South America is a continent located mainly in the Western Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere, bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the west, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and east, and the Drake Passage to the south. It comprises twelve sovereign countries — including Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Peru and Chile — plus several dependent territories, covering 17,840,000 square kilometres and home to more than 434 million people as of 2021.
The continent ranks fourth globally by area and fifth by population. Its geography divides sharply: the Andes mountains dominate the western spine, while vast lowlands and river systems — the Amazon, Orinoco and Paraná among them — define the east. Most of the population concentrates along the coasts; the interior and far south remain sparsely settled. Brazil alone accounts for nearly half the continent’s people and economic output. Most of South America lies in the tropics, with the exception of the Southern Cone’s temperate middle latitudes. The continent’s cultural character reflects centuries of interaction among Indigenous peoples, European colonisers and African populations.
South America features across Adventure Diaries: in the episode with the first female warrior named by the Waiwai; in Pete Casey’s account of ascending the Amazon over 7,000 kilometres; in Ben Weber’s 700-mile journey to the South Pole; in the Global Convoy team’s overlanding misadventures in £75 cars; and in Tom Turcich’s seven-year, 28,000-mile world walk.
