42 Cool Facts About Countries From South America

In 2011, Argentina's government forced 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.

27. Some children in Colombia need to use a quarter of a mile high zip line above the Rio Negro River because it’s the only way they can get to their school.

28. The city of Iquitos in Peru is the largest city in the world which you can't access by road. The only way to get there is by plane or boat.

29. In La Paz, Bolivia, there are isolated "hotel rooms" where alcoholics can, for a small fee, go to drink themselves to death without fear of interruption. Aptly, they are known as "Elephant Graveyards."

30. In Brazil, it is so common to get robbed in the streets that a lot of people carry an extra cellphone (they call it the “thief’s phone”) which they can give to the robber if they are ever robbed.

In 1985, the rate of inflation in Bolivia went from an estimated 25,000% to a single digit within a period of less than 6 weeks because of economic “shock therapy” designed by their former president.

32. There is a small town named Colonia Tovar in Venezuela that was founded by German immigrants in 1843. It has maintained its authentic origin culture, including architecture, cuisine, and language, so much that it is known as 'The Germany of the Caribbean.'

33. There is a hotel named Palacio de Sal in Bolivia that is made completely out of salt, and licking the walls is strictly forbidden inside the hotel.

34. 30,000 people disappeared during Argentina’s dirty war. Every Thursday Buenos Aires’ Plaza de Mayo fills with women wearing white scarves and holding signs covered with names of those who were kidnapped by the government.

35. There is a bridge named Queshuachaca made of grass in Peru that was originally built 500 years ago and is rebuilt every June.

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.'

37. 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.

38. 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.

39. 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.

40. 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.

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