I did a journey from north to south in the Americas and got as many residencies as I could in places that remained open or had lax enforcement of the rules or rules that were easy to get around and where the permit was cheap or available with an investment.
In the last 12 months I have gotten a 4yr temp res from Mexico and a 2yr temp res from Costa RIca. I have a student visa giving me a temp res in Guatemala, and perm res for Paraguay both in the works. (I would not recommend Costa RIca bc you have to pay an︀ expensive monthly fee for health and social security which I didnt realize). Paraguay is easy.︁ Mexico is easy if you start in your home country or let a 180 d︂ tourist visa expire.
My strategy is to get residencies in countries that share a border︃ e.g Mexico and Guatemala, so that one can drive to the other country in case︄ air travel becomes too restrictive due to rules or expensive. I will have Paraguay in︅ 3 months hopefully and then it will be a matter of getting an adjacent country︆ - e.g Argentina - I'm trying to see if it's possible to get the passport︇ after 2 yrs temp res without getting caught in the tax net.
Up to now︈ there have been countries where you could not enter unvaxd as a tourist, but where︉ you were exempt from the tourist restrictions if you were a resident. (Some of those︊ countries req'd perm res to be exempt or it wasnt clear from the wording.)
I figured I might as well get multiple residencies in one shot and then after a︋ few yrs I would be eligible for perm residency which might make things much more︌ secure in terms of exemptions. Even if most of the res permits turn out to︍ be a waste of time, having 1 or 2 secure places will have made it︎ worth it.
After the Americas, I will look at the Balkans.