European influence is very strong, and the capital city of Buenos Aires where one-third of the population lives is like a European city. Most of the people are descended from European immigrants, and there is a substantial British community in Buenos Aires a legacy of the days when the British arrived to build the railways.
Argentina is the eighth largest country in the world (five times the size of France), has a population of almost 40 million, and a capital which is one of the world's great cities.
The pampas are the home of Argentina's cowboy heroes, the gauchos, who ride the plains on horses that never need to jump a fence. Here there are hardly any trees, only miles of grass punctuated by pylons and wind pumps for underground water. A few trees may shelter the villages of the pampas, and eucalyptuses often line the approaches to the cattle ranches where the gauchos live and work. The ranches are known for their great barbecues, where whole Cows are roasted over open fires. The gauchos, mostly mestizos, wear dress which is romantic to foreigners: baggy knee-length trousers called bombachas, with a striped chiripa scarf wrapped around the waist and between the legs.
Away from the pampas are several other Argentinas with different lifestyles. The northwest resembles the high Bolivian plateau or altiplano. The population here is still mostly Indian and mestizo, and the economy agricultural. The land is lush with subtropical vegetation, and for this reason the area is known as the Garden of Argentina. The colonial towns with their Spanish churches and cathedrals recall the days when this region thrived before the rise of Buenos Aires and the shift of activity southwards.
The north-east is cattle and Cotton country: the GRAN CHACO plains. Farther east, between the River PARANA and the River URUGUAY, is the country which grows bitter mate tea - the gauchos' favourite drink. And farther east still, at the point where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet lays one of South America's greatest natural wonders. In the middle of the jungle, where the orange-red earth seems rusted by spray, the IGUACU FALLS thunder 64m (210ft) over a giant horseshoe 4 km (2.5 miles) wide - a wall of water, higher than Niagara and several times as wide.
Lying in the foothills of the Andes in the west is the wine-growing region around MENDOZA. This fertile area, watered by the Mendoza River, is known as the Garden of the Andes. Not only are fine wines produced here, but there are extensive market gardens, as well as some 5 million olive trees.
Three days' train journey south-west of Buenos Aires, the region around Bariloche rivals Switzerland with the grandeur of its blue lakes and snow-capped Andes, its waterfalls, glaciers and forests.
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