Argentina, the world's eighth-largest country, may or may not be larger than life, but it's famous for Juan and Evita Perón, the romantic tango capital of Buenos Aires, and succulent beef from the sprawling Pampas that gave the world the gaucho. Beyond the glamour of Buenos Aires, Argentina can offer one of the world's greatest river systems in the Río de la Plata, an American Serengetti in the Iberá marshes, the grandeur of subtropical Iguazú falls and the Jesuit mission ruins that surround it, and the stunning canyon country and native peoples of the Andean northwest. To the west, along the Chilean border, Cerro Aconcagua is the Americas' highest peak, whose runoff irrigates the up-and-coming vineyards of Mendoza. In the south, the legendary Patagonia region boasts a wildlife-rich shoreline, a big sky country of endless steppes, an Andean lakes district often called the "Switzerland of South America," and the overwhelming Moreno Glacier, the centerpiece of the southernmost icefields this side of Antarctica. If that weren't enough, the archipelago of Tierra del Fuego, where the Andes finally disappear beneath the Atlantic, is the "uttermost part of the earth."
Argentina, the world's eighth-largest country, may or may not be larger than life, but it's famous for Juan and Evita Perón, the romantic tango capital of Buenos Aires, and succulent beef from the sprawling Pampas that gave the world the gaucho. Beyond the glamour of Buenos Aires, Argentina can offer one of the world's greatest river systems in the Río de la Plata, an American Serengetti in the Iberá marshes, the grandeur of subtropical Iguazú falls and the Jesuit mission ruins that surround it, and the stunning canyon country and native peoples of the Andean northwest. To the west, along the Chilean border, Cerro Aconcagua is the Americas' highest peak, whose runoff irrigates the up-and-coming vineyards of Mendoza. In the south, the legendary Patagonia region boasts a wildlife-rich shoreline, a big sky country of endless steppes, an Andean lakes district often called the "Switzerland of South America," and the overwhelming Moreno Glacier, the centerpiece of the southernmost icefields this side of Antarctica. If that weren't enough, the archipelago of Tierra del Fuego, where the Andes finally disappear beneath the Atlantic, is the "uttermost part of the earth."
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Wayne Bernhardson is the author of Moon Handbooks to Argentina, Buenos Aires (including coastal Uruguay), Chile (including Easter Island), and Patagonia (including the Falkland Islands).