Bucketlist Alternatives to Skydiving Quiz

Answer: Vanuatu

In all, there are eighty-three islands that make up Vanuatu. Pentecost Island stretches for around sixty kilometres north to south and lies due north to the fourth largest island Efate, home to Vanuatu's capital of Port Vila. Its name is derived from the Christian holiday of Pentecost, the day on which the island was first sighted by French explorer Louis-Antoine, Comte de Bougainville. It is noted for its rainforested mountainous landscape, waterfalls, swimming holes and sandy beaches.

The centuries old annual land diving ritual, variably known as naghol, nanggol, n'gol or simply the gol, takes place in the southern villages of Pentecost Island between April and June. It involves the men of the village climbing crude wooden towers, constructed from the cuttings of local trees, to as much as thirty metres high. Liana vines are then tied to the tower with the other end tied round the legs of the men before diving head first to the ground below. The ritual was originally performed to ensure a plentiful crop of yams, a staple food of the Ni-Vanuatu diet, with the belief that the closer a diver gets to touching the ground the better the harvest will be, so making contact between the head and the earth is the most desirous outcome.

Answer: Mumbai

Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, is the capital of the state of Maharashtra and lies on the west coast of India bordered by the Arabian Sea. It is India's most populous city, its busiest port and the leading player in the economic growth India has seen in the early part of the twenty-first century. Mumbai's origins were far more humble than this though; it originally consisted of seven swampy islands which were home to local fishermen. They were ceded to Portugal in the sixteenth century who in turn gifted them to England as part of the wedding dowry for the marriage of Catherine of Braganza to King Charles II. The British government took control of the islands a few years later and leased them to the East India Company who slowly but steadily developed them into a trading port. The first major growth of Mumbai was realised in the mid-nineteenth century when a land reclamation project saw the original seven islands merged into a single landmass.

The Indian film industry is the most productive in the world with more than one thousand movies being made there each year, the majority of these being produced in Mumbai. The term Bollywood, a hybrid of Bombay and Hollywood, has incorrectly become synonymous with all films made in India. In its true sense, Bollywood refers only to films with a completely Hindi dialogue.

Answer: Pamplona

Nestled in the foothills of the Pyrenees, not far from Spain's border with France, the city of Pamplona is steeped in history and has been the capital of the province of Navarre since the ninth century. It was originally known as Iruna by the Vascone inhabitants, the supposed ancestors of the modern day Basque people. In the first century B.C. it served as a military outpost for the Roman armies and was given the name Pompaelo in honour of Pompey the Great. Control of Pamplona changed hands many times throughout the centuries with Visigoths, Moors, Franks and the Holy Roman Empire all contributing to its history.

Pamplona's Running of the Bulls, or encierro in Spanish, is part of a bigger celebration known as Fiestas de San Fermin that takes place each year between the 6th and 14th of July. Each morning of the festival sees a crowd gather at the Plaza Santo Domingo awaiting the sound of a rocket which is the signal that six bulls have been released from their holding pen at the Corralillos. Man and beast then run the just over 800 metre route through the streets of the Casco Antiguo, the historic centre of Pamplona, to arrive at the Plaza de Toros bullfight ring. Upon arrival at the ring, runners are greeted with one of two things by the assembled spectators; jeers for arriving ahead of the bulls, or cheers for arriving with the bulls.

Answer: Hamburg

Germany's second largest city of Hamburg takes its name from a castle that was built there at the beginning of the ninth century by the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne. This castle was called Hammaburg and was the first permanent building to be constructed there. Hamburg is situated in the north-west corner of Germany at the mouth of the Elbe River, about one hundred kilometres inland of the North Sea and is one of northern Europe's largest and busiest ports. The Reeperbahn is Hamburg's notorious red light district and the seedier side of life in a port city have gone a long way to earning Hamburg its 'Sin City' tag. But even the most prudish of tourists can find something of interest there; harbour cruises, Alster Lakes, museums, art galleries and church architecture are all notable and popular tourist attractions in Hamburg.

An early Beatles line-up of John, Paul, George, Stu Sutcliffe and Pete Best first went to Hamburg in 1960. There they honed their playing skills with live performances at Reeperbahn nightspots such as the Indra Club, Kaiserkeller and Top Ten. The hours were long, the pay was miserable and the living conditions were squalid, but they later expressed that the experience led to a vast improvement in their playing skills. They returned to Hamburg twice in 1962 to play at The Star-Club, firstly between April and May but minus Sutcliffe who had left the band, remained in Germany and died just days before a reunion with his former bandmates. Their second visit was in November with Ringo Starr replacing Best on drums.

Answer: Isle of Man

The Isle of Man is located virtually in the middle of the Irish Sea almost equidistant from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. It is a relatively small island with a coastline of around one hundred kilometres but is packed full of unspoilt beauty. Its mountain ranges, glens and rural villages make it a popular destination for tourists, and Viking ship burials and ancient Celtic monuments provide plenty of evidence of its historical past. Although it is a British Crown Dependency, many Manx people consider the Isle of Man as not being a part of either England or the United Kingdom. They have had their own government since 979 which is considered to be the world's oldest continuous democracy. The island's motto is derived from their flag and coat of arms which both depict a triskelion of three legs.

The Isle of Man Tourist Trophy, simply known as TT, is a motorcycle time trial race that was first held on the island in 1907. It is held between May and June each year and is ridden on the public roads of the island. It is seen as one of the most dangerous motorcycle races in the world as many parts of the circuit are very narrow and have limited run-off space, any slight mistake by a rider could see them crash into a solid stone wall, fence or building.

Answer: Havana

The Cuban capital of Havana was founded by Spanish conquistadors around 1514 and was declared a city in 1592. It is located in the northwest of Cuba surrounded by the province of La Habana to the east, west and south, and with its north bordering the Straits of Florida. Havana saw a boom growth period in the 1920s-30s when prohibition laws in the U.S. influenced a number of American mobsters to set up hotels and casinos there. These were shut down and subdivided to supply housing for Havana's poor when Fidel Castro assumed power in 1959.

Ernest Hemingway first arrived in Cuba in the 1930s and made Havana his home for many years to come. It was in room number 511 of the Hotel Ambos Mundos that he wrote one of his most famous novels, 'For Whom the Bell Tolls.' With the money he made from this book he bought the house he had previously been renting, Finca la Vigia. There he spent his days at a typewriter and his evenings entertaining guests over copious quantities of alcohol. This house is now the Ernest Hemingway Museum. On the outskirts of Havana, the port town of Cojimar was where Hemingway harboured his fishing boat El Pilar. This town, and a local fisherman named Gregorio Fuentes, were the inspiration for Hemingway's Nobel Prize winning novella 'The Old Man and the Sea.'

Answer: Wales

Llanwrtyd Wells, which lays claim to being the smallest town in Great Britain, is considered to be the best of mid-Wales's four spa towns, the others being Llangammarch, Llandrindod and Bulith. All four towns are within close proximity to each other and are easily accessed by the A483 major roadway or the Heart of Wales railway line. Llanwrtyd Wells had been used as a site for holding Welsh music festivals known as eisteddfods until in 1732 a local priest named Theophilus Evans discovered a natural spring and drank its water after seeing a healthy frog leap from it. The sulphurous stench of the spring had been known for many centuries beforehand but its source was unknown until then. The spring was given the name Ffynnon Drewllyd, stinking well.

The World Bog-Snorkelling Championship is held each August in Llanwrtyd Wells. Here a trench is dug in peat bog and filled with water in which competitors must 'swim' relying only on the power generated by the compulsory flippers worn on their feet; the use of the arms is strictly forbidden. If this event is not to your liking, Llanwrtyd Wells has more sporting pursuits to offer. In June, the twenty-two mile cross country Man Versus Horse Marathon sees humans compete against equines in a gruelling test of stamina, and in November it hosts the Real Ale Wobble which is not much more than a pub crawl on mountain bikes.

Answer: New Zealand

The Shotover River can be found on New Zealand's south island in the Otago region. Relatively small at around sixty kilometres in length, the Shotover flows in a north to south direction before emptying into the Kawarau River northeast of Queenstown, with its main tributary running off from Mount Aurum in the Richardson Mountains. For a brief period during the 1860s, the Shotover was the scene of a goldrush after the precious metal was discovered there. As much as ten kilograms of gold was being extracted daily and the Shotover was soon dubbed 'The Richest River in the World.'

A century later a new money making scheme was found for the Shotover River when commercial jetboating was born in 1965. A popular extreme activity for tourists, these high speed cruises take their passengers on an exhilarating trip down the Shotover. Experienced operators drive their vehicles perilously close to the rock-face walls of Skipper's Canyon and perform a series of twisting and turning manoeuvres in the fast flowing rapids of Shotover that are guaranteed to leave the passengers charged with adrenaline and soaking wet.

Answer: Piedmont

Sharing borders with both France and Switzerland and with Turin as its capital, Piedmont is the second largest of all regions of Italy after Sicily. The small and unassuming town of Ivrea lies on the Dora River, a tributary of the Po River, and was founded as a Roman outpost to defend the empire from invasions from the Alps. Its history is documented in the architecture that Ivrea is now most known for. Examples include a fourth century cathedral, albeit reconstructed at least three times, an eleventh century bell tower which is the remains of St. Stephens Abbey, a fourteenth century castle built by Amadeus VI, a Count of the House of Savoy, as well as the remains of a first century Roman amphitheatre just outside the town limits.

The Battle of the Oranges is held each year in the latter days of the Christian period of Lent. Teams of armoured individuals travel through the town centre aboard horse drawn floats whilst pelting the assembled crowd with big juicy oranges shipped in from Italy's south especially for the occasion. The crowd return the favour by throwing oranges back at these individuals while trying to remain upright on the carpet of squishy citrus fruit that the roads of Ivrea become. For those who wish to be spectators to this event rather than a participant, it is essential that they wear a red cap to declare their neutrality. While this doesn't guarantee they won't be hit by any stray or poorly aimed oranges, they can rest assured that they won't be deliberately targeted.

Answer: Rio de Janeiro

While the word slum might conjure up images of extreme poverty, starvation, diseases and illnesses and a lack of fundamental necessities, this is not quite true of the slums of Rio de Janeiro or other Brazilian cities. The majority of these slums, or favelas as they are known in the local tongue, do have access to electricity and running water, things that most of us take for granted. Also, most of the people who live in the favelas do have full-time employment, albeit at a minimal wage, or are self-employed.

Some estimates put the figure of Brazilians living in favelas as high as twenty percent of the total population. They range in size from as little as five hundred dwellers to many tens of thousands. The residents of the favelas are considered to be fairly content with their way of life and are described as being friendly and welcoming to visitors and tourists. Still, caution should be exercised as muggings and pick-pocketing are not unheard of. Also, there are some favelas that are controlled by drug lords and their gangs and innocent people have been caught in the crossfire during shootouts between these gangs and the police.