A Continent Made For Sport

From tropical Panama to the cold, windblown land of Tierra del Fuego, South America stretches down 4,750 miles of jungle, desert, mountain, plain and sea. Its rugged, bold and varied terrain provides a setting for some of the world's best sport, as shown in these photographs by Jerry Cooke. Here the Pan American Highway, destined eventually to connect Fairbanks, Alaska with Cape Horn, runs down the coastal desert of Peru past the high, rolling dunes, which have become famous for sand skiing.

Along the Caribbean shore at Barranquilla, Colombia, there is year-round fishing for snook, jack and pompano. Nearby lagoons are full of tarpon.

High above La Paz, skiers from Argentina, Bolivia and the U.S. start the climb to the 18,300-foot summit at Chacaltaya, Bolivia, the world's highest run.

Against hazy peaks and beneath poincianas that make Rio's Gavea the most beautiful course in South America, four U.S. golfers play the 4th green.

Under a Chilean volcano a party of Santiagans fishes Lake Villarrica for the big, brawny brown trout that are the special quarry of an angler's summer.

On a quiet deck, by a crowded shore, life on the water begins in November. Peaks called Adam and Eve are landmarks of a Rio sail. At Mar del Plata, Argentina's most popular beach, cabanas crowd the sand and 12,000 people crowd the world's largest casino each night.