Argentina's Natural World

Argentina is a huge country. Laid out over Europe and Africa it would obscure everything from London to Timbuktu and extend as far east as Budapest. Tip to toe embraces jungles, deserts, mountains, plains, volcanoes, glaciers and enormous lakes and rivers. It is home to both South America’s tallest peak and one of its deepest depressions and claims as its very own the vast expanses of Patagonia and the Pampas.

With a national population barely two-thirds that of the UK over one third of which is concentrated on its capital Buenos Aires, most of its magnificent landscapes have yet to be affected in any visual sense by the presence or actions of man. Several of its highly characteristic environments have engendered unusual, unforgettable and enchanting animal species, such as the guanaco, a local llama, the rhea, an Argentinian ostrich and the mara, an improbable long-legged rodent, resembling a cross between a hare and a deer.

Argentina’s north-eastern jungles meanwhile feature an opulent diversity of pan-South American tropical birds and butterflies and its Patagonian coasts are home to vast entrancing assemblages of Antarctic mammals and seabirds. Natural wonders incorporated within this arrangement include the jungle enshrouded Iguassu Falls (one of the world’s most expansive and spectacular cataracts), the awe-inspiring Perito Moreno Glacier (a highly active advancing glacier featuring dramatic continuous calving) and the spellbindingly beautiful Lake Argentino (one of Patagonia’s largest and most visited lakes). Outstanding concentrations of wildlife occur at many points during the itinerary. Of particular note however are the flamingos of Puerto Madryn, the Magellanic penguins of Punta Tomba and the elephant seals and sea lions of the Valdés Peninsula.