Travelogue from South-America

South America is the southern American continent and lies between the Atlantic Ocean to the north and east and the Pacific Ocean to the west.  It falls completely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with only a small portion crossing over into the Northern Hemisphere.  South American cultures range from Spanish Venezuela and Portuguese Brazil to French Guiana, Dutch Suriname and English Guyana and each country's culture reflects its own unique colonial heritage.

South America is a continent of extremes and it is perhaps by embracing these extremes that the continent is best understood.  The world's southern-most permanently inhabited community is found in Puerto Toro, Chile, which was once known for its gold but is now famous for its southern king crab, the centolla.  The driest place on earth is the Atacama Desert which runs through western Chile and Peru and is famous for the Atacama Giant, the 86m long geoglyph outside Cerro Unitas that is the largest anthropomorphic prehistoric figure ever discovered.

The Canaima National Park in Venezuela is home to the world's highest waterfall, the magnificent Angel Falls.  With a plunge height of 807m, these falls are also known as Kerepakupai Meru, which translates as Waterfall of the Deepest Place.  Bolivia has the highest capital city in the world: La Paz, which was founded in 1548 by Spanish Conquistadors and was originally known as Nuestra Senora de la Paz (Our Lady of Peace).  The highest navigable lake in the world is Lake Titicaca, which lies on the border between Bolivia and Peru, is fully 3,812m above sea level, has a shore length of 1,125km and has 27 rivers as primary inflows.

South America also features the world's longest mountain range, the snow covered Andes, which runs down the continent's western coast through, from north to south, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina.  The world's largest river per volume of water is the Amazon River, which runs through Brazil to Peru and can, in the rainy season, release up to 300,000 cubic meters of fresh water per second into the Atlantic Ocean.  The Amazon Rainforest is, of course, the largest rainforest in the world and the Amazon Basin stretches from Brazil through Colombia and Peru.

Tourists visiting South America have much to choose from and, with all it has to offer, it is surely also the most exciting holiday destination in the world.