Argentina - Tourism and Travel

Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is located in South America.

Argentina is the second largest country in South America, after Brazil. It has an area of 1,068,302 square miles (2,766,889 square kilometers).

It extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the East to Chile in the west.  From north to south, Argentina extends from the southern border of Bolivia to Cape Horn, which lies at the southern end Tierra del Fuego, an archipelago off the southern coast of mainland South America.

Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay border Argentina in the northeast.

The capital of Argentina is Buenos Aires.

Argentina has a presidential system of government.

The official currency of Argentina is the peso, which is equal to 100 centavos.

Geography

The Rio de la Plata runs along the border with Uruguay. It is an estuary that forms at the confluence of the Uruguay and Paraná rivers.

Buenos Aires is on the Rio de la Plata, across from Montivideo in Uruguay.

The Andes mountains, which run from north to south in western Argentina, form a natural border with Chile.

Cerro Aconcagua in the Andes is the highest mountain in Argentina and the highest mountain in South America. It is 22,831 feet (6,959 meters) high.

An area of plains, known as the Pampas, lies in the center of the country. The western part of the Pampas is mostly desert. However, the eastern part gets a great deal of rain. The climate here is temperate, and the soil is very fertile.

The thick, fertile layer of loess that lies underneath the Pampas was laid down after repeated periods of glaciation.

Mesopotamia, a long, narrow  lowland region, is located in northern Argentina.

A region of scrubland known as the Gran Chaco lies in northern Argentina and extends into Paraguay. This hot, arid region has very poor drainage and is one of the least hospitable areas in South America.

Patagonia, a cold region in southern Argentina and southern Chile, consists of semi-arid plateaus. The Patagonian ice sheet is the third largest ice field in the world, after the ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland.

Past glaciations have created many of the geological features of present-day Patagonia, including glacial lakes, fjords, U-shaped valleys and deep channels.

Laguna del Carbón in Patagonia is the lowest point in South America, as well as the lowest point in the southern hemisphere and the lowest point in the Americas.  It is 344 feet (105 meters) below sea level.

Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, which is divided between Argentina and Chile, is the largest island in South America. It has an area of 18,147 square miles (47,000 square kilometers). Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego is the main island of the archipelago of Tierra del Fuego.

People

40,276,000 people live in Argentina.

Almost 90% of the people live in urban areas. More then 12,000,00 people live in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area.

More than 85% of the people are white. The majority are of Spanish or Italian descent.

There are also Native Americans and people of mixed white and Native American ancestry.

Most of the Native American population lives in the Andes region and in the Gran Chaco.

Many immigrants from Europe, particularly from Italy and Germany, arrived in Argentina in the early 1900s.

Spanish is the official language. Italian and Native American languages are also spoken.

90% of the people are Roman Catholic, 2% are Protestant and 2% are Jewish.

Economy

Argentina has many service-based industries.

The majority of exports consist of agricultural products.

Large herds of cattle and sheep are raised on the Pampas. The production and export of milk, meat and hides are vital to the economy.

Fruit and wheat are important crops

Argentina has reserves of ores, precious metals, oil and natural gas.

Crude oil and motor vehicles are exported.