Every Country in South America

Two seconds pop quiz. Where's the largest national park in the European Union located? Somewhere in Europe? Wrong! South America? That's right! The largest national park in the EU is located in South America. It is none other than the Guiana Amazonian Park, a national park in French Guiana, a French territory located in the continent of South America. In this episode of Curiosity Ignite, we'll take you through the journey of every country in South Starting with Argentina, the first country alphabetically. I usually try to stay clear of politics, but this is rather interesting. Are you ready? Argentina has had four presidents in the last 17 years. Nothing too surprising there. But what if I told you that right before those four presidents, Argentina had five presidents in the span of two weeks? Yup, you heard it right. Five presidents in two weeks! Argentina was facing a severe economic crisis at the turn of the century during the presidency of Fernando de la Rúa. As with the way many crises unfold, riots broke out in Argentina, and de la Rúa resigned on December 20th, 2001. The presidency was then taken over by Ramón Puerta. However, it lasted for a mere two days before being passed to Adolfo Rodríguez Sá, who resigned eight days later, leaving the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Eduardo Camaño, as interim president. Three days later, Eduardo Dualde, the fifth president in less than two weeks, was elected by the Congress with instructions to complete de la Rúa's term. Dualde stayed for slightly over a year until early elections were called in 2003. Right next to Argentina is Chile, a country that's located right at the edge of the Pacific Ring of Fire, making Chile highly seismic and volcanic. In fact, Chile is the country which has the world's tallest volcano, standing at over 6,800 meters tall, and the largest earthquake ever to have been recorded, the 1960 Valdivia earthquake, measuring at over 9.5 on the moment magnitude scale. On the brighter side, since about 80% of the land in Chile is made up of mountains, the country boasts some of the most incredible landscapes. An extremely difficult thing to do, however, is a landscape image of the country's map. Chile's territorial shape is among the world's most unusual. From north to south, Chile extends 4,270 kilometers, and yet it only averages 177 kilometers east to west. Despite being extremely long, Chile is not the longest country from north to south as the title goes to Brazil, the largest country in all of South America. A world map with a Mercator projection doesn't show the true size of Brazil. Let me show you how big of a country Brazil actually is. The northernmost and southernmost point of Brazil That distance is so great that Brazil's northernmost point is closer to Canada, the northernmost country in North America, than it is to Brazil's southernmost point. This means Brazil's northernmost point is closer to every single country in both North and South America than it is to its own southernmost point. Brazil is so large that it borders every single country in South America, except Chile in Ecuador. Ecuador, the westernmost point in all of South America, is one of the few countries in the world named after a geological feature. The country is called República del Ecuador, which literally translates as the Republic of the Equator. Because of its location at the equator, Ecuador has two very interesting facts. One is that Ecuador experiences little variation in daylight hours during the course of a year. In fact, their sunrise and sunset occur at pretty much the same time all year round. And two, because of the Earth's equatorial bulge, the Chimborazo summit in Ecuador is the furthest point on the Earth's surface from the Earth's center. Or in other words, the top of Chimborazo summit is the closest place to space on Earth, even closer than if you stood on top of the world's tallest mountain, Mount Everest. The Chimborazo summit is located in the Andes mountain range, which extends from the north to south through seven South American countries, one of which is Peru. Inside Peru, on top of the Andes range, is the town of La Rinconada, the highest permanent settlement in the world, where close to 17,000 people live at 5,000 meters above sea level. Other than La Rinconada, Peru also has a few other interesting sites along the Andes mountain range, namely the Cerro Blanco, one of the tallest sand dunes in the world, the Vinicunca, a colorful rainbow mountain, and Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world. This lake is 3,812 meters above sea level, and it's right at the border of Peru and Bolivia. While Peru has the highest mountain settlement in the world, La Paz, one of the two capital cities of Bolivia, is the highest capital city in the world. Close to 2 million people live there at 3,600 meters above sea level. 400 kilometers south of La Paz is Salar de Uyuni, the world's largest salt flat. This place is so incredibly flat that the entire 10,000 square kilometers has an average ground elevation variation of only less than one meter. When it rains, a thin layer of water transforms the flat into the world's largest mirror, eight times the size of New York City. Bordering landlocked Bolivia is Paraguay, the only other landlocked country in South America. Paraguay is known as the heart of South America, as it is located in the middle of South America, and it kind of looks like a heart. What's interesting is that the country is split into two by the Paraguay River. The vast majority of the country's inhabitants live to the east of the river, while the west, known as the Gran Chaco region, is home to only around 2% of the country's population, despite it being geographically larger than the east. Another interesting fact about Paraguay is its national flag. Unlike any other flag in the world, the flag of Paraguay is the only flag in the world with two different sides. On the front, you can find the coat of arms, but on the reverse side, it's the seal of the treasury. Paraguay is not to be confused with the country of Uruguay. Interestingly, Uruguay is the world's southernmost sovereign nation, something that's not apparent even when looking at a world map. This is because Uruguay is the only country in the world that does not extend north of the 30th parallel south latitude. All other nations include at least some land further north than all points in Uruguay. In other words, Uruguay is the country with the southernmost, northernmost point. It is also the only country in South America situated completely south of the Tropic of Capricorn. While Paraguay has the southernmost, northernmost point, the country with the northernmost, northernmost point in the whole of South America is Colombia. While situated largely in the northwest portion of South America, Colombia has an Atlantic coast. In fact, Colombia is the only South American country that has a coastline on both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Off the coast of Colombia is Santa Cruz del Islote, one of the most densely populated islands in the world. Over 1,200 people live on an island smaller than two football fields. To the east of Colombia is Venezuela. No other country has accumulated more Big Four international beauty pageant titles than Venezuela. To date, Venezuela has seven Miss Universe winners, six Miss World winners, eight Miss International winners, and two Miss Earth winners. Other than having beautiful people, Venezuela also prides itself on a few beautiful natural sites. Situated in Canaima National Park is the world's highest uninterrupted waterfall. Also called the waterfall of the deepest place, Angel Falls has a height of 979 meters and a plunge of 807 meters. Also within the Canaima National Park is Mount Roraima. This beautiful tabletop mountain has a 31-square-kilometer summit area that is bounded on all sides by cliffs rising 400 meters high. The mountain also serves as the tri-point of Venezuela, Brazil, and Guyana. Guyana, a former British colony, is the only country in South America to have English as its official language. It is also the only commonwealth member country in the entire continent of South America. Another interesting fact is that Guyana is considered part of the Caribbean region. Despite being far away from the other Caribbean nations, it does not even have a Caribbean coast. Within Guyana is Keiter Falls, the world's largest single-drop waterfall by the volume of water flowing over it. Keiter Falls is about four times higher than Niagara Falls, and it is among the most powerful waterfalls in the world. To the east of Guyana is Suriname. With a population of under 580,000, Suriname is the smallest country in South America in terms of population and land area. Despite its low population, the country is incredibly diverse, and no particular demographic group constitutes a majority. The largest ethnic group, however, is East Indians, which forms about 27% of the population. As a former Dutch colony, Suriname is the only country outside Europe where Dutch is spoken by the majority of the population. Suriname is also one of only two South American countries that drive on the left, Guyana being the other. Suriname is the final South American country to be covered. If you've made it this far into the video, you're probably very much into geography, and I'm sure you would enjoy the other videos in this series. I plan to cover every country in the world, segmented by continents. So far, I've covered Europe, Asia, and North America. Do check it out if you haven't already. Africa is next, so make sure you are subscribed, and remember to turn on the notification bell to catch it when it's posted. Thanks again for watching. Don't forget to hit the like button, and I'll see you in the next video.