South America is a continent with most of its landmass located, as one would expect, in the Southern Hemisphere. However, a relatively small portion lies above the equator in the Northern Hemisphere. South America is home to astonishing marvels of the natural and cultural world. The magnificent white-sand beaches, indigenous villages, vastness of the snow-capped Andes and concentration and variety of flora and fauna in the Amazon Rainforest will never cease to amaze.
Bordered by the both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans there is also plenty of opportunity to surf. In fact Peru is considered to be the home of the world's longest wave, Chicama.
Spread across nearly 18 million square kilometres, South America is formed by twelve sovereign states - Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela - the French Guiana, which is an overseas region of France, and the Falkland Islands, a British Overseas Territory.
Most of the population lives on the east and west coasts and ranks the fifth largest in the world, even though the interior and the far south are sparsely populated.
The only challenge of South America is choosing where to start, and there is no time like the present.
