February is the month of love, no matter where you live in the modern world. Everywhere you look, you see a hundred different red hues, and chocolates don messages of love and the price of flowers shoots for orbit. If you are a traveller at heart, agencies will want to sell you on the love-destinations like Paris, Barcelona, Greece and Prague. The only problem is that those places are in the throes of winter in February. Why not try somewhere different this year, and visit South America for a cultural adventure and passion explosion.
Located between the Caribbean, the South Pacific and the South Atlantic Oceans, it has been said that South America is the wilder America. South America is a wealth of incredible beauty, diversity, colour, decadent food, scenic splendour, and epic historic treasure troves. Just recall a few images of Rio de Janeiro , Brazilian soccer fans, Venezuelan beauties, the Amazon, Argentinean rugby players, Peru, the historic land of the Incas, and the excitement of visiting this vibrant place should already be quite intoxicating.
From the wide open desertscapes in the Atacama to the icy landscapes of Patagonia, from the Andes, the highest mountain range outside Asia to heavenly beaches and the remote islands of Galapagos, from the Amazon, a mighty river in the world’s biggest rainforest to the world’s tallest waterfall, Angel Falls (falling for 979m!), if your heart screams for uncapped adventure and unfiltered beauty, South America is definitely the place for you!
From the wide open desertscapes in the Atacama to the icy landscapes of Patagonia, from the Andes, the highest mountain range outside Asia to heavenly beaches and the remote islands of Galapagos, from the Amazon, a mighty river in the world’s biggest rainforest to the world’s tallest waterfall, Angel Falls (falling for 979m!), if your heart screams for uncapped adventure and unfiltered beauty, South America is definitely the place for you!
South America is also rich in incredible manmade works of historical significance. Machu Picchu comes to mind, so momentous, it was chosen as one of the 7 Wonders of the World. Easter Island hosts another ancient Inca city, Moais. With ease, these ancient cities share space with modern civilisations and world class metropolises, urban architecture and development. The world famous statue of Christ the Redeemer is an Art Deco statue of Jesus Christ overlooking Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is a celebration of nations working together, because it was created by a French sculptor, Paul Landowski, and built by a Brazilian engineer, Heitor da Silva Costa, in collaboration with French engineer Albert Caquot and a Romanian sculptor Gheorghe Leonida fashioned the face.
If that is not what you would call romantic, take a walk down cobblestoned streets of towns where little has changed since the 18th century. Haggle with vendors about materials and foods and crafts and share a meal with the locals.
At night, the tropical climate invites you outside to hear the music on the wind – the Samba, the Cha-cha-cha, the Paso Doble and of course, the dance of love, the Tango. End off your evening on a balcony reciting prose from South American greats like Pablo Neruda, a former senator of Chile, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971 for “a poetry that with the action of an elemental force brings alive a continent’s destiny and dreams.”
South America holds beautiful secrets to add colour, spice and passion to today’s “existing instead of living” attitude. Where better to visit in the month of love than in a place that is sure to jolt you out of surviving, and into thriving? Just remember what happens when Marimba rhythm starts to play…
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