Cruising the End of the World Trivia Quiz

Answer: Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is the second largest city in South America (Sao Paulo, Brazil is the largest). The 2001 census showed the population to be 12,129,819 people, which was approximately the same as the population of all of the Canadian province of Ontario (12,160,282 people in the 2006 census).
Buenos Aires is situated on the southern bank of the Rio de la Plata, a very wide (220 kilometres at its widest point) river. In some places it is quite shallow, making it a challenge for some of the larger ships. The river forms the border between Argentina and Uruguay.
The average temperatures for Buenos Aires run from 40 degrees Celsius in January (height of the summer) to 14 degrees Celsius in July.
Buenos Aires means good air.

Answer: Stanley

Stanley is situated on the southern coast of east island. The 2006 census yielded a population of 2,115, which compared with 2,955 people in all of the Falklands (including Stanley), in the census of the same year. (These numbers included military personnel stationed there, but not their families).
The Falklands are a British Overseas Territory, and there has been an age-old dispute between Britain and Argentina about ownership of the islands. In fact we were advised, before going ashore, to refer to them as The Malvinas when in Argentina.
On April 2, 1982 Argentina invaded the Falklands (as well as other British holdings in the area), occupying them until Britain was able to send her forces down to reclaim her territories. Argentina surrendered on June 14, 1982, but in the meantime soldiers had planted many minefields. Some of those minefields have been cleared, but many still exist, complete with warning signs.
The climate is cold and wet, with the highest average temperature only 13 degrees Celsius, and that occurs in January and February.

Answer: the climate during the last Ice Age, along with the movement of the underlying soil

Rocks left behind by glacial retreat have been dragged across the land by the weight of the glacier. This generally results in more worn, rounded rocks. The quartzite rocks, found in these rivers of rock, are far too sharp-edged to have been subjected to that. These rocks would not have been covered by ice, but they would have been subjected to freezing, thawing and the heaving of the surrounding, underlying rock by frost.

The movement of the soil underneath them, aided by the flow of water and the slope of the land, would have carried them along, as if in a river.

It's quite a remarkable sight.

Answer: End of the World Train

After a couple of incarnations as first a mission town and then a naval base, Ushuaia became a convict settlement. The first prison opened in 1896 and the last one closed in 1947. The train tracks were laid by convicts, to transfer convicts. They would generally spend their days chopping down trees, the stumps of which can still be seen along the sides of the tracks.

The height of the stump indicates whether the tree had been felled in the summer or the winter - the deeper the snow, the higher the cut and the larger the remaining stump. The train is a narrow gauge one and, as a tourist attraction, it deposits its passengers in Tierra del Fuego Park.

There you board a bus that takes you Ensenada Bay for some photo opportunities before returning, by bus, to the station.

Answer: glacial melt

Of the many glaciers nestled in the mountains along the Beagle Channel, only a couple are still advancing. These reach the water's edge and berg bits of glacial ice can be seen floating underneath them. The rest of the glaciers are retreating and no longer reach the water's edge. The Romanche Glacier is melting so quickly, that the run-off forms a waterfall.

Answer: Magdalena Island

Given the fact that Chile is an overwhelmingly Catholic country, it is fair to assume that Magdalena Island was named after Mary Magdalene, although my research has been unable to verify this. Magellanic Penguins were named after explorer Ferdinand Magellan.
Magdalena Island is a small island (about the size of a shopping mall), located in the Strait of Magellan. It is uninhabited except for the penguins, which are burrowing penguins. When we saw them, most of the pairs of mating penguins had two chicks, so there were a lot of penguins to be seen, heard and smelled!

Answer: Araucaria auracana

This evergreen is the national tree of Chile, and is native to regions in Chile and Argentina. It is part of the conifer genus and can grow to be 40 metres tall, with a trunk that's up to two metres in diameter.
There are male and female trees, but although both of them bear (different kinds of) cones, they do not do so until the tree is mature, at 30-40 years old. An individual tree can live up to 1,000 years and the species has been around for so long that it is sometimes referred to as a living fossil.
This is a seriously cool tree.

Answer: Yes

Osorno is considered an inactive volcano, and its last eruption occurred in 1869. However it was very active in its day, with eleven eruptions recorded between 1575 and 1869. It towers 2,652 metres above Todos Los Santos lake below.
Our bus took us up to the edge of the snow line, where a small skiing facility exists. We were literally above the clouds. Visible, from both the top of Osorno and from the city below, is Volcano Calbuco, an active volcano. Its last eruption, in 1893, literally blew its top off.

Answer: Easter Island

Although it lies in the Pacific Ocean, over 3,500 km away, Easter Island is a special territory of Chile. It was named because the first European explorer to 'discover' it, did so on Easter Sunday. The island is small (163.6 sq. km) with a population of less than 5,000, as estimated in 2010.

It did, however have 887 of these wonderful stone heads. Two of these have been moved to the Chilean mainland. We were lucky enough to see the one here in Valparaiso.

Answer: Santiago

With an estimate population of almost five million (as of 2007), Santiago is a large city, about an hour's drive away from the port at Valparaiso. Average temperatures range from 30 degrees Celsius in January and February, to 13 degrees in July. The day we were there it hit a very warm 40 degrees.
Although our flight wasn't until late at night, we had to depart the ship in the early morning. In order to pass the day, many excursions were available and the one we took involved tours of both Valparaiso and Santiago, as well as surrounding valleys.