Do I really have to convert text to varchar and varchar to varchar[] to do an INSERT?

Hi,
    Here is my code:

    INSERT INTO location_types (lo_location_type_id, lo_location_type)
    VALUES (3, 'region');

Somehow, variants of this statement generate strange error messages.

This one gets

ERROR: array value must start with "{" or dimension information.

Another try with a UNION SELECT to persuade it to insert multiple rows
gave me

ERROR: Column lt_location_type is of CHARACTER VARYING[] but expression
is of type text.

So I changed it to
INSERT INTO location_types (lo_location_type_id, lo_location_type)
    VALUES (3, VARCHAR 'region');

Here is the error message

ERROR: column "lt_location_type is of type character varying[] but
expression is of type character varying.

HINT: You will need to rewrite or cast the expression.

Something is going on with pgsql which I truly don't understand.  After
twenty years of working with SQL, I am pretty sure i know how to write a
simple INSERT statement!  Explanations would be greatly appreciated.