Argentina Profile Summary

Argentina is the world's eighth largest country, representing nearly the whole southern portion of South America, and spanning an area of 2.8 million square km. The country known for its gauchos and fine wines is a border neighbor with the countries of Bolivia, Brazil, and Paraguay to the north, Uruguay to the north east and Chile to the west. In the east Argentina has a long South Atlantic Ocean coastline extending 3100 miles.

Argentina features a number of the world's highest mountains, sprawling deserts, and amazing waterfalls, along with varying landscapes covering anything from the uninhabited off the beaten path sections in southern Patagonia to the active and energetic cosmopolitan city of Buenos Aires in the north. frequently called the "Paris of South America", because of its colonial buildings, shops, and fine hotels.

• Cuyo & the Andean Northwest - famous for its wine and representing nearly two-thirds of the country's wine production it also has the tallest mountain in the Americas, Mount Aconcagua at 6,962 metres
• Mesopotamia & the Northeast - a tropical climate with swamps and low-level forests
• The Chaco - a thorny lush forested area with two distinc regions, one dry (in the western half) and one very wet in the east
• The Pampas - flat and fertile plains where agriculture thrives and where one third of the population lives. The area extends from the coastal Atlantic area, where it is receives more moisture and humid summers to the Andean foothills westward where it becomes semi-arid with less rainfall.
• Patagonia and the Lake District - starts at the southern section of the Pampas from the Andean hills to eastern coast but has more of an uneven terrain
• Tierra del Fuego - a popular area at the southern tip of South America where tourists comes to see the Strait of Magellan, Cabo de Hornos and Antarctica.