Angola

Angola is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking country in the world by area, and it spent most of the late 20th century tearing itself apart. A brutal 27-year civil war following independence from Portugal left the country scarred but unbroken. Today Angola is sub-Saharan Africa's second-largest oil producer, and Luanda consistently ranks among the most expensive cities on Earth - a surreal contrast in a country where most people live on a few dollars a day.

But Angola is far more than oil rigs and war stories. The country gave the world kizomba, the sensual dance style that swept through Lisbon and Paris before going global. Its landscapes are staggering: the Namib Desert's giant sand dunes in the south, tropical rainforests in the north, the otherworldly rock formations of Tundavala Gap, and a 1,650-kilometer Atlantic coastline. The Kalandula Falls are among the largest waterfalls in Africa by volume. Angola is raw, underexplored, and full of surprises for anyone willing to look beyond the headlines.