Stephan Kuffner - South America

How To Use This E-Book

Getting around the e-book

This Insight Guide e-book is designed to give you inspiration for your visit to South America, as well as comprehensive planning advice to make sure you have the best travel experience. The guide begins with our selection of Top Attractions, as well as our Editors Choice categories of activies and experiences. Detailed features on history, people and culture paint a vivid portrait of contemporary life in South America. The extensive Places chapters give a complete guide to all the sights and areas worth visiting. The Travel Tips provide full information on getting around, hotels, activities from to culture to shopping to sport, plus a wealth of practical information to help you plan your trip.

In the Table of Contents and throughout this e-book you will see hyperlinked references. Just tap a hyperlink once to skip to the section you would like to read. Practical information and listings are also hyperlinked, so as long as you have an external connection to the internet, you can tap a link to go directly to the website for more information.

Maps

All key attractions and sights in South America are numbered and cross-referenced to high-quality maps. Wherever you see the reference [map] just tap this to go straight to the related map. You can also double-tap any map for a zoom view.

Images

Youll find hundreds of beautiful high-resolution images that capture the essence of South America. Simply double-tap on an image to see it full-screen.

About Insight Guides

Insight Guides have more than 40 years experience of publishing high-quality, visual travel guides. We produce 400 full-colour titles, in both print and digital form, covering more than 200 destinations across the globe, in a variety of formats to meet your different needs.

Insight Guides are written by local authors who use their on-the-ground experience to provide the very latest information; their local expertise is evident in the extensive historical and cultural background features. All the reviews in Insight Guides are independent; we strive to maintain an impartial view. Our reviews are carefully selected to guide to you the best places to stay and eat, so you can be confident that when we say a restaurant or hotel is special, we really mean it.

Like all Insight Guides , this e-book contains hundreds of beautiful photographs to inspire and inform your travel. We commission most of our own photography, and we strive to capture the essence of a destination using original images that you wont find anywhere else.

2013 Apa Publications (UK) Ltd

Introduction: The Undiscovered Continent

From the Andes to the Amazon, from dense forests to alluring beaches, South Americas diversity is extraordinary.

According to Colombian novelist Gabriel Garca Mrquez, foreigners see South America as a man with a mustache, a guitar, and a revolver. South America has long been the victim of stereotypes and misconceptions. Many see it as one huge, mysterious jungle, a mountainous wasteland or a backward world lost in an eternal siesta .

Train journey along the Devils Nose, Avenue of Volcanoes, Ecuador.

Corrie Wingate

But these images fail to capture even a fraction of the reality. There are mighty rivers, and vast wilderness, but also ancient civilizations and vibrant new cultures. The Amazon Basin and its remote outposts grab the imagination of novelists, screenwriters, and adventure seekers, while the elegant cafs of Buenos Aires and the stylish resorts along the Caribbean attract a less vocal following. The Andes are home to communities that have preserved traditions for centuries, while life in the enormous metropolises of Brazil and Argentina is so modern and energetic it will leave you breathless.

The countries of South America share a common history thousands of years of indigenous cultures broken by European intrusion over 500 years ago; colonial rule followed by bitter wars of independence; then an unsteady progress at the fringe of world events yet each country retains its own character.

Rafting on the Maipo River, Chile.

Richard Nowitz/Apa publications

On the north coast are Colombia, Venezuela, and the Guayanas, racially mixed and geographically divided between rugged mountains, Caribbean coastline, and dense Amazon rainforest. Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador form the Andean heartland. They have the largest native populations on the continent, clustered around the highlands where the mighty Inca Empire once reigned. The east is dominated by Brazil, separated from its neighbors by a Portuguese heritage and vast untamed jungle. In the cooler southern zones are Chile, Uruguay, and Argentina, the most European-influenced of the republics, with vast empty spaces from the spine of the Andes to the last stop before Antarctica: Tierra del Fuego.

Esmeraldas boy, Ecuador.

Corrie Wingate/Apa publications

South Americas Top 20 Attractions

From the peaks of the Andes to the beaches of Brazil, here is a rundown of South Americas most spectacular attractions.

Top Attraction 1

Iguaz Falls . More than 250 waterfalls form the Iguaz Falls straddling the jungle border between Argentina and Brazil. For more information, .

Yadid Levy/Apa Publications

Top Attraction 2

The Amazon . Approach the Amazon basin, home to the greatest diversity of animal and plant species on the planet, from jungle lodges in several countries. For more information, .

Mark Kostich/iStockphoto

Top Attraction 3

The Lake District . Crossing from Chile to Argentina not only has numerous lakes and beaches, but ski slopes and beautiful forests. For more information, .

Richard Nowitz/Apa publications

Top Attraction 4