South America is a continent filled with dramatic landscapes, unusual traditions, strange historical events, and some of the most extreme places on Earth. 25 Country Facts From South America explores the continent’s fascinating diversity through stories of cities unreachable by road, rivers that refuse to mix, stadiums split by the Equator, and lightning storms unlike anywhere else on the planet. From the Andes to the Amazon, these facts reveal just how extraordinary South America really is.
Manaus Distinct River Boundary
1. When two Amazon tributaries meet in Manaus, Brazil, their waters remain separate due to differences in temperature, density, and flow speed, producing a distinct visible boundary in the river.
2. Chile is so long that it would extend from Norway’s northernmost point down to Morocco.
3. At the Tinku festival in Bolivia, women form circles and chant while men fight one another until blood is shed; that blood is considered a sacrifice to Pachamama (Mother Nature), and on rare occasions women also take part in the fighting.
4. In the 19th century, Paraguay briefly legalized polygamy for married people after a major war with neighboring countries had killed many men; at that time males constituted only 13% of Paraguay’s total population.
5. In 1985, Bolivia’s inflation rate fell from an estimated 25,000% to a single-digit figure in under six weeks due to economic “shock therapy” implemented by their former president.
6. Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador is the highest point on Earth, sitting 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) above Mount Everest. The Earth is an oblate spheroid, so the equator bulges outward. The mountain sits atop that bulge and is therefore the closest point to the moon and outer space.
7. Yungay, Peru was the site of the deadliest avalanche in history. In 1962 two American scientists predicted the calamity and were forced by the government to flee. Eight years later their prediction came true and 20,000 people were killed in a single day.
8. In 2008 Chile produced a batch of 50 peso coins that misspelled the country’s name as “Chiie.” No one noticed until 2009, at which point the director of the Mint lost his job.
9. Tardiness is so ingrained in Brazilian culture that when they want to start on time they say “com pontualidade britânica,” which means “with British punctuality.”
10. Zerão is a stadium in Brazil where the midfield line lies exactly on the Equator, so each team defends a different hemisphere.
Roadless Peruvian River City
11. Iquitos, a city in Peru, is the world’s largest city that cannot be reached by road; it can only be accessed by plane or by boat.
12. In 2011 Argentina’s government compelled McDonald’s to sell Big Macs at artificially low prices so that the country’s performance would appear better on The Economist’s Big Mac Index.
13. Guyana’s largest ethnic group are the Indo-Guyanese, also known as East Indians, who are descendants of indentured servants from India and make up 43.5% of the population.
14. In 1985 a glacier-covered volcano in Colombia erupted, instantly melting the glaciers. Two hours later a flood of rock and water 100 feet deep and traveling 39 feet per second leveled a nearby village, killing 20,000 of its 29,000 residents.
15. José Mujica, the former President of Uruguay, was considered the poorest president in the world; he donated 90% of his $12,000 monthly salary to charities and even waited his turn at public hospitals.
16. When Suriname became independent, one third of its population accepted Dutch citizenship and moved to the Netherlands.
17. In 1967 Racing Club of Argentina’s fierce rivals put a curse on their stadium by burying seven dead cats under the pitch, and the club stopped winning; it took 34 years to find all seven, and they won the championship in the same year the last cat was found.
18. The Queshuachaca bridge in Peru is made of grass, was originally constructed 500 years ago, and is rebuilt every June.
19. The Tagua Tagua observatory in Chile is known for an unusual wine whose secret ingredient is extraterrestrial: it is produced by fermenting pieces of a billion-year-old meteorite into the wine.
20. The Catatumbo river basin in Venezuela is struck by lightning more than 200 times per hour for as long as ten consecutive hours; this occurs over 100 times a year and can be predicted a few months in advance.
Named For Silver Hopes
21. Argentina was named because people believed the land would be abundant in silver, Argentum being the Latin word for silver. Ironically, Argentina was rich in many other minerals but not in silver.
22. Rinconada, Peru, is the world’s highest city at 16,732 feet above sea level, and its economy revolves around a gold mine that runs a unique system: workers receive no pay for 30 days and on the 31st day may take as much ore as they can carry.
23. In the 1900s Argentina imposed a tax on unmarried men but exempted single men who had proposed marriage and been refused. Women then started proposal rejection businesses, charging to turn down bachelors’ proposals so those men could evade the tax.
24. In La Paz, Bolivia, isolated ‘hotel rooms’ exist where alcoholics, for a small fee, can drink themselves to death without interruption. Aptly, these places are called ‘Elephant Graveyards.’
25. Peru contains 90 distinct microclimates, including 30 of the world’s 32 climate types, making it one of the most microclimatically diverse countries in the world.
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