Pampas Attraction
Pampas
The unrelentingly
flat Pampas is Argentina's agricultural heartland and the home of that
symbol of romantic nationalism, the gaucho. Comprising the provinces of
Buenos Aires, La Pampa and major parts of Santa Fe and Córdoba,
its varied environments include forested hills, extensive grasslands and
flamingo-flecked salt lakes. The Parque National Lihué Calel is
a popular detour, with wildlife including some puma and many guanaco,
rhea, native hares and a variety of wild chinchilla called a vizcacha.
The cities of La Plata, Luján (whose basilica to La Virgen de Luján
receives 4 million pilgrims a year), Rosario and Santa Fe are worth seeing
for their many museums, churches and faded colonial buildings.
The Pampas (from Quechua pampa, meaning "plain") are fertile South American lowlands, covering more than 750,000 km2 (289,577 sq mi), that include the Argentine provinces of Buenos Aires, La Pampa, Santa Fe, Entre Ríos and Córdoba, Chubut, most of Uruguay, and the southernmost Brazilian State, Rio Grande do Sul. These vast plains are a natural region only interrupted by the low Ventana and Tandil hills near Bahía Blanca and Tandil (Argentina), with a height of 1,300 m (4,265 ft) and 500 m (1,640 ft) respectively.
The climate is mild, with precipitation of 600 mm (23.6 in) to 1,200 mm (47.2 in), more or less evenly distributed through the year, making the soils appropriate for agriculture. This area is also one of the distinct physiography provinces of the larger Paraná-Paraguay Plain division. These plains contain unique wildlife because of the different terrains around it. Some of this wildlife includes the rhea, the pampas deer, several species of armadillos, the pampas fox, the White-eared opossum, the Elegant Crested Tinamou, and several other species.
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