32 Fascinating Facts About South America

There is an island named Ilha da Queimada Grande off the coast of Brazil that is so greatly infested with venomous snakes (1-5 snakes per square meter) that the Brazilian navy has quarantined it. It is called 'Snake Island.'

27. Argentina was given its name because it was thought that the country was going to be rich in silver, Argentum being the Latin name for silver. Ironically, Argentina was rich is many minerals except Silver.

28. Chile printed a number of 50 peso coins in 2008 that misspelled the name of their country as "Chiie". No one noticed until 2009, at which point the director of the Mint lost his job.

29. Bolivia's largest prison, San Pedro, has a society within itself, with no guards inside the walls. It has shops and restaurants run by inmates. Inmates elect their own leaders, get jobs to pay for their cell's rent, and can even live with their wives and children.

30. When Suriname became independent a full 1/3 of the country took up the offer to become Dutch citizens instead and migrated to the Netherlands

The city of Rinconada in Peru is the world's highest elevated city at 16,732 feet above sea level and its economy is based around a gold mine that operates on a unique system where employees work for 30 days without payment, and on the 31st day they are allowed to take as much ore as they can carry.

32. Zerão is a stadium in Brazil where the midfield line lies exactly on the Equator, meaning each team defends one hemisphere.