South America Travel Guide

South America straddles both hemispheres with the Atlantic Ocean to the east and the Pacific to the west, from the warm Caribbean waters of Colombia and Venezuela in the north to the icy seas of Patagonian Chile and Argentina in the south. In between there are a multitude of climates, cultures, languages and natural wonders.

Dominated by the Spanish and Portuguese for over 300 years, backpackers still head straight to the ruins of the Pre-Colombian sites of the Incas and learn about culture in South America today.

The food, drink and festivals are eclectic, influenced by the indigenous population and the various influxes of Europeans and Africans. Dance samba at Carnaval in Brazil, chew dried meat with the gauchos in Argentina or drink pisco in Peru.

In a word, South America is a hybrid - a continent of religious and ethnic diversity, memory and modernity.