Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Mesopotamia
Also referred to as the Litoral (as in littoral), Mesopotamia is the name for the region of
Northeast Argentina between the Río Paraná and Río Uruguay. Here the climate is mild
and rainfall is heavy in the provinces of Entre Ríos and Corrientes, which make up most
of Mesopotamia. Hot and humid Misiones province, a politically important province sur-
rounded on three sides by Brazil and Paraguay, contains part of Iguazú Falls, whose wa-
ters descend from southern Brazil's Paraná Plateau. Shallow summer flooding is com-
mon throughout Mesopotamia and into the eastern Chaco, but only the immediate river
flood plains become inundated in the west.
Iguazú Falls consists of more than 275 individual falls that tumble from heights as great
as 80m. They stretch for nearly 3km and are arguably the most amazing waterfalls on
earth.
The Pampas & Atlantic Coast
Bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and Patagonia and stretching nearly to Córdoba and the
Central Sierras, the pampas are Argentina's agricultural heartland. Geographically, this
region covers the provinces of Buenos Aires and La Pampa, as well as southern chunks
of Santa Fe and Córdoba.
This area can be subdivided into the humid pampas, along the Litoral, and the arid
pampas of the western interior and the south. More than a third of the country's popula-
tion lives in and around Buenos Aires. Annual rainfall exceeds 900mm, but several hun-
dred kilometers westward it's less than half that.
The absence of nearly any rises in the land makes some parts of this area vulnerable to
flooding from the relatively few, small rivers that cross it. Only the granitic Sierra de
Tandil (484m) and the Sierra de la Ventana (1273m), in southwestern Buenos Aires
province, and the Sierra de Lihué Calel disrupt the otherwise monotonous terrain.
Along the Atlantic coast, the province of Buenos Aires features the sandy, often dune-
backed beaches that attracted the development of seaside resorts. South of Viedma, cliffs
begin to appear but the landscape remains otherwise desolate for its entire stretch south
through Patagonia.
