Argentina

Argentina is massive, more than ten times larger than the UK. It stretches from the Ibera Wetlands in the north of the country, which is really the southern extremity of Brazil’s Pantanal, all the way to Tierra del Fuego and Cape Horn in the south.

In between you have endless grasslands known as pampas, home to huge herds of cattle, many of whom can trace their ancestry back to the Hereford cattle of the Welsh marches. They are looked after by the gaucho = cowboy of the Argentine pampas. “Vaquero” is the Spanish word for cowboy and across the border in Chile they say “Huaso” and “baquero” or “baquianos” pl. The cowboy culture, and the horses that are integral to it, are vitally important to both Chile and Argentina.

The northwest of the country, around the town of Mendoza, is the heart of the Winelands. New World wines are enjoying something of a boom: they are quite outstanding, particularly the recently reincarnated “Carménère” grape – lost from Europe and re-found in South America! This is idea country for a self-drive trip.

In the east of the country is the fabulous city of Buenos Aires, birth-place of the Tango and a little south is Peninsular Valdes, the spot where David Attenborough filmed that remarkable sequence of the Orca beaching itself in order to snaffle-up a somewhat surprised seal!

By complete contrast the bottom of the country, the south, is the southern-most point on mainland planet earth, Cape Froward overlooking the Straits of Magellan claims the title. But just across the strait is Tiera del Fuego shared by Chile and Argentina.