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Angel Falls and the Tepuis: Venezuela's Natural Wonders Explained

Angel Falls and the Tepuis: Venezuela's Natural Wonders Explained

In the Gran Sabana region of southeastern Venezuela, flat-topped mountains called tepuis rise like islands above the surrounding forest — some reaching 3,000 metres, their cliff faces vertical and unbroken, their summits isolated for so long that evo...

Colombia Travel Guide 2026: What's Changed and What to Expect

Colombia Travel Guide 2026: What's Changed and What to Expect

Colombia's transformation is one of travel's genuinely extraordinary stories. A country that western tourists were firmly advised against visiting in the 1990s and early 2000s has become one of South America's most compelling destinations — drawing...

Machu Picchu and the Inca Empire: History, Mysteries, and How to Visit

Machu Picchu and the Inca Empire: History, Mysteries, and How to Visit

Nearly 600 years after its construction and 113 years after its re-introduction to the outside world by Hiram Bingham, Machu Picchu remains unexplained in ways that continue to fascinate. Not unexplained in the tabloid sense — the Inca built it, pr...

Paraguay's Hidden Culture: Guaraní Language, Terere, and the Soul of South America's Forgotten Country

Paraguay's Hidden Culture: Guaraní Language, Terere, and the Soul of South America's Forgotten Country

Asunción, Paraguay Paraguay is the country that South America travel guides consistently underwrite — small, landlocked, bypassed by most travellers on the Bolivia–Argentina trail. This is a mistake. Paraguay is one of the continent's most cultura...

Uruguay Vacation Guide: Montevideo, Punta del Este, and the Quiet Coast

Uruguay Vacation Guide: Montevideo, Punta del Este, and the Quiet Coast

Uruguay is the quiet achiever of South America. No dramatic Andes backdrops. No Amazonian wilderness. No baroque colonial epicentres. What Uruguay has is a genuinely functional democracy, beaches that rival the best on the continent, a food culture b...

Suriname: South America's Most Diverse and Least Visited Nation

Suriname: South America's Most Diverse and Least Visited Nation

Suriname is South America's smallest sovereign nation, its only Dutch-speaking country, and one of the most ethnically diverse societies on Earth. It is also one of the most overlooked destinations in a hemisphere full of overlooked destinations. I...

South America Shopping Guide: What to Buy in Brazil, Colombia, and Peru

South America Shopping Guide: What to Buy in Brazil, Colombia, and Peru

South America is a great destination for shopping, particularly if you are interested in things that are produced locally rather than imported and relabelled. Brazil, Colombia, and Peru stand out for the quality and authenticity of what they offe...

Torres del Paine: Trekking Guide to Patagonia's Crown Jewel

Torres del Paine: Trekking Guide to Patagonia's Crown Jewel

At the far southern tip of Chilean Patagonia, where the Andes crumble into the sub-Antarctic winds of the Southern Ocean, stands one of the most dramatic landscapes on Earth. Torres del Paine National Park takes its name from three ancient granite mo...

The Galápagos Islands: Darwin, Evolution, and One of the World's Great Wildlife Encounters

The Galápagos Islands: Darwin, Evolution, and One of the World's Great Wildlife Encounters

In September 1835, a 26-year-old naturalist named Charles Darwin stepped ashore on the Galápagos Islands and began making observations that would, over the following decades, reshape humanity's understanding of life on Earth. Nearly 200 years later...

Salar de Uyuni: Visiting the World's Largest Salt Flat

Salar de Uyuni: Visiting the World's Largest Salt Flat

There is a place in southwestern Bolivia where the area becomes a huge mirror. After rain, a thin layer of water transforms a 4,086-square-mile or 10,582-square-kilometer expanse of salt into a reflection of the sky. The Salar de Uyuni is the world's...

Guyana's Rupununi: Wilderness Travel in South America

Guyana's Rupununi: Wilderness Travel in South America

Guyana is sought out mostly by major nature travelers. It is located in northeastern South America and is roughly 85% tropical rainforest, which is one of the highest percentages of forest cover in the world. There are no massive high-rise beach reso...

Earthquakes in Chile: Everything a Traveler Needs to Know Before Going

Earthquakes in Chile: Everything a Traveler Needs to Know Before Going

Let me be honest with you right upfront: Chile has earthquakes. A lot of them. The country averages over 8,000 seismic events per year, and roughly one significant quake (magnitude 7+) every decade. If that scares you — stick around, because by t...