REPUBLIC OF SURINAME, Dutch... and other South America Things to Do Tips

REPUBLIC OF SURINAME, Dutch REPUBLIEK SURINAME



TO VISIT SURINAME CLICK FLAG






located on the northern coast of South America. It covers 63,251 square miles (163,820 square kilometres), excluding two disputed territories totaling some 6,800 square miles in the southwest and southeast, bordering on Guyana and French Guiana, respectively. Suriname is bordered on the north by the Atlantic Ocean, on the east by French Guiana, on the south by Brazil, and on the west by Guyana. The capital is Paramaribo.

Suriname is one of the smallest countries in South America. Formerly known as Dutch Guiana, it was a plantation colony of The Netherlands. Suriname gained its independence on Nov. 25, 1975.


JUNGLE WATERFALL








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ORIENTAL REPUBLIC OF URUGUAY, Spanish REPÚBLICA ORIENTAL DEL URUGUAY

TO VISIT URUGUAY CLICK FLAG

The country is located on the southeastern coast of South America. ('Oriental' designates its position on the eastern shore of the Uruguay River.) It has an area of some 68,000 square miles (176,120 square kilometres). Almost half of the population is concentrated in the metropolitan area of >Montevideo, the capital. The remaining half is distributed throughout the rest of the national territory, with the populations of the largest provincial cities just fractions of that of the capital. The wedge-shaped country is bounded by Brazil on the north and east, by the Atlantic Ocean on the southeast, and by the Río de la Plata, an estuary of the Atlantic Ocean, on the south, while the Uruguay River serves as its western boundary with Argentina. After Suriname, Uruguay is the smallest country on the continent.

With an economy based largely on agricultural exports, chiefly livestock products, Uruguay developed throughout much of the 20th century as one of Latin America's more progressive societies. During that time the nation was recognized for its political stability and advanced social legislation. Social unrest grew out of economic problems that developed in the 1960s, giving rise to the Tupamaros, an urban guerrilla movement named after Tupac Amaru II, an 18th-century Inca who had rebelled against Spanish rule. The violent activities of the guerrillas so disrupted public life that the democratic governmental structure was, under military leadership, abridged for more than a decade. It was not until 1985 that the military government, under increasing social and economic pressure, reluctantly relinquished political control to a popularly elected civilian government.


SUNSET MONTEVIDEO FEB. 22 1998





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REPUBLIC OF VENEZUELA, Spanish REPÚBLICA DE VENEZUELA





VISIT VENEZUELA PAGE

This country is located at the northern extremity of the South American continent. It occupies a roughly triangular area of 352,144 square miles (912,050 square kilometres). It is bounded by the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean to the north, Guyana to the east, Brazil to the south, and Colombia to the southwest and west. The national capital, Caracas, is the primary centre of industry, commerce, education, and tourism. Reflecting the nation's rapid urbanization, the Caracas metropolitan area population increased sixfold between 1950 and 1980.

Venezuela has jurisdiction over a number of Caribbean islands, among which are Margarita Island, the largest, Los Roques, Tortuga, and La Blanquilla. There is a long-standing dispute with Guyana, dating to 1840, over territorial jurisdiction of that country's area west of the Essequibo River, of which Venezuela claims some 53,000 square miles. A dispute with another neighbour, Colombia, over the precise demarcation of maritime boundaries has also endured at length.

A physically diverse country, Venezuela has landscapes that are a complex product of the interaction of culture and nature. The republic's development pattern has been unique among Latin-American countries in terms of the speed, sequence, and timing of economic and demographic growth. The 20th century witnessed the transformation of a relatively poor agrarian society to a rapidly urbanizing one, a condition brought about by the wealth and prosperity derived from the exploitation of the country's huge petroleum reserves. These changes, however, have been accompanied by problems of economic imbalance and regional inequalities, with often acute political debate over the meaning and direction of local and national development. The government must deal with a massive and largely uncontrolled rural-to-urban migration, as well as mass immigration, much of it illegal, from Colombia and other neighbours.

Once primarily a food exporter, Venezuela has become heavily dependent upon imported food and commodities to satisfy the domestic material demands and life-styles of its urban population. Years of petrodollar abundance were accompanied by undisciplined borrowing from overseas financial institutions, leaving the country with a growing debt-repayment problem, a condition that was intensified by the oil depression of the late 1970s and '80s. Venezuela has also not been exempt from the type of governmental patronage and corruption commonly regarded as traditional in Latin-American countries. On the other hand the republic can point to a notable degree of political stability and basic democracy since the late 1950s.






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FEDERATIVE REPUBLIC OF BRAZIL, Portuguese REPÚBLICA FEDERATIVA DO BRASIL


This, country of South America is the fifth largest country in the world, exceeded in size only by Russia, Canada, China, and the United States. It covers an area of 3,300,171 square miles (8,547,404 square kilometres), or about half of South America. Brazil is so vast that, although it faces the Atlantic Ocean along 4,600 miles (7,400 kilometres) of coastline, it also borders on every nation of the South American continent except Chile and Ecuador--specifically, Uruguay to the south; Argentina, Paraguay, and Bolivia to the southwest; Peru to the west; Colombia to the northwest; and Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana to the north. Stretching for approximately 2,700 miles from north to south and from east to west, it contains no desert, high mountain, or Arctic environments that limit the extent of human occupancy.

Most of the inhabitants of Brazil, the world's fifth most populous nation, are concentrated along the eastern seaboard. Its national capital, Brasília, however, is located inland, on the outer edge of intensive settlement. Planned from scratch, Brasília replaced Rio de Janeiro as the capital in 1960. Brazil is unique among the nations of the Americas: this former colony of Portugal did not become fragmented into separate countries, as did the British and Spanish possessions, but retained its identity through the intervening centuries and a variety of forms of government. The Portuguese language is, therefore, universal except among a few thousand native Indians in the most remote reaches of the Amazon River system.




BRAZIL MILLENIUM



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FRENCH GUIANA
aka DEVIL'S ISLAND


VISIT FRENCH GUIANA




The folks at Virtual Tourist have done a phenomenal job which affords all of us an opportunity to share information and participate in our mutual addictions.

Although they keep opening up new locations, this one is somewhat of a misnomer. VT has accorded French Guiana a status which, in truth, even the United Nations has not. In actuality, French Guiana is not a Country, it is merely an administrative department of France.

As a result, it has no National flag other than that of France.


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ARGENTINE REPUBLIC, Spanish REPÚBLICA ARGENTINA


VISIT ARGENTINA PAGE


The country occupies most of the southern portion, or southern cone, of South America. With an area of 1,073,399 square miles (2,780,092 square km)--more extensive than Mexico and the U.S. state of Texas combined--it is the eighth largest country in the world.

Argentina is shaped like an inverted triangle with its base at the top; it is some 880 miles (1,420 km) across at its widest from east to west and stretches 2,360 miles (3,800 km) from the subtropical north to the subantarctic south. This great north-south length embraces regions of striking diversity, including the Andes Mountains, the thorny scrubland and seasonal swamps of the Gran Chaco, the broad, fertile plains of the Pampas, the stark tableland of Patagonia, and an undulating Atlantic coastline of some 2,900 miles (4,700 km).

Argentina also claims a portion of Antarctica, as well as several islands in the South Atlantic, including the British-ruled Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas). It is bounded by Chile to the south and west, Bolivia and Paraguay to the north, and Brazil, Uruguay, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east.

Buenos Aires is the capital.

IGUASSU FALLS



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REPUBLIC OF BOLIVIA, Spanish REPÚBLICA DE BOLIVIA,




This country of west-central South America, with an area of 424,164 square miles (1,098,581 square kilometres). The country has been landlocked since it lost its Pacific coast territory to Chile in the War of the Pacific (1879-84), but an agreement with Peru in 1993 granted Bolivia access to the Pacific Ocean. Extending 950 miles (1,503 kilometres) north-south and 800 miles east-west, Bolivia is bordered to the north and east by Brazil, to the southeast by Paraguay, to the south by Argentina, and to the southwest and west by Chile and Peru. Lake Titicaca, the second largest lake in South America and the world's highest commercially navigable lake, is shared with Peru. The constitutional capital is the city of Sucre, where the Supreme Court is established, but the de facto capital is La Paz, where the executive and legislative branches of government function.

Although only about one-third of Bolivia lies in the Andes Mountains, it is widely regarded as a highland country because the most developed and densely populated part of its territory is situated in or near the Andean system. The country itself has a rich history: it was once a part of the ancient Inca Empire and later became part of the Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru, providing the mother country with immense wealth in silver. Spanish and the Indian languages Aymara and Quechua are official languages, and the majority of the people are Roman Catholic. Bolivia, although rich in mineral resources, remains an underdeveloped country whose economic life is based principally upon agriculture and the production of raw materials, notably natural gas and tin/

LAKE TITICACA



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REPUBLIC OF CHILE, Spanish REPÚBLICA DE CHILE





TO VISIT CHILE CLICK FLAG


The country is situated along the western seaboard of South America and extending approximately 2,700 miles (4,300 kilometres) from its boundary with Peru, at latitude 17º30' S, to the tip of South America at Cape Horn, latitude 56º S, a point only about 400 miles north of Antarctica. A long, narrow country, it has an average width of only about 110 miles, with a maximum of 217 miles at the latitude of Antofagasta and a minimum of 9.6 miles near Puerto Natales. It is bounded in the north by Peru and Bolivia, on its long eastern border by Argentina, and to the west by the Pacific Ocean. Continental Chile and its offshore islands comprise 292,135 square miles (756,626 square kilometres). Chile exercises sovereignty over Easter Island, the Juan Fernández Archipelago, and the volcanic islets of Sala y Gómez, San Félix, and San Ambrosio, all of which are located in the South Pacific. The country also claims a 200-mile offshore limit. The capital is SANTIAGO.


Chile's relief is for the most part mountainous, with the Andes range dominating the landscape. Because of the country's extreme length it has a wide variety of climates, from the coastal desert beginning in the tropical north to the cold subantarctic southern tip. Chile is also a land of extreme natural events: volcanic eruptions, violent earthquakes, and tsunamis originating along major faults of the ocean floor periodically beset the country. Fierce winter storms and flash floods alternate with severe summer droughts.

Much of northern Chile is desert; the central part of the country is a temperate region where the bulk of the population lives and where the larger cities, including Santiago, are located. South-central Chile, with a lake and forest region, is temperate, humid, and suitable for grain cultivation; and the southernmost third of the country, cut by deep fjords, is an inhospitable region--cold, wet, windy, and limited in resources. The economy of Chile is based on primary economic activities: agricultural production; copper, iron, and nitrate mining; and the exploitation of sea resources.

Chile exhibits many of the traits that typically characterize Latin-American countries. It was colonized by Spain, and the culture that evolved was largely Spanish; the influence of the original Indian inhabitants is negligible. The people became largely mestizo, a blend of Spanish and Indian bloodlines. The society developed with a small elite controlling most of the land, the wealth, and the political life.

Chile did not, however, depend as heavily on agriculture and mining as did many Latin-American countries, but rather developed an economy based on manufacturing as well. Thus, Chile has become one of the more urbanized Latin-American societies, with a burgeoning middle class. Chile has also had a history of retaining representative democratic government. Except for a military junta that held power from September 1973 to March 1990, the country has been relatively free of the coups and constitutional suspensions common to many of its neighbours.


THE ANDES MOUNTAIN RANGE




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REPUBLIC OF ECUADOR, Spanish REPÚBLICA DEL ECUADOR




The country is located in northwestern South America. It straddles part of the Andes Mountains and occupies part of the Amazon basin. Lying on the Equator, from which its name derives, it borders Colombia to the north, Peru to the east and the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west; it includes the Pacific island group of the Galápagos Islands, or the Archipiélago de Colón. It is a relatively small country by South American standards, with an area of 103,930 square miles (269,178 square kilometres), including 100,844 square miles on the South American continent. The border with Peru, as defined by the Protocol of Rio de Janeiro (1942), is not considered legitimate by Ecuador, and some of the border markers provided for by that treaty have not been placed. The capital, Quito, is located in the Andean highlands in the north-central part of the country.

Ecuador is one of the most environmentally diverse countries in the world, and it has contributed notably to the environmental sciences. The first scientific expedition to explore the Amazon basin, led by Charles-Marie de La Condamine, departed from Ecuador; the renowned naturalists Alexander von Humboldt and Charles Darwin used Ecuadoran research to help establish basic theories of modern geography, ecology, and evolutionary biology. Ecuador has a deeply ingrained cultural heritage, the first agricultural villages and ceramic production of the Americas being associated with what is now coastal Ecuador. Quito came to be the northern capital of the Inca empire, the largest political unit of pre-Columbian America. Economically, Ecuador has become known for the fabrication of (erroneously named) Panama hats and the production of bananas, cocoa (chocolate), shrimp, oil, and gold. Since 1979 Ecuador has been a relatively stable South American democracy, although it has encountered many of the economic ills typical of the region.

LLAMAS



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CO-OPERATIVE REPUBLIC OF GUYANA






Guyana located in the northeastern corner of South America. It is bordered by Venezuela to the west, Brazil to the southwest and south, Suriname (along the Courantyne River) to the east, and the Atlantic Ocean to the north. Its total area of 83,000 square miles (215,000 square kilometres) is largely uninhabited, and most of the country's population occupies the narrow coastal strip. The chief port and capital is Georgetown.

Present-day Guyana reflects its British colonial past and its reactions to that past. It is the only English-speaking country of South America. Since independence in 1966, Guyana's chief economic assets--its sugarcane plantations and bauxite industry--have come under government control, as has most of the country's commerce. Guyana's populace is mainly of colonial origin, although a small number of aboriginal Indians are scattered throughout the forested interior.

The more numerous coastal peoples are chiefly descendants of slaves from Africa and indentured workers from India, who were originally imported to work the coastal sugarcane plantations. Racial problems between the latter two groups have played a disruptive role in Guyanaese society.

Politically, Guyana has moved on a steady course toward socialism from the time of independence, although after the death of the first prime minister, Forbes Burnham, in 1985, ties with Western powers were strengthened. It is a member of the Commonwealth.





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