My South America Journey

Nov. 26, 2024

My travels are taking me from small town to small town, I'm not interested in tourist destinations, there are bazillions of photos of those online. I go into the small towns, the neighborhoods, the local restaurants, meet the people and talk to them. I explore the parks and plazas, the mercados, though in Argentina there are none, at least in the cities I have explored. I walk around the neighborhoods and see how they live. I think if you go to a city, snap photos of the tourist attractions, then run away to the next city, what was the point of traveling all that way? You learned nothing or next to nothing about the country and the people. Besides, there are bazillions of photos of the tourist attractions on the internet.

My first journey was from Colombia to Uruguay, the second part of that journey was from Uruguay back to Colombia. Then I spent 6 months in Colombia. Then I started on the next journey. When I reached Arequipa, Peru, I stopped and stayed there for 6 months. Then I started on my southward journey and went to Santiago, Chile, visiting several small cities along the way, and then turned east. I am now in the center of Argentina. My penciled-in plan is to visit many small towns on the way to Cordoba from Mendoza, then more small towns on the way to Rosario, and then on to Buenas Aires. Then I will go into Uruguay and visit the coast and some interior towns making my way to Brazil. I have many towns listed in the southern half of Brazil and will make my way to Paraguay and probably look for a place to live in Encarnación, Paraguay, or close to it.

That first part of the first journey included visiting 110 towns, which included some archeological sites, as well. The return part of the journey included 51 towns, with only a handful of repeats from the previous southward journey. So far, on this journey, since leaving southern Perú, I have visited 10 towns, new towns that I hadn't visited previously (and several others I had previously visited). When I lived in Colombia (for about 9 1/2 years) I visited 85 towns, which includes the seven that I lived in.

Now, again, my plan is only penciled in, and I have made many changes along the way. But I keep going from small town to small town. I also try to get day buses whenever possible. Why? Because I want to see the countries, of course. I've met many other travelers and they prefer the night buses so they can sleep on the buses and explore the tourist attractions during the days. But again, they're missing out on seeing a lot of the countries they are traveling through. In my mind, I don't understand that mindset - go to a tourist attraction, shoot photos, run off to the next, shoot photos, and that's it? That's why you spend thousands of dollars on your trip across the world? If you don't have a lot of time, then spend that time covering less ground and learn more about the country you're visiting. That's where my mind is at.

I have been traveling alone through all these journeys, and that has been great. There have been times when I was looking at a particular place, for example, the Chan Chan archeological site in northern Perú, and thought about how nice it would be to share that experience with another person. But there are trade-offs in traveling with another person - you have to agree to every change in the itinerary. For example, today we are in Mendoza and I want to go south to San Rafael but you want to go north to San Juan. How do we compromise on that? Who will be happy with the choice and who will not? Do we ignore both options and head east to San Luis? Yes, there are possible arguments and disagreements, and those can become stumbling blocks. But all the same, I do want to share my trip with another person. At this point in my journey, I'm beginning to feel like it's time to head directly to Encarnación, find a place to live, and finish the trip. But on the other hand, I still want to see more of South America, and right now it is summer, so it is the right time of the year to do so, at least here in the southern half of the continent. How much longer do I push on alone? I don't know, I take it one day at a time and let each day tell me what the next will bring.