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The most varied of all the South American nations, Peru is often visualized as a mountainous place, many visitors remaining unaware of the splendour of the country's immense desert coastline and its vast tracts of tropical rainforest. There's a rich diversity of music, dance and the visual arts from every one of its distinctive regions, and Peruvian cuisine is some of the best in the Americas, partly because of the oceanic and tropical resources from which it draws.

A fantastic land of gold, Peru was sixteenth-century Europe's major source of treasure, and once the home of the largest empire in the world – the sun-worshipping Incas. Since then, the riches of the Incas have fired the European imagination: the country was home to the world's first stone pyramids, whose genuine antiquity was only discovered in the last few years of the twentieth century. Meanwhile the desert coast is studded with monumental adobe temples and ruins from several pre-Inca civilizations. Equally unique and appealing however, is the sheer beauty of the country's landscapes, the abundance of its wildlife, and the strong character of the people.

So distinct are these three regions that it is very difficult to generalize about the country, but one thing for sure is that Peru offers unrivalled opportunities to experience an unusually wide range of spectacular scenery, as well as a wealth of human culture. There's a rich diversity of music, dance and the visual arts from every one of its distinctive regions, and Peruvian cuisine is some of the best in the Americas, partly because of the oceanic and tropical resources from which it draws.

The Incas and their native allies were unable to resist the mounted, fire-armed Conquistadors, and following the Spanish Conquest in the sixteenth century the colony developed by exploiting its Inca treasures, vast mineral deposits and the essentially slave labour which the colonists extracted from the indigenous people.

After achieving independence from the Spanish in the early nineteenth century, Peru became a republic in traditional South American style, and although it is still very much dominated by the Spanish and mestizo descendants of Pizarro, about half the population are of pure Indian blood. In many rural parts of the country, native life has changed little in the last four centuries. However, "progress" is gradually transforming much of Peru – already most cities wear a distinctly Western aspect, and roads or tracks now connect almost every corner of the republic with the industrial cities that dominate the few fertile valleys along the coast. Only the Amazon jungle, nearly two-thirds of Peru's landmass but home to a mere fraction of its population, remains beyond the reach of Peru's coastal markets.

Stretching from the majestic icebound peaks and bleak high-altitude deserts of the Andes to the exuberant rainforests and vast savannas of the Amazon basin, Bolivia embraces an astonishing range of landscapes and climates.

While three centuries of Spanish colonial rule have left their mark on Bolivia's language, religion and architecture, this European influence is essentially no more than a thin veneer overlying indigenous cultural traditions that stretch back long before the conquest.

Bolivia is dominated by the mighty Andes, which march through the west of the country along two parallel chains; between them stretches the Altiplano, a bleak and virtually treeless plateau historically home to most of Bolivia's population. Northeast of the Altiplano, the Andes plunge abruptly into the tropical rainforests and savannas of the Amazon lowlands, a seemingly endless wilderness dominated by the major rivers that flow north to the Brazilian border and beyond. East of the Altiplano, the Andes march down more gradually through a drier region of fertile highland valleys that give way eventually to the Eastern Lowlands, a vast and sparsely populated plain covered by a variety of ecosystems, from dense Amazonian rainforest in the north to the dry thornbrush and scrub of the Chaco to the south. This immensely varied topography supports an extraordinary diversity of plant and animal life, and the country's underdevelopment and lack of tourism have been blessings in disguise for the environment. Owing to its remoteness, Bolivia remains one of South America's least-visited countries despite its myriad attractions.

Besides the capital Santiago, Central Chile presents an extraordinarily fertile valley, the famous port of Valparaiso, one of the newest UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and the Andes, the spectacular mountain range that runs the entire length of the country.

The Altiplano and the Atacama Desert, the driest in the world, are located between the cities of Arica and Copiapo. The barren Atacama Desert, stretching over 1000km into southern Peru, presents an unforgettable, if forbidding, landscape, whose sights number ancient petroglyphs (indigenous rock art), abandoned nitrate ghost towns and a scattering of fertile, fruit-filled oases. Up in the Andes, the vast plateau known as the altiplano, as high and remote as Tibet, encompasses snow-capped volcanoes, bleached-white salt flats, lakes speckled pink with flamingoes, grazing llamas, alpacas and vicuñas, tiny whitewashed churches and native Aymara and Atacameño communities.

Patagonia is cursed by a persistent wind, its winters are cold and summers short. These days visitors come to Patagonia principally to hike in the country's most famous and arguably most stunning national park, Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, a massif crowned with otherworldly granite towers. Others want to follow in the footsteps of the region's famous travellers, such as the navigator Ferdinand Magellan, the naturalist Charles Darwin and, more recently, the author Bruce Chatwin. Others still just want to look at the glaciers that calve icebergs into the sea, or see penguins, or simply discover what it's like down here, at the very foot of the world.

The Chileans call the area the province of Magallanes, in the explorer's honour, and it's one of the least inhabited areas in Chile. The provincial capital is the lively city of Punta Arenas and the only other town of any size is superbly located little Puerto Natales to the northwest, gateway to Torres del Paine. Both settlements seem to huddle patiently with their backs against the elements. Since the whole of this region is physically cut off from the rest of Chile by two vast icecaps, the only links with territory to the north are by air, water or through Argentina.

Across the Magellan Strait lies the huge main island of Tierra del Fuego, the most interesting part of which lies in Argentine territory, though the Isla Navarino and its welcoming naval base of Puerto Williams are worth a visit.Perhaps the least explored and untouched corner of our planet, the amazing strength and beauty of nature can be experienced here in its full majesty. Home to penguins and whales, Chilean Patagonia's glaciers, craggy mountains and wide open spaces is a "must" for the real traveller.

One of the loneliest places on earth, tiny Easter Island, or Rapa Nui as it is known by its people, is home to some 4,000 islanders, of whom around seventy percent are native pascuenses, with the rest being mainly continentales (Chilean immigrants).

The enduring symbol of Easter Island always has been, and doubtless always will be, the monolithic statues that line its shores. The moai astonish for a good many reasons, not least because they are utterly unique, and can be found nowhere else in the world.

The Easter Island moai range in height from 2m to almost 10m, and while no two statues are identical, all are carved in the same highly stylized manner, with gently rounded bellies, arms held tightly by their sides, and long and rectangular heads, with pointed chins, angular noses and thin, tight lips curled into an expression of disdain.

It's impossible to establish exactly when the first were carved, as radiocarbon dating works only on organic material, but archeologists have proposed tentative dates of around the seventh century AD for the early statues, and around the fifteenth century for the bulk of the statues, when production was at its peak.

Easter Island clearly enjoyed a long, rich history before it was "discovered" and named by the Dutch naval commander Jacob Roggeveen on Easter Sunday, 1722, but it was another 48 years before Easter Island was revisited, this time by the Spanish commander Felipe González, who mapped the island and claimed it for King Carlos III of Spain during his six-day stay. Four years later, Captain Cook anchored here in the hope of restoring the health of his crew, who had developed scurvy during their long search for the "southern continent". As there were few provisions to be found, Cook stayed only four days, but observed with incredulity the "stupendous figures", or moai, erected on the island, though he noted that some lay strewn on the ground, toppled from their platforms.

On September 9, 1888, the Chilean navy officially annexed Easter Island, and declared it Chilean territory. The last few decades have thankfully seen a more enlightened approach on the part of the Chilean government, which has finally transferred the management of most local affairs to the islanders.

Argentina ranks as the world's eighth largest country. Standing between the tropic of Cancer and the most southerly reaches of the planet's landmass, it encompasses a staggering diversity of climates and landscapes. The mainland points down from the hot and humid jungles of its northeast and the bone-dry highland steppes of its northwest through windswept Patagonia to the end-of-the-world archipelago of Tierra del Fuego, a territory that is shared with Chile.

Argentina's vibrant, wonderfully idiosyncratic capital, Buenos Aires is the third largest city in Latin America, yet it is a resolutely human kind of place. Famous for its tango, football and European-style architecture, it also holds hidden gems, including picturesque cobbled neighbourhoods, sophisticated shopping and some of the best and most varied cuisine in the whole continent.

El Litoral is a region defined by its proximity to water. Its major attraction by far is the Iguazú Falls (shared with Brazil) in Misiones Province, whose claim to the title of the world's most spectacular waterfalls has few serious contenders.

The Northwest is a region of ochre deserts where flocks of llamas roam, charcoal-grey lava-flows devoid of any life form, blindingly white salt flats and sooty-black volcano cones, pristine limewashed colonial chapels set against striped mountainsides, lush citrus groves and high-altitude vineyards. One of the many colonial cities, Salta, is indisputably the region's tourism capital, with some of the country's best hotels and finest colonial architecture. Explore the World Heritage Site of Quebrada de Humahuaca, the Valles Calchaquies and Tucuman

As a place of extreme contrasts, Patagonia has few equals in the world: from the biting winds that howl off the gigantic Southern Patagonian Icecap to the comforting warmth of Patagonian hospitality. RN40, which runs parallel to the Andes. Two of the region's star attractions, a long way south, are the trekkers' and climbers' paradise of the Fitz Roy sector of the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, accessed from El Chaltén; and the craggy blue face of the Glacier Perito Moreno, regularly cited as one of the world's natural wonders, situated near the town of El Calafate.

Tierra del Fuego, the "Land of Fire", is where South America finally funnels into the icy waters of the southern oceans, at the end of the inhabited globe. It gets its Spanish name from the fires that these people lit when Magellan and his crew first sailed fearfully through the newly discovered straits later to be named after him. Strictly, it comprises the entire archipelago to the south of Patagonia but the term is more commonly applied solely to the main, most developed island of the group, the Isla Grande, the biggest island in South America. Its eastern section, roughly a third of the island, along with a few islets, belong to Argentina, the rest being Chilean territory.

By far and away the leading tourist attraction is the well-known city of Ushuaia, a round-the-year resort on the south coast. Beautifully located, backed by distinctive jagged mountains, it is the base for visiting the Beagle Channel, rich in marine wildlife, and the wild, forested peaks of the Cordillera Darwin. With the lakes, forests and tundra of Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego.

Located on the equator between Colombia and Peru, Ecuador is the smallest of the Andean nations. For all its diminutive size, however, the country is packed with startling contrasts of scenery, from steaming tropical rainforests and windswept highlands to ice-capped volcanoes and palm-fringed beaches.

Our journey will start in Ecuador's capital, Quito, city is dramatically hemmed in by the steep green walls of Volcán Pichincha, the benign-looking volcano which periodically sends clouds of ash billowing into the sky and over the streets.

Central Quito divides into two distinct parts. The compact old town, known as the centro histórico, is the city's undisputed highlight, a jumble of narrow streets and wide, cobbled plazas lined with churches, monasteries, mansions and colourful balconied houses. Declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1978, the old town contains some of the most beautiful Spanish Colonial architecture on the continent, and the frenetic crowds of indígenas and mestizos that throng its streets give the place a tremendous energy. Nearby is also the Monument to the Equator, about 200 m from the actual Equator, as was established recently.

In the Sierras we will visit Otavalo with its enormous Saturday market – one of the continent's most renowned. Otavalo's artesanía markets bursting with an irresistible array of weavings, garments, carvings, ceramics, jewellery and many assorted knick-knacks. Since the weaving tradition in the Otavalo valley predates even the Incas, virtually all of its tow

In the southern sierra lies the captivating colonial city of Cuenca, a UNESCO World Heritage Site famed for its stunning colonial architecture and graceful churches and monasteries and a convenient base for visiting Ingapirca - the country's only major Inca ruins.

Guayaquil, Ecuador's biggest city and an economic powerhouse that handles most of the country's imports and exports. Traditionally considered loud, frenetic, dirty and dangerous, Guayaquil is in reality much less overwhelming and intimidating than its reputation bears out, and its upbeat urban tempo makes an exciting change of pace from rural Ecuador. Moreover, improvements in public safety and huge investments in regeneration projects, such as the beautiful riverfront promenade Malecón 2000, are making Guayaquil a destination in its own right.