Posadas, Argentina, has a population: 275,000, and the metropolitan area is 320,000.

Yes, I'm in Argentina, again. Not because I liked it so much I just had to come to see more, but because I have to pass through here to get to Uruguay.

Posadas was founded by Roque González de Santa Cruz in March, 1615. He founded it here in the present-day location of the city, but it hasn't always been in this particular location. In fact, because there were so few settlers, he moved the new town across the river where he founded Nuestra Señora de Encarnación, Paraguay. A few people stayed behind and maintained their own very small community on the Argentinian side of the river. This tiny town grew with Jesuits and Guaraní people as pretty much the whole of the population. The area was racked by many conflicts, mostly between Argentina and Paraguay and at least Brazil was involved, but finally it all came to an end in 1876 with a peace treaty between Argentina and Paraguay. In 1884, Posadas was named the capital of the department (province) of Misiones. In the 1950s, there was a big push to modernize the city with new bridges, roads, the railway, road-widening throughout the city, and extend asphalt paving out into the neighborhoods. Posadas and Incarnación were connected by the International Bridge in 1991, which brought in much international trade.

Posadas has a humid subtropical climate. The average daytime high of 27° C (80° F), and the nightly average low of 17° C (62° F). The city's elevation averages 124 meters (406.8 feet). The yearly average rainfall amounts to 1867 mm (6.1 in).

So, my impressions: It's a nice enough small city, has a lot of nice park space all along the riverside, a couple of nice plazas, and many linear parks in boulevards. They have very good city-bus service from what I saw. But, like the other towns I visited in Argentina, the internet access sucks. And, considering their sky-high inflation, I wouldn't consider living in this country.

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, Peru, 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:

• Encarnación, Paraguay
• Tingo Maria, Peru
• Moyobamba, Peru
• Catamayo, Ecuador
• Puyo, Ecuador

In my travels in Ecuador, I visited 32 towns/cities. In Peru, I visited 26 towns/cities; in Chile, only five towns; and in Argentina, I visited 13 towns. I have now visited eleven cities in Paraguay.

Next up: Salto, Uruguay.