Imagine a region in the world where 60 percent of the population spoke the same language, where salsa and soccer ruled, where things are the biggest, widest, tallest, and best! Imagine what it’s like to study a language here — to study Spanish in Latin America! Keep reading to find out! If you haven’t yet decided if you want to study Spanish in Latin America yet, take a look at this:

Biggest

Giant water lilies (Victoria Amazonica) in the Amazon region — © Philip Schilling.
Giant water lilies (Victoria Amazonica) in the Amazon region — © Philip Schilling.

Occupying 40% of South America’s land mass, the Amazon basin is the biggest jungle at over 2.5 million square miles, while the Amazon river that runs through it is also the largest river on earth in terms of water mass.

Highest

La Paz, the highest capital on planet earth — © Philip Schilling.
La Paz, the highest capital on planet earth — © Philip Schilling.

Bolivia’s capital La Paz is the highest capital city on earth at almost 12,000 feet. To top it off (what a pun!), it’s also one of Latin America’s most enchanting and culturally-rich cities.

Driest

Atacama in Northern Chile, the driest desert on planet earth — © Philip Schilling.
Atacama in Northern Chile, the driest desert on planet earth — © Philip Schilling.

The Atacama Desert in northern Chile is the world’s driest hot desert. But don’t be put off — it’s an incredible tourist destination, which at 40,000 to 50,000 square miles in size, is also pretty massive!

Largest

Indigenous woman and llama in Cuzco — © Philip Schilling.
Indigenous woman and llama in Cuzco — © Philip Schilling.

It might seem obvious, but its worth noting that Latin America is the largest Spanish-speaking region on earth. Sixty percent of the population speaks the language, and includes all but two Spanish-speaking nations — Spain and Equatorial Guinea.

Longest

The Andes, the longest mountain range on planet earth — © Philip Schilling.
The Andes, the longest mountain range on planet earth — © Philip Schilling.

The Andes Mountains range are the longest in the world, spanning 4,000 miles from Venezuela, through Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina.

First

Francis, the first non-European pope — © Philip Schilling.
Francis, the first non-European pope — © Philip Schilling.

While you might just want to learn Spanish in Latin America, it’s also not a bad choice of destination if you’re a devout catholic, as home to the world’s largest Catholic population (Brazil) and birthplace of the first non-European pope, Pope Francis from Argentina.

Interested in learning Spanish in South America? Check out learning Spanish in Argentina.

Originally published on Ailola by Jayson McNamara on March 4, 2015.