Roaming South America

Finding the Quiet: Why My Shortlist for a New Home Ignores the Coast

March 5, 2026

What is it about coastal towns that makes them pretty much always "messier"? I'm talking specifically about these countries: Colombia, Ecuador, Perú, Chile, and Uruguay. The vast majority of interior towns are almost always cleaner, friendlier, prettier, etc.

I'm not imagining it. This pattern shows up everywhere I've been, and that includes 7 countries and over 300 towns/cities (in South America), and it’s not a cultural coincidence. It’s geography, economics, and human behavior piling up in the same places.

Here’s the straight, unsentimental anatomy of why coastal towns skew messier, while interior towns often feel cleaner, calmer, and more human. The comparisons below are to be taken with a very general understanding.

Huaquillas, Ecuador - A Border town that's not really Interesting

February 21, 2026

Huaquillas, Ecuador, sits on the border with Perú. I wrote a blog about this town on January 17, 2023. This town is nothing special, not all that clean, noisy, and simply not worth a visit. The only redeeming quality I can find is that some of the bakery/coffee shops and dessert shops play soft jazz. Maybe they do that to give people a respite from the noise and congestion of the downtown streets.

Catamayo: Why Ecuador’s Sunniest Valley is My Top Pick

February 15, 2026

Catamayo, Ecuador, home to about 35,000, or 18,000, or 27,000, depending on where you find the data, and probably whether they include the nearby farmland in the valley. So, my guess is the first, around 35,000. This was my 4th visit to Catamayo, so yeah, I like this town. Catamayo is located about 18 kilometres (11 mi) west of Loja. Now, Loja is cold. Catamayo sits much lower and has a much better, ie warmer, climate. The entire country has an elevation range of 500 to 1700 meters (1640 to 5577 feet). Where I'm sitting, in a hotel at the main central park of Catamayo, the elevation is 1279 meters (4196 feet).

The Town Where the Mountain Tells the Time: My Visit to Zamora

February 9, 2026

Zamora, Ecuador - population about 18,000, the canton (county) is about 30,000. The town sits in a tight valley between the Amazon Basin and the Andes Mountains. The town sits at 970 meters (3,182 ft) and the Rio (River) Zamora cuts through town, and there is a very nice park alongside the river. The Rio Bombuscaro runs alongside the opposite side of town and flows into the Rio Zamora at the edge of town, making quite a large confluence. There is a creek (Quebrada) that cuts through the suburban neighborhood called El Limon and dumps into Rio Zamora. That is called Quebrada El Limon, though on Google Maps it's not labeled and mostly not even shown to exist.

From Puyo to Zamora: A Rainy Reconnaissance Mission

February 7, 2026

Gualaquiza and Yantzaza, Ecuador, are both in the Amazon region on the eastern side of the Andes Mountains. They are quite wet towns, it rained every day I was in both of them. Gualaquiza is interesting in that they have a much bigger love for volleyball than futbol (soccer). There are only a couple of futbol canchas (fields, though they are more often concret than dirt/sand/grass) in town, and many volleyball courts. Across the street from my hotel room were 2 volleyball courts crowded with people watching the games, and BBQs cooking food. I stayed in Gualaquiza for 3 full days. This was my second visit. I like this town, but the rain has caused me to move it to number 5 on my top 5 list of potential new home towns. I wrote a full blog about Gualaquiza on Aug. 20, 2025.