometers before entering the city, theweather was noticeably warmer, and my hiccups stopped. My visitto Uruguay included five towns (because I cut the visit toUruguay short). From Salto I went across the river to Concordia,Argentina, then north to Encarnación, Paraguay. I plan onstaying here for at least a month, then heading for the PacificCoast of Chile or Peru.

Now, Part 4, the final stretch:

My return north was quick with a week or soin only a couple of towns for revisits to decide if I wanted tokeep them on my top 10 list of potential new hometowns. My secondtime in Peru, July 16, was very welcomed. However, at the border,the immigration guy did not give me the remaining days from myfirst 90-day visit entry stamp, he gave me a new 90-day stamp.That resulted in me losing about 22 days of time in Peru. Istayed in most towns only one or two nights, but I stayed inMoyobamba five nights. I like Moyobamba, it's on my list. Ire-entered Ecuador on August 29, the immigration guy gave meonly the remaining 21 or so days from my first 90-day visit, thusrequiring me to apply and pay for the 90-day extension, which Ichose not to do as there was no immigration office in any of thetowns I was visiting. In Ecuador, I revisited some towns anddecided to remove Catamayo from my top 10 list. I spent a week orso in Puyo and still like it. I re-entered Colombia on September14. Here I have a 90-day entry stamp and will be applying for the90-extension soon. I traveled alongside the eastern slopes of theAndes Central Range. And eventually returned to Roldanillo, myprevious hometown and starting point, on September 25. Myoriginal plan would have had my return to Rolda one year from theday I left but with the messed up days in Ecuador, I was at leastthree weeks early.

The journey has come to a conclusion, but I have yet to decide which town will be my new hometown.

During my travels in Ecuador I visited 36towns/cities. In Perú, I visited 38; in Chile, only five;and in Argentina, I visited 16. In Uruguay, I visited five, andin Brazil, three. And in Paraguay, I have visited 26. In ColombiaI've visited 82, and in the photo album are pics of 61 of thosetowns. That's 211 towns/cities in South America.

At this point, I am in Roldanillo, Colombia, and will be staying here for the duration of my time in Colombia,most likely. This is my favorite town in Colombia. As for myother favorites, those are Puyo, Ecuador; Moyobamba, Peru;Encarnación, Paraguay; and Formosa, Argentina. Which onewill I ultimately choose? I still don't know. When my time herein Colombia comes to a close I will probably head south again,revisiting towns, visiting other towns I passed by, and justenjoying more of South America. And, maybe in my next journey, Iwill visit more tourist attraction areas, most of which I skippedon this journey.

For new readers, this is my plan: I leftColombia to find another town in another country to make my home.I'm not interested in living in the US anymore because that placehas gone plumb crazy, and my pension (Social Security) probablyisn't enough for me to live life anything near the life I canlive here in South America. And life here is better in many ways,including much less stress, much less Big Brother watchingyou, none of the Republican BS trying to take away your personalfreedoms (what you have left of them), here a person eats a muchhealthier diet, and the laws are laxer which is both good andbad, but in the end, makes life easier overall because you havemore freedom of choice and less likelihood of government pokingits head into your personal business. All of that means you havemore personal freedom here in South America. So, I'm going tofind a town to make my new home, and I don't care too much aboutwhich country it's in (more about that below).

On my website, at the very bottom of the homepage, you will find a Google map with my journey.

I am enjoying my journey, enjoying exploringall these towns and cities. I have ignored most touristattractions along the way and concentrated on the cities andneighborhoods, looking to see if a place might call out to me,"Chip, make this town your new home." I have enjoyed meeting manypeople, both locals, and foreigners, and I have experienced a lotof growth in my grasp of the Spanish language. Granted, my use ofverbs is still lacking, but I can converse with local people, andthat makes me happy.

I use an app on my phone called Polar Steps.You can follow me on my journey on that app. It's really just aslightly different version of what's already on my website. Hereis a link to my profile: Polar Steps: My South American Journey

I look forward to what is yet to come, and Ihope you will continue to follow me here on my website.