America! No not the USA. America, or more correctly, the Americas and more precisely, Central, North and South America require many adjectives but scientifically there are three continents in what is the second largest island on the planet. Although the Olympic rings show five colours for a quintet of continents, of which two represent northern and southern parts of what are actually tricontinental islands that are plurally linked as the Americas! So, without Oceania nor Antartica, perhaps the Olympic symbol needs to be updated while some would say Latin America is really all of the Americas and therefore without ‘North America’ nor Antartica, we can consider Oceania more important than either. But you could walk from the North Pole without any marine transportation to Tierra del Fuego. Therfore, America is an island, and by far the larger part of the population is Latin. That is so, however despite some geographers’ claims that Canada has more islands than Chile, it has still never been categorically proven whether there are more ‘islas chileñas’ or ‘les isles canadenses’. You can be sure that in both extremes of the more diminutive of the two really enormous islands of this isolated planet, it is more accessible than ever before and that global warming is in effect at both poles. In spite of Denmark’s claim to Greenland and her islands and a great many Argentine islands there is little actual field research for the mapping of routes at each parameter of the American landmass. Without further a do, I’d like to summarise the geopolitical form of the least complicated continent of them all, South America.
Although this continent is larger than Europe, several times over, it really is almost tiny compared to Asia, and unlike Africa or indeed the Afroeurasian islandmass, South America is incredibly simple geopolitically considered. There is one, or possibly two if we include The Falkland Islands, strange anomalies here in the fairer of the Americas. Both French Guyana and the aforementioned almost Antarctic islands are European territories. Perhaps it is possible to discover why French Guyana is still part of Le Republique Française. I, for one, currently have no idea and yet I would still be reluctant to write on it without talking first with some residents of French Guyana. C’est mystique! And The Falkland Islands, well, I hope they can enjoy themselves there and I guess they know better than anyone, as they and their ancestors are the only people who have ever lived there. We can reasonably claim that English, international British English has always been spoken there, almost completely exclusively ever since some Welsh, Scots, Irish and English sheep farmers decided that it might be home!
However, real South America, the conical continent pertains merely 12 real nations and compared to ‘the developed’ world, these are much younger. Not as young as most African nations and yet virtually grandparents in comparison to some emerging European and Pacific island nations, the twilight twelve western nations of South America are almost exclusively Spanish speaking. As I’ve already mentioned a couple of parts that aren’t, let me also touchbase with the other two non-Iberian linguistically oriented natons of tropical rainforested South America. They are snuck in a nook or a cranny between the North Equatorial currents of the Atlantic, which brush their palm-fringed northern coastlines, and their dark, dense, lush forested hinterlands. Both Guyana and Surinam are so insignificant in business and administrative minds that they are said less frequently than the collocations ‘antidandruff shampoo’ or ‘artificial colourants’. Astoundingly, it is estimated that google or facebook are more valuable than either the English- or Dutch-speaking neighbours called Guyana and Suriname, respectively. When we consider that more people live in Lyon than all three of the non-Iberian territories of South America and that their combined territorial size is only beaten by Russia, Ukraine, Spain and France in comparison with European nations. Basically, there are very few people living in what are enormous territories giving extraordinarily low population densities. So, is it any wonder I say, “discover South America”.
Incidentally, it seems appropriate to write here that the north coast of South America, which is fairly lengthy, is probably the best place for tropical bird species observation. It also seems unbelievable, especially if you are an ornithologist, that until now I have hardly written on the topic, as South America may well be a birdspotters’ paradise. That triplicate of nations is cushioned in by Venezuela to the west, and Brasil to the south. It is also in this vacinity where the sun is most directly above your head if you happen to note midday because the equatorial line which joins north and south in peaceful harmony runs eastwards from Ecuador, with Quito sitting comfortably high in the Andes exactly on the equatorial circumference, then on through Colombia and northern Brasil. The westernmost point of this continent are As Islas Galapagos which are administered by the Ecuadoran government from upland Quito while the northernmost point is Punta Gallinas at the eastern extreme of Colombia’s north coast.
So, wow, we’ve already rushed by half a dozen of the twelve correctly defined nations of the least known continent and I’ve mentioned all the parts that are in the northern portion of the continent that points eastwards, like an arrowhead. But before you open a mapping website to confirm the easterly chevron that is really just a bit of humanity’s planetary uplands that jutt above the surface of our oceans. Coincidentally, as well as pertaining 12 nations, if you were to drill directly through this planet from equatorial Ecuador, aptly named, you would surface near the Maldives in the Indian Ocean, more than 12,700kilometres later! As has been written in this short article, the most prominent and most widely known mountains that jutt up farthest from sealevel are called The Andes, which are the western edge range that span from the southernmost Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia all along the incredibly long international frontier between Chile and Argentina. However, if you decide to travel northwards covering all of the world’s longest mountain range when you encounter Bolivia you will still have just as far to travel again to reach the northern edge of these wild mountains. The highest point, at 6,959metres, is Cerro Aconcagua, fairly easily accessible from the transAndean highway that connects SanTiago and Mendoza, although it would take you a while to reach the east coast and BuenosAires from Chile to Argentina. If you were to go that way you would also pass up the opportunity to take in the marvel of the driest part of this ever so moist planet. The Atacama lies inland from Antofagasta on the Pacific coast and it is estimated that less than a millimetre falls every 5 to 20 years. How we know that is also a mystery!
Following the volcanically active and ever heightening Andes northwards from landlocked Bolivia, which has the world’s highest capital city, La Paz, which really stands at 3,630metres above the salty slicks that cover around 70% of the planet’s surface, you head westwards into Peru, where you might already have planned a package trip to discover the unbelievable and often inexplicable wonders of the ancient Inca civilizations. In order to visit Peru’s capital Lima, you’d have to descend from the peaky, spiky Andean wildlands, whose most forested and most inaccessible warmer peaks are within Peruvian territory. In addition to hosting the greatest proportion of ‘Mors’, Peru also shares Titicaca with Bolivia, the continent’s largest freshwater lake. Unlike the southernmost two nations, Argentina and Chile, Bolivia and Peru also pertain some of the world’s largest river’s sources which trickle, rumble and cascade down from the Andes onto the lush green plains in the world’s largest river basin which has the Amazonas river at the continent’s heart, deep in the world’s largest tropical rainforest, Amazonia, where we have already proven there are over 112 distinct ecosystems. What about the geopolitical highlights?
Before mentioning the final two nations of South America, around the northern edges of the Amazon rainforest, Bogota, Colombia’s capital lies in the easternmost of three cordilleras at the northern terminus of the altitude induced Andes. Colombia is also the unique landlink with Central America at the impassable Darién forest of Panama. Colombia therefore has both Pacific and Caribbean coastlines and the island nations of Trinidad&Tobago or Grenada are actually far more easily reached than the central American mainland. In any case Caracas is the second best starting point to enter Latin America if you’re arriving from the Caribbean by boat. Some actually do head up to Caracas after taking in the wonders of Angel Falls, the world’s highest waterfall, where the water descends several hundred metres. The best city for arriving in South America having navigated the Caribbean is Georgetown, Guyana’s capital. Navigation is the most traditional and often the best form of transportation in those parts as the ancient civilizations of the Amazon basin and Caribbean travelled by canoe or kayak. Nevertheless, heading eastwards from Georgetown you can drive, fly or sail and you’ll stop in firstly at Paramaribo, Surinam’s principal city before continuing on east to Cayenne, which is French Guyana’s administrative centre. It isn’t far from there where you can enter Brazilian administrative systems but it won’t be by car as there still aren’t road links traversing that rainforested frontier, just like that between Colombia and Panama.
However, amazingly, and it truly is astounding if you visit a tropical rainforest, it is possible to cross the Amazon by car. From the southern side of the enormous Amazon river, you can drive from either Santarem or Belem all the way down to Brasilia, the recently designed and constructed 51 year-young capital of South America’s largest nation, Brasil. If you are to take on this trek of all treks to reach the last 2 nations that I haven’t mentioned you should head for Campo Grande before heading into landlocked Paraguay, whose capital is Assunción that strides the river Paraguay on the frontier with Argentina. It’s possible to sail down that river to the final nation but is best to head east to Foz Iguaçu where Argentina, Brasil and Paraguay meet near the spectacular eponomous waterfall. Not too far from there you can cruise downstream on the also eponomous river Uruguay, whose capital is Montevideo. This charming port city faces the Rio de la Plata from the northern side of a large ocean estuary into which those eponomous rivers; Parana (a state of Brasil), Paraguay and Uruguay all meet the southern Atlantic.
It may be purely coincidental that SOUTH AMERICA is really named Sul America or SuldasAmericas by most of its residents, the people of this land also say SolAmerica so neither by whim nor want, it is indirectly called Sunny America or SunAmerica and to be absolutely honest, I don’t think it is possible that there is a continent where the sun shines quite as much as it does here in the brighter, younger part of the western islandmass. So, nomatter how you approach it, why not start planning your best way to making the best of SOUTH AMERICA.
