A kaleidoscope of landscapes
If there is one region of the world that offers an amazing variety of landscapes, it is Argentina: it is an infinite palette of contrasts, climates and reliefs! From the tropical jungle of Iguazú to the glaciers of Patagonia, from the petrified forests to the colorful quebradas of Jujuy, the country promises many surprises. Located in the southern part of the American continent, it forms a triangle whose base is the northern border and whose apex is Cape Dungeness, it extends 3,700 kilometers long from the Tropic of Capricorn to the southernmost point. Argentina has five continental neighbors: Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay and Brazil. In the center of the country, the Pampas, a vast plain of exceptional fertility, covers an area of 650,000 km² (nearly 20% of the country) and is characterized by intense agricultural and livestock production. Further north, the lands encircled by the Iguazú, Paraguay, Uruguay and Paraná rivers constitute the Argentine Mesopotamia (it includes the provinces of Entre Ríos, Corrientes and Misiones). It is a marshy plain, especially in the ponds of the Esteros del Iberá. The central plain is interrupted by two primary massifs: the Sierras de la Ventana (1,243 m), north of Bahía Blanca, and the Sierras de Córdoba and San Luis, which rise to over 2,000 m. The Sierras de Córdoba are a mountain range between Córdoba and San Luis, of medium altitude, culminating at 2,884 m (Cerro Champaqui). Formed long before the Andes, eroded by time, these mountains are cut by valleys and have a fabulous "desert of the salt mines", the Salinas Grandes. The immense subtropical plain of Chaco is bounded in Argentina by the Paraná and Paraguay rivers to the east, the Andean Altiplano to the west, and the plains of the Pampa to the south, but extends beyond the borders into Bolivia, Paraguay and Brazil. Cuyo, a region located in the west of the country, extends from Mendoza to San Luis, passing through San Juan. It is characterized by a rather deserted mountainous relief, "the precordillera", but also by numerous vineyards. The Puna, the famous Andean landscape of northwestern Argentina, was formed by erosion, which created flattening surfaces. It is always located at a minimum altitude of 3,500 m (it is in fact a high plateau). The Argentinean Puna is a prelude to the Bolivian highlands (the Altiplano). It is delimited by the Colorado River in the north and by the Strait of Magellan in the south, and offers a great contrast of relief between its Andean part and its Atlantic coast. The Andean part culminates at 3 000 m. The Patagonian plateau, in the east of the Andean Patagonia, drops from 1,500 m to 300 m along the Atlantic Ocean. The five great rivers that run through it have created a vast network of valleys (such as the Chubut) and estuaries of disproportionate proportions, considering their current low flow. Far from the more fertile regions, there are plateaus of bushy steppes, with the exception of the lake region (on the Andean side), which is much greener. The archipelago of Tierra del Fuego is separated from the South American continent by the Strait of Magellan. With a surface area of 77,000 km² (including the different islands), the region depends on Chile for its western part and on Argentina for its eastern part. Ushuaia, capital of the Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego, competes with Punta Arenas in Chile for the title of the southernmost city in the world. It is a mountainous landscape, with a harsh climate and violent winds. Cape Horn marks the boundary of the South American continent.
Andean Cordillera
The white queen of the blue sky, the Andes, the longest mountain range in the world, deserves every attention. Gushing forth from a meeting of the Pacific and South American tectonic plates, the Andes Cordillera is a still-forming landmass stretching over 8,000 km. Its craters and earthquakes bear witness to the unparalleled dynamism of the region's seismic and volcanic activity. Its varied relief begins in northern Venezuela and plunges into the icy waters of the ocean at the southernmost tip of America. The Andes mountain range does not form an unbroken chain of mountains: isolated ranges are linked by vast, deep valleys, bathed by lakes and rivers. But how is it that water can be found in this windswept desert? Its history dates back over 200,000 million years, when one of the Pacific plates began its slow plunge beneath the South American plate. Ice ages have created a strange geography, crazy and tortured, and as the Pacific winds come up against the cordillera, rainfall is abundant on the western slopes, as well as on the peaks; thus, a large number of lakes and lagoons have formed, giving rise to the important Patagonian rivers, such as the Rio Negro, the Chubut or the Santa Cruz. During the Ice Age, the riverbeds were enlarged, giving rise to the lakes we see today. The importance of glaciation in this region is clear: the Andean peaks are covered by glaciers, and the massifs feature steep, sharp peaks (these rocks, embedded in sediments, have resisted glacial erosion due to their hardness, appearing in the open air in fanciful silhouettes). The Pacific winds that carry their flood of rain crash down on the cordillera. In Tierra del Fuego, the backbone changes orientation and plunges into the sea, but the Andes cordillera does not disappear, continuing underwater all the way to Antarctica. The Andes are not so high in Patagonia; generally speaking, the further south you go, the lower the peaks. Three great ice fields follow one another along the Andes. The Hielo Patagonico Norte, covering 4,400 square kilometers. The Hielo Patagonico Sur covers 13,000 square kilometers, with some glaciers calving into the Pacific fjords and others into Argentina's Viedma and Argentino lakes. Finally, on the southern edge of Tierra del Fuego, the ice fields of the Darwin Cordillera, 3,000 square kilometers in size, extend down to the shore of the Beagle Channel. The Hielo Patagónico is an immense mass of ice, a legacy of the Ice Ages: it's larger than the city of Buenos Aires!
The contrasting splendours of Patagonia
Between the arid, windswept steppes of Argentina, the multicoloured high altitude canyons and the tropical jungle, the contrast can be striking as the Argentinean scenery displays colours and reliefs as unusual as they are surprising. However, there is one territory that stands out from the others: with its primitive landscapes, Patagonia has no equal anywhere else on the planet. "It is only Patagonia that suits my immense sadness," wrote Blaise Cendrars. There are few places on Earth where one feels alone in the world among the grandeur and diversity of the landscapes. Its crystalline lakes with their many shades of blue, its thousand-year-old forests of hemlock, beech and larch compete in beauty with the splendour of the glaciers, remnants of the ice cap that covered Patagonia in the Pleistocene. Argentine Patagonia, on the other hand, is more characterized by a large beige and brown steppe. Aerial (without any rivers) or endorheic (the watercourse does not reach the sea), Argentine Patagonia nevertheless has a few rivers: Colorado, Negro, Chubut, Santa Cruz and Gallegos, which are sufficiently supplied with water by the Andes Cordillera. Some of these rivers run all the way to the Atlantic Ocean, which is defined by fairly imposing cliffs, occasionally interspersed with beaches, gulfs, harbours and estuaries. Further north, on the Andean side, Bariloche and the Lakes region represent for many the gateway to Patagonia for the simple reason that in the collective imagination, the region corresponds well to the films that tourists make in their heads: majestic landscapes, lakes, mountains or forests. However, Patagonia can only be defined by its environmental aspect and other political and geographical factors must also be taken into account.
A Natural Heritage classified by UNESCO
Hiking enthusiasts, lovers of wide open spaces, budding biologists or photographic hunters, there's no better excuse to explore Argentina's gigantic expanses. National reserves, natural monuments, national parks... nature is close at hand in Argentina's 39 protected areas. The first national park was created in 1934: Nahuel Huapí National Park, where Francisco Moreno (1852-1919), nicknamed "El Perito" (the expert), generously ceded land to the government of the Republic in 1903. Only two other countries had already established national parks on the American continent: the United States (Yellowstone in 1872) and Canada (Banff in 1885). In 2018, the country set an all-time record by creating six new protected areas in the provinces of Córdoba, Tucumán, Buenos Aires and Corrientes. These new areas include two marine reserves: Yaganes and Burwood Bank II. The incorporation of these reserves contributes to more than 100,000 km² of protected marine areas, and is the first step towards achieving the protection of 10% of Argentina's marine areas. After all, 36% of Argentina's territory is maritime! Ecological, biological and touristic, several sites have been classified by UNESCO as Natural World Heritage Sites: precious samples of our planet's threatened paradises. Among the sites listed by UNESCO is the Valdes Peninsula: a sanctuary for wildlife, this region on the Atlantic coast is a nature reserve ideal for whale-watching and other marine mammals. The Quebrada de Humahuaca, declared a Natural Heritage Site in 2003, is a 155 km-long canyon culminating at an altitude of 2,000 metres, located in the Jujuy region. Less well known are the Ischigualasto and Talampaya national parks, guardians of the world's most complete fossil record, dating back 245 million years. The sumptuous Iguazú Falls, set in the middle of the rainforest, were inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1986 and remain one of the country's most emblematic sites to this day.
