ARGENTINA
Argentina seems like a country that took a wrong turn at the Equator. Stroll down Florida Avenue in busy, sophisticated Buenos Aires...


BRAZIL
There is no better place on Earth than Rio during Carnival. The vibrant parades and more-decoration-than-covering costumes are enough to wake the dead and get them dancing...

CHILE
Imagine a long, thin slice of California with a patch of the Sahara desert glued onto the north. Let some of New Zealand's fjords wash against the south. Press all of this against a spine of tall, rugged mountains. This would be Chile, which has some of the world's most varied and dramatic landscapes...


COLOMBIA
The beauty of Colombia continues to be obscured by violence. While many are familiar with the problems of Colombia, fewer are aware of its charms-mist-shrouded mountains capped with snow, golden-sand beaches and vast green stretches of rain forest....


ECUADOR
Life in Ecuador exists on two levels: in the dizzying heights of the Andes, and in the frenetic life on the seashore.
In the mountains, Amerindians wrapped in rough blankets and wearing fedora hats are dwarfed by the immensity of their surroundings...


PERU
Peru is where pre-Columbian civilization reached its most graceful peak. Like the Parthenon in Greece or the Pyramids of Egypt, the Inca ruins of Peru give an unforgettable glimpse of the genius of a lost civilization...


URUGUAY
Uruguay is a victim of comparisons. While Brazil has the breadth of the Amazon jungle and Argentina has the expanse of Patagonia, Uruguay offers only a modest dollop of land fringed by a beautiful coastline...


VENEZUELA
Oil and the warm Caribbean air have mixed to create today's Venezuela. A leading producer of petroleum and founding member of OPEC, it is one of South America's richest nations...

SURINAME
The original inhabitants of the Guyanese coast were Carib Indians. Covered by mangroves, the thinly populated, muddy coastline failed to attract Spaniards in search of gold...