Fun fact#693
Galapagos finches shaped a theory
Darwin's finches, each with a beak suited to different food, helped shape the theory of natural selection.
The Americas: 189 stories, quotes and facts, part 2
32 stories, 47 fun facts, 10 quotes on this page. It covers Ecuador, Brazil, Peru, Americas, Argentina, Bolivia and 25 other places. Page 2 of 2.
Page 2 of 2
32 stories, 47 fun facts, 10 quotes on this page. It covers Ecuador, Brazil, Peru, Americas, Argentina, Bolivia and 25 other places. Page 2 of 2.
Countries on this page
Every country page collects its entries in one place, with a fact sheet and the guides for going there.
Entries on this page
Story#785
Piranha for dinner
We caught four and ate three. They are mostly bones and the guide clearly finds the whole tourist ritual funny, but he cooked them properly.
Fun fact#695
Quito is the closest capital to the equator
Quito sits almost exactly on the equator at 2,850 metres, giving it spring-like weather all year.
Fun fact#697
Peru grows thousands of potato varieties
Peru cultivates over 3,000 potato varieties, and the potato was domesticated in the Andes around 8,000 years ago.
Story#789
Meeting of the waters
Two rivers ran side by side for six kilometres without mixing. You can put a hand in each and feel the temperature difference.
Fun fact#699
Machu Picchu was never found by Spain
The Spanish never located Machu Picchu, which is why its stonework and terraces survived largely intact.
Story#791
Carnival in a side street
The famous parade costs a lot of money. Two streets away, a neighbourhood bloco with a hundred drummers went past for free and nobody was filming it.
Fun fact#701
Inca walls survive earthquakes
Inca masonry fits without mortar and is designed to shift and resettle during earthquakes rather than crack.
Quote#568
Two roads diverged
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference.
Fun fact#703
The Nazca lines are best seen from the air
Some Nazca figures stretch 370 metres and were only fully appreciated once aircraft flew over the desert.
Story#795
Sunset at Ipanema
The whole beach applauds when the sun goes behind the hill. Nobody organises it and nobody explains it and it happens every clear evening.
Fun fact#705
Rainbow Mountain was under ice
The striped mineral colours of Vinicunca were revealed only recently as the glacier covering it retreated.
Story#799
Iguazu from below
The boat drives you into the falls on purpose. Everything you own gets soaked and the guide films your face while it happens.
Fun fact#707
Bolivia has two capitals
Sucre is the constitutional capital while La Paz holds the government, making La Paz the highest seat of government on Earth.
Quote#573
Miles to go
The woods are lovely, dark and deep, but I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.
Fun fact#709
Salar de Uyuni becomes a mirror
When a thin layer of water covers the salt flat, it reflects the sky so precisely the horizon disappears.
Story#801
Steak and no menu
The parrilla had four items and a chalkboard. The waiter asked how we wanted it, disagreed with the answer, and served it his way. He was correct.
Fun fact#711
Bolivia holds huge lithium reserves
Beneath the Uyuni salt flat lies one of the largest lithium deposits on the planet.
Story#805
Tango in a square
Two people in their seventies danced on paving stones in San Telmo with a portable speaker. A crowd formed, and nobody who watched was under any illusion about who was best.
Fun fact#713
Lake Titicaca has floating islands
The Uros build and maintain islands from layered totora reeds, adding fresh reeds every few weeks.
Story#809
Wind in Patagonia
The wind blew constantly for four days from the same direction. On the fifth it stopped and everyone in the hostel came outside to check that something was not wrong.
Fun fact#715
Chile is over 4,300 km long
Chile stretches from desert to glacier over 4,300 kilometres but averages only about 180 kilometres wide.
Fun fact#717
Atacama is the driest desert
Some Atacama weather stations have never recorded rain, and NASA tests Mars equipment there.
Story#811
The W trek weather
Four seasons before lunch on every single day. Nobody bothered changing clothes for the rain because it would be sunny again in twenty minutes.
Quote#712
Mañana
Mañana does not always mean tomorrow. Sometimes it just means not today.
Fun fact#719
Atacama skies are the clearest
Dry air and high altitude make the Atacama the best place on Earth for optical astronomy, hosting major observatories.
Story#815
Stars in the Atacama
The guide switched off the last light and asked us to wait ten minutes for our eyes. The Milky Way arrived as if someone had turned it on.
Fun fact#721
Easter Island's statues have bodies
Excavations showed the famous moai heads sit on full buried torsos covered in carvings.
Fun fact#723
Patagonia's ice field is the third largest
Only Antarctica and Greenland hold more ice than the Southern Patagonian Ice Field.
Story#819
Salt flat perspective
Everyone takes the same forced-perspective photo and everyone thinks they invented it. Our driver had a box of props and a practised routine and enjoyed it more than we did.
Fun fact#725
Perito Moreno advances instead of retreating
This glacier is one of the few in the world that is broadly stable, periodically damming a lake until the ice arch collapses.
Story#822
Death road brakes
Sixty-four kilometres downhill with a drop on one side. The guide said the brakes were the only thing worth checking and then checked them four times.
Fun fact#727
Argentina has the widest avenue
Avenida 9 de Julio spans about 110 metres, and crossing it can take more than one traffic light.
Quote#718
Tranquilo
Tranquilo: relax, it will happen, and worrying will not speed it up.
Fun fact#729
Tango was born in the port
Tango emerged in the working-class port neighbourhoods of Buenos Aires and Montevideo in the late 19th century.
Story#825
La Paz cable car commute
The world's biggest urban cable car network is public transport, not a ride. We commuted across the city over rooftops for the price of a bus fare.
Fun fact#731
Aconcagua is the highest peak outside Asia
At 6,961 metres, Aconcagua is the tallest mountain in both the Southern and Western hemispheres.
Story#829
Titicaca reed island
The ground moves under your feet like a mattress. They add fresh reeds every fortnight and the whole island is rebuilt from underneath over about thirty years.
Fun fact#733
Iguazu has 275 separate falls
The Iguazu system comprises up to 275 waterfalls spread nearly three kilometres along the border.
Story#832
Ceviche at eleven
The best cevicherias close in the afternoon because the fish is from that morning. Anyone serving ceviche at eight in the evening, our host said, is telling you something.
Fun fact#735
Brazil covers almost half of South America
Brazil occupies about 47 percent of the continent and borders every South American country except Chile and Ecuador.
Quote#953
Not I, nor anyone else
Not I, nor anyone else can travel that road for you. You must travel it by yourself.
Fun fact#736
The Amazon has no bridges over its main stem
No bridge crosses the main Amazon River. Communities rely on ferries and boats along thousands of kilometres.
Story#836
Rainbow Mountain crowd
Five thousand metres, three hundred people and a queue for the summit photograph. Twenty minutes along the ridge there was nobody at all and the same view.
Fun fact#739
The Amazon meets the Rio Negro without mixing
Different temperatures and speeds keep the dark Rio Negro and sandy Solimoes flowing side by side for kilometres.
Story#839
Galapagos indifference
Nothing runs away. A sea lion slept on a bench, a bird walked over my boot, and a marine iguana sneezed salt at me without moving.
Fun fact#741
Brasilia was built from nothing
Brasilia was planned and constructed in about four years and inaugurated in 1960, laid out in the shape of an aeroplane.
Fun fact#742
Rio's Christ was struck by lightning
The statue is hit regularly, and spare soapstone from the original quarry is kept for repairs.
Story#842
Market day in Otavalo
The animal market starts at six and finishes by nine. Everything else is for tourists and the sellers say so themselves, cheerfully.
Fun fact#745
Brazil grows a third of the world's coffee
Brazil has been the largest coffee producer for more than 150 years, mostly arabica from Minas Gerais and Sao Paulo.
Quote#957
Afoot and light-hearted
Afoot and light-hearted, I take to the open road, healthy, free, the world before me.
Story#846
The night bus and the puncture
We stopped on a mountain road at two in the morning. The driver, the conductor and six passengers changed the wheel by phone torch in eleven minutes.
Fun fact#746
Uruguay legalised beach camping culture
Uruguay's small population and long coast mean entire stretches of beach stay empty even in high summer.
Fun fact#749
Paraguay has two official languages
Guarani is co-official with Spanish and is spoken by a majority of the population, unusual in the Americas.
Story#849
Havana at eight in the evening
Somebody was playing dominoes on the pavement, somebody was fixing a car, somebody was singing. All three had been doing it since before we arrived and continued after.
Fun fact#750
Cuba's classic cars are necessity
A 1959 import ban froze Havana's fleet, so mechanics kept 1950s American cars running with improvised parts.
Story#852
The Cuban mechanic
He had made a part for a 1955 Chevrolet out of a Russian tractor component. He showed it to us the way other people show photographs of their children.
Fun fact#752
Jamaica gave the world reggae
Reggae developed in Kingston in the late 1960s and is recognised by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage.
Quote#963
Now I see the secret
Now I see the secret of making the best person: it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth.
Fun fact#755
Haiti and the Dominican Republic share one island
Hispaniola is one of very few Caribbean islands divided between two sovereign states.
Story#856
Jamaican bus music
The volume was not negotiable. A grandmother two rows up conducted with one hand and the driver adjusted the bass on her instruction.
Fun fact#756
Dominica is the nature island
Dominica has a boiling lake, 365 rivers by local count, and a 184-kilometre hiking trail down its spine.
Story#860
Hurricane shutters in July
Every house had them and nobody used them that week. The shop owner said you fit them in May and forget them, and that forgetting is the whole point.
Fun fact#759
Barbados has flying fish on its coins
The flying fish is a national symbol, and cou-cou with flying fish is the country's national dish.
Fun fact#760
Trinidad has a natural asphalt lake
Pitch Lake holds the largest natural deposit of asphalt in the world and refills itself as it is dug out.
Story#862
Snorkelling the blue hole
From the boat it is a dark circle in turquoise. From the water it is a wall going down into nothing and your brain refuses to process the scale.
Fun fact#762
The Bahamas has swimming pigs
Feral pigs on Big Major Cay swim out to meet boats, a habit that turned into an unlikely tourist attraction.
Quote#967
Keep your eyes on the stars
Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.
Story#866
Bioluminescent paddle
No moon, no lights, no cameras allowed. Every paddle stroke lit up and fish left trails like sparks under the kayak.
Fun fact#765
Puerto Rico glows in three bays
Puerto Rico has three bioluminescent bays, more than anywhere else, with Mosquito Bay the brightest recorded.
Fun fact#766
Saba has the shortest commercial runway
Saba's airstrip is around 400 metres with cliffs at both ends, flown only by small aircraft and specially certified pilots.
Story#870
The wrong island
We took the wrong ferry and spent a day on an island with one road, one bar and eleven residents who found the whole thing very funny.
Fun fact#768
Greenland is part of the Americas
Geographically Greenland sits on the North American plate although politically it is tied to Denmark.
Story#874
Waiting out the storm at altitude
Afternoon thunderstorms arrive almost daily in summer. A ranger said the rule is simple: summit by noon, and if you cannot, do not summit.
Fun fact#770
The Panamerican Highway has a gap
The Pan-American Highway runs from Alaska to Argentina except for about 100 kilometres of roadless jungle in the Darien.
Quote#973
Do what you can
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
Fun fact#772
The Andes are the longest mountain range
The Andes run about 7,000 kilometres along South America's spine through seven countries.
Story#876
Trail magic
A stranger had left a cooler of cold drinks at a road crossing with a note. Nobody took more than one, and somebody had refilled the ice that morning.
Fun fact#774
Hummingbirds only live in the Americas
All 360-plus hummingbird species are native exclusively to the Americas, with the greatest diversity in Ecuador and Colombia.
Story#880
The desert night sky
We drove twenty minutes from the town and the difference was absurd. A ranger explained dark sky certification and then turned off her own torch to prove the point.
Fun fact#776
Llamas were the only Andean pack animal
Before horses arrived, llamas were the sole large pack animal in the Andes, which shaped how the Inca built roads.
Story#884
Slot canyon rain rule
The guide checks the forecast for the whole watershed, not just the canyon. A storm eighty kilometres away can fill a slot canyon in minutes and there is nowhere to go.
Fun fact#778
Maple syrup has a strategic reserve
Quebec maintains a global strategic maple syrup reserve to stabilise prices between good and bad harvests.
Quote#977
Far better it is
Far better it is to dare mighty things than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much.
Fun fact#780
The Great Lakes hold a fifth of surface fresh water
Together the five Great Lakes contain about 21 percent of the world's surface fresh water.
Story#886
A hostel kitchen in winter
Nine nationalities, one pot of soup, minus twenty-eight outside. Somebody's grandmother's recipe was reconstructed by committee and it was excellent.
Fun fact#782
Niagara Falls has been switched off
In 1969 engineers diverted the American Falls to study rock erosion, leaving the cliff temporarily dry.
Story#890
The overnight train that ran late
Freight has priority, so passenger trains wait on sidings. We were eleven hours late and the dining car simply kept serving as if it were a hotel with wheels.
Fun fact#997
Some trees are older than writing
Great Basin bristlecone pines in the White Mountains have been growing for more than 4,800 years, predating the earliest known written records.
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