I just added a friend from Venezuela to my my facebook friend page. He is a friend of my friend in San Francisco. Still, all I think of Venezuela is Hugo Chavez. I’ve always thought that Argentina was the best country in South America. Since it is the most similar to the United States, I guess that is understandable.
So, what South American country do you like?
I’ve only been to Buenos Aires, Lima and Caracas. Hugo Chavez is not the be all and end all of Venezuela. Buenos Aires is a lot like Italy; I’m not sure it’s much like the USA, although I guess I’d be forced to say it’s the closest of the three I’ve been to. All of them had their charms and their faults. I probably like them in this order: Argentina, Venezuela, Peru although I’d reverse the order for the food. Just try to NOT get beef in Argentina, I dare you! Peruvian food is awesome.
I hope to get to Brazil a few years from now. My parents have been to Colombia and really enjoyed it.
In the end, each country is different and I’m not sure it’s fair to compare them in terms of favorites.
Uraguay is better. Montevideo is such a cool sounding name.
Going off what little I know…
Brazil has the most famous football team ever. And judging by the fans of said football team, some pretty Og-damn stunning women.
And whichever country had che.
“Whichever country had Che”? You mean Che Guevara (who was from Argentina), a major figure in the Cuban Revolution? The one who tortured and murdered an awful lot of people, but was in a neat-looking photo and so lots of ill-informed people who don’t actually know much about him think he was the coolest guy ever? :dubious:
Anyway, I think it’s a weird question. Picking the best country out of a whole continent?
Like I said “Going off what little I know”
As a concept, I am a supporter of communism. As a realist I understand that it can never work given human nature.
I’ve never been down there, but from what I’ve read, I’ll guess Brazil: rain forests, amazing colonial cities, beaches, music, food, tons of different cultures (the most Japanese outside of Japan; little German towns in southern Brazil; a strong African culture in the north, etc.), a fascinating history, the “differentness” of being Portuguese speaking, etc. On the other hand, you’ve got the crime, corruption and slums.
Are you joking? The first THING you have to do in Argentina is eating meat.
I am biased but I love my country, Argentina simply has it all. Visit the provinces of the Northwest, Salta and Jujuy, and you’ll see people, landscape and culture pretty similar to Peru; go to Mesopotamia and you’ll walk through amazing rainforests; go to Patagonia and you’ll visit glacials, valleys and deserts; and visit Buenos Aires for everything else.
You’ll never regret it.
I believe that was his point.
I don’t know nearly enough about any of the countries to pick a “best”. The one I most want to visit is Brazil.
Geez, isn’t that sort of like asking which is the best country in Europe? Or what is the best state in the US?
I think every South American country has something that would be worth seeing, and I am sure there are ample things to do, things to eat, and people and culture to get to know.
I had a college roommate from Venezuela and he was a Frank Zappa look alike, a wild and crazy guy, and lots of fun to be around. He told me some great things about Venezuela. Another guy in the dorm was from Brazil…again, a great guy with some amazing stories and he made Brazil seem like “the place to be”. Then I met two women from Argentina - both were phenomenal artists and showed me some great photos of architecture in Buenos Aires that looked like old Europe.
My ex-boss at the film studio had to go to South America often on business - I believe he had been to every country there - and he had something good to say about every one of them. He seemed to like Argentina the best, but I always suspected there was some kind of romance that happened while he was there, so that choice might be somewhat skewed by someone he skewed.
Paraguay of course. 
Colombia!
Well, I went there in February and I liked it.
Brazil, of course!
(Disclaimer: my wife is Brazilian 
)
Having only visited a half dozen of the countries in South America I’m going with Bolivia.
I’m certain that this would be at odds with your opinion, however. The reason I believe this is that the OP seems to equate Best Country with ‘the most similar to the United States’.
Just so you know, that criteria would put it near the bottom of any list for me.
Not much weight to my opinion as I’ve only visited SA twice but I’ll leave it as this; I’ve very little bad to say about Peru and even less about Argentina. Both qualified as marvelous wrt the people, customs, scenery, etc.
What? Like it’s hard? Oregon and Denmark. Next question. 
I guess it depends on what’s “best.” If you can ignore the poor people and concentrate on the middle class (and above), then I’d have to say Argentina and Brazil are darned close. I guess personally the edge goes to Argentina because I don’t speak Portuguese. Venezuela is practically off the list. Too bad, too: I have some colleagues there that I’m saddened have to live in such politically deteriorating conditions.
If you’re middle class or better, and don’t have a wacko leftist socialist dictator, life in any one of the South American countries could be pretty good. Consider, though, that right now I live in the most desireable zone in the Valle de Mexico. It really kind of sucks, because you have all of these middle class people pretending that they’re upper class, and they’re pretentious as hell for no good reason. Also the population density is high (but that’s a personal preference because I realize that people live like rats in the USA, too.). The point is, even if you’re middle class you have to find the right spot in the country as well.
Shows how much you know. All right-thinking people know the answers are Ohio and Great Britain. Sheesh. :rolleyes:
I am biased, but I have to say that Ecuador, when I lived there was the best. When I say the best, I mean the best climate (Quito), the friendliest people, and the safest. It has ocean, mountain, jungle and everything in between.
I wish that I had spent more time in Peru (Southern and coastal archeological sites). I have not visited Chile (but been very close) and would like to. Bolivia was nice – never made it to Santa Clara, but I wouldn’t mind living in Cochabamba.
I only spent a short time in Colombia (the South, near the Ecuadorian border), but the people were nice, but there was a dangerous undercurrent that kept me away from other trips.
I spent a few weeks in Argentina (San Carlos de Bariloche, essentially Northern Patagonia close to Chile) and really enjoyed it. I only transited through BA, but it was a beautiful city that I would like to visit for a longer time. BA is too too big for my tastes, as is Lima, Peru, home of the brown skies. I been learning Portuges in case any jobs open up in Brasil – I would like to go, but the wife doesn’t.
Food-wise? The Ceviche in Peru and Ecuador is superb. That’s a good first course. I will agree that meat-wise, Argentina is great, but in Quito we used to go to this Brasilian Cuhasqueria (spelling) that was meat meat meat until you held up your hands in surrender. Of course, we used to go to a really nice Argentinian place on Amazonas. Depending on your location, the varieties of fruits is incredible. Chilean wine is quite good and pisco (my distilled spirit of choice) is cheap and plentiful.
One thing. When I was in Ecuador, I missed two things; baked potatoes and crisp lettuce. Potatoes were for Indians and the lower classes and the lettuce was treated to kill the bacteria. Coulda killed for a potato and salad at the Argentinian place.
Oh – On my way back from Argentina, I was packing a wonderful sausage for traveling snack. It was on the large (and salty) side. As there is hoof and mouth in Argentina and you can’t bring in their meat, I had to scarf it on the plane so that the DoA beagles wouldn’t take it. Seriously dehydrated.
I wonder how they treated it? It’s a defacto standard here in Mexico to treat virtually everything for microbes. At home I just use bleach although my wife prefers iodine, and there are also prepared, commercial solutions readily available. Doesn’t wilt the lettuce at all. If they’re using microwaves, well, yeah, that does a number on lettuce and other greens.