My South America Journey - A Brief Summary

Dec. 9, 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 Roldanillo, Colombia, the only town I really like enough to live in, in Colombia. Then I started on the next journey heading south, again. When I reached Arequipa, Peru, I stopped and stayed there for 6 months. Then I continued on my southward journey, visiting more towns and small cities that I hadn't visited previously. This time I continued to Santiago, Chile, and then turned east. My penciled-in plan was to visit many small towns on the way to Santiago, then cross the mountains on the incredible Hwy. 60 with it's 26 or 28 switchbacks. In the bus it was slow-going, but the view was great. I spent a few days in Mendoza, then visited more small towns on the way to Cordoba. From there I went north to Formosa, and then onward to Asunción. Now that I'm in Paraguay, my plan is to visit more small towns on the way to Encarnación. At that point I will terminate this trip, find a place to live, and apply for residency in Paraguay.

That first part of the first journey (I mentioned above) 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.

I have visited Encarnación three times for a total of around three weeks, and I like that small city. There's no historical architecture in the city, but it is a very pleasant place, quiet, and the surroundings are beautiful. I wrote much about it in my previous blog on May 15, 2023. What happens once I'm settled in? Only the future knows.