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Category: South America

By The Generalist Posted on May 12, 2022January 25, 2023

Five presidents in two weeks

During the December 2001 riots in Argentina, the country went through five presidents in just two weeks.

Categories: 21st century history, Politics & law, South America
By The Generalist Posted on April 15, 2022April 14, 2022

The Man of the Hole

The Man of the Hole is an indigenous man living alone in the Amazon rainforest. Authorities believe that he is the last survivor of a tribe otherwise wiped out by illegal loggers.

Categories: 20th century history, 21st century history, South America
By The Generalist Posted on January 27, 2022January 26, 2022

Seventh child

By tradition, the president of Argentina is godparent to all seventh sons and seventh daughters born in the country; in Belgium, the seventh children are named after the reigning monarch, and that monarch also becomes their godparent.

Categories: 20th century history, Europe, Religion & belief, South America
By The Generalist Posted on September 15, 2021January 25, 2023

The ant in the devil’s garden

Within the extraordinary biodiversity of the Amazon rainforest lie circles of a single tree species – the devil’s gardens. And these pockets of uniformity are created by ants.

Categories: Animals, Plants, South America
By The Generalist Posted on September 13, 2021September 11, 2021

Llama berserkers

According to animal breeders you should avoid bottle-feeding baby llamas, because when they grow up they might go berserk.

Categories: Animals, Food & agriculture, South America
By The Generalist Posted on September 3, 2021September 2, 2021

The Salt Cathedral

The Salt Cathedral lies 200 metres below the surface of Zipaquirá, Colombia.

Categories: 20th century history, Architecture, South America
By The Generalist Posted on June 25, 2021June 24, 2021

Largest caves

Gruta Casa de Pedra in Brazil has the largest cave mouth in the world – it is higher than the Great Pyramid of Giza. But the largest cave chamber in the world is larger still.

Categories: Earth science, East Asia, South America, Southeast Asia
By The Generalist Posted on June 18, 2021January 25, 2023

Orinoco flow

By discharge volume, the Amazon and the Orinoco are the largest and fourth largest rivers in the world. The Casiquiare River in Venezuela connects them.

Categories: Earth science, South America
By The Generalist Posted on June 3, 2021January 25, 2023

Farthest mountain

The summit of Chimborazo, a volcano in Ecuador, is two kilometres farther from the Earth’s centre than Mount Everest.

Categories: Earth science, Oceania, South America, Weights & measures
By The Generalist Posted on April 2, 2021April 17, 2021

January weather

According to Las Cabañuelas lore, you can predict the weather for the whole year based on the weather of each day in January.

Categories: Earth science, North & Central America, Places, Religion & belief, Sciences, South America
By The Generalist Posted on January 17, 2021January 12, 2021

Alligator centaur

El Hombre Caimán is a popular Colombian myth about a man who is half man, half alligator – the result of an accident while peeping on bathing women.

Categories: Places, Religion & belief, South America
Darien Gap
By The Generalist Posted on September 28, 2020September 27, 2020

The Pan-American gap

You can drive from northern Alaska all the way to Tierra Del Fuego in southern Argentina… except for a 106km gap in the road between the two.

Categories: North & Central America, Places, South America
Villa Las Estrellas
By The Generalist Posted on August 28, 2020January 25, 2023

The town of no appendices

Before you move into Villa Las Estrellas you must have your appendix removed.

Categories: Health & medicine, Places, Politics & law, Sciences, South America, The poles
Amazon River
By The Generalist Posted on August 9, 2020April 17, 2021

The Amazon, reversed

The rise of the Andes reversed the direction of the Amazon River’s flow from the Pacific to the Atlantic.

Categories: Earth science, Places, Sciences, South America
Juan Perón
By The Generalist Posted on July 29, 2020January 25, 2023

Hands of Perón

In 1987 the tomb of Argentinian president Juan Perón was broken into and his hands dismembered and stolen. A ransom note was received but never paid, and the hands were never seen again.

Categories: 20th century history, History, Places, Politics & law, South America
Guarana
By The Generalist Posted on July 23, 2020January 25, 2023

Guarana and bullet ants

What do bullet ants and guarana have in common? The Sateré-Mawé people of Brazil.

Categories: Animals, Food & agriculture, Places, Plants, Sciences, South America

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