The Traveler's Life Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ecuador

The Colón Archipelago, which is the official name of the Galapagos Islands, is formed by volcanic islands, the largest being Isabela Island, islets, and rocks, distributed on either side of the Equator in the Pacific Ocean. The archipelago is located 906 km (563 mi) from the coast, being one of the provinces of the Republic of Ecuador. The first records of the islands were made by the Bishop of Panama, Fray Thomas de Berlanga, in 1535. Later, the islands appeared on several navigation charts and in Darwin's popular book "The Voyage on the Beagle" (1839). The islands have incredible biodiversity and are home to many endemic species, including the Galapagos tortoises.

The archipelago is accessible by commercial planes that arrive at the islands of Baltra or San Cristobal. To visit the islands, the ideal is to stay on boats, which go from island to island, each one with its fauna and flora. Islands are toured during the day and at night boats move from one island to another.

Answer: Kingdom of Denmark

Greenland is the world's largest non-continental island, and is one of the three constituent parts of the Kingdom of Denmark, along with Denmark and the Faroe Islands. It is located between the Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans. Greenland has a population of about 57,000 people, mostly Inuit or mixed Inuit and Danish. The official language is Greenlandic. Since 1721 its capital and main port are Nuuk (which means "cape") also spelled Nûk. The main public institutions, universities, and industries, especially fishing, are concentrated in the capital. Getting around the island is possible only by boat, airplane, sled, or snowmobile. There are practically no roads or railway systems connecting settlements.

Island tourism includes exploring fjords and glaciers, seeing whales, seals, different sea birds, and sometimes walruses and polar bears. The name "Greenland" was given by Eric the Red, an Icelandic murderer, who was exiled to the island and called it "Greenland" hoping the name would attract settlers. This island is estimated to have been green more than 2.5 million years ago.

Answer: United States

Another very interesting place is Juneau, the capital city of the state of Alaska. After Sitka, Juneau is the second largest city in the United States by area and the third city in Alaska in terms of population (after Anchorage and Fairbanks). The city was named after Joseph Juneau, a French Canadian miner and prospector who gained prominence with the discovery of gold on Douglas Island, circa 1880. In 1970, Juneau merged with Douglas (they are connected through a bridge) forming the city and borough of Juneau. In 2020 the population of Juneau was around 32,255. It is the capital city since 1906 and is the only one of the 49 American state capitals on the mainland that cannot be accessed by road. The city is surrounded by extremely rugged terrain and access is possible only by boat or plane. The main sources of employment in the area are public services, the fishery industry, and tourism.

When in Juneau, it is possible to take a tour of downtown Juneau, Douglas Island, and Mendenhall Glacier, where you can see whales as well as other wildlife like the bald eagle and the blue heron.

Answer: Norway

Flåm is a small village in southwestern Norway, located in the Flamsdalen valley in a branch of Sognefjorden. It is located in the Aurland Municipality and has around 350 inhabitants. The name Flåm appears in documents dating from 1340, as Flaam, which means "plain, flat piece of land", referring to the plains of the Flåm River that spread between steep mountains.

In 1923, the construction of the Flåm Line railway began. In 1942, a regular operation of steam-powered trains started on the Flåm Line, becoming a big attraction for tourists. The 20.2 km (12.6 mi) track connects Flåm to Myrdal, and is one of the steepest standard gauge railways in the world. In one hour of travel, the trains go from sea level to 867 meters above sea level, passing through 20 tunnels, a bridge, and also a few spirals. During the trip, the train stops at the Kjosfoss waterfall, where passengers get out to hear a beautiful Norwegian song performed by a woman in red.

Answer: United Kingdom

Falkland Islands is an archipelago located in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. With an area of 4,700 sq-miles (12,000 km2), and a population of around 3400 people, the archipelago comprises East Falkland, West Falkland, and 776 smaller islands. It is a British Overseas Territory, with internal self-governance but defense and foreign affairs under the responsibility of the UK.

The archipelago's capital is Stanley, located on the East Falkland island. Its economy was traditionally based on fishing and sheep farming aimed at the production of high-quality wool. Furthermore, oil companies are very excited about the evidence of offshore oil reserves. In recent decades, interest in Antarctica has considerably increased tourism in the region.

In the Falklands, you can visit colonies of penguins (there are five different penguin types), albatrosses, and petrels. The trip to the Falklands can be done by plane or by boat. When cruising through the region it is not always possible to visit Stanley, as there is no port for ocean liners to dock, and transport to land has to be done by tender, which sometimes is not recommended due to weather conditions and strong winds.

Answer: Colombia

Villa de Leyva or Villa de Leiva is a colonial town located in the Boyacá Department of Colombia. Because it is located outside the main trade routes in the high-altitude valley in semi-desert lands and without mineral deposits, the city has not developed and remained practically intact in the last 400 years, preserving the buildings of the 16th century, with their colonial style and architecture. Its central plaza with 14,000 m2 (16,700 sq-yards), the largest central plaza in Colombia, is still paved with cobblestone.

The city was founded in 1572, has about 17,000 inhabitants, and is at an altitude of 2,149 m (7,051 ft) above sea level. The region is rich in mudstone, shale, sandstone deposits, etc, which once were in the sea that covered the territory of Colombia during the Cretaceous period. The terrain is rich in fossils - there is a museum where the species found in the region are displayed - and in some places in the city, you can walk over shells in the ground, unthinkable at that altitude.

Answer: Finland

Rovaniemi is the capital of Lapland, the northernmost province of Finland. It is located near the Arctic Circle, at the confluence of the Kemijoki and Ounasvaara rivers, is surrounded by forests and has an average annual temperature of about +2.0 C (36 F), with a population of about 56,000 inhabitants.

The region has been inhabited since 750-530 BC and the name Rovaniemi appeared in documents dating from 1453, as a small nucleus dedicated to agriculture, husbandry, fishing, and hunting. The exploitation of mineral resources led to the development of the region. The city was almost completely destroyed during WWII; for this reason, when arriving in Rovaniemi, one is surprised to find a modern city, rebuilt based on a project by the architect Alvar Aalto, who also designed the main buildings of the city.

Along with Helsinki, Rovaniemi is a tourist hub, which attracts in summer and winter thousands of tourists, especially from other countries, who want to see the midnight sun, the aurora borealis, reindeer farms, etc., and thousands of children who wish to visit the Official Hometown of Santa Claus at the end of the year.

Answer: Israel

One of the most impressive places in Israel is Masada (which in Hebrew means fortress), which Herod the Great, King of Judea (who ruled from 37 to 4 BC), originally built as a castle complex in the last century BC and that was the scene of the last battle of the First Roman-Jewish War between 72 and 73 AD.

It is an ancient stone fortress, built on the top of an isolated rocky mesa on the southwest coast of the Dead Sea, 1,424 ft (434 m) above the level of the Dead Sea. Currently, access is on foot via a very steep road, named Snake Path, or by cable car. Once there, you can see the ruins of the stepped palaces, the water reservoirs, the baths, and the foreboding wall.

The story of the siege of Masada by the 10th Legion of the Roman Empire in AD 73 became known to the general public through the American miniseries aired in 1981, directed by Boris Sagal and starring, among others, Peter O'Toole. The film was based on the historical novel "The Antagonists" by Ernest K Gann, also called "Masada" (1971).

Answer: Norway

The main tourist attraction of Oslo, Norway is the "Vigeland Installation", sometimes called "Vigeland Sculpture Park", an area of about 32 hectares (80 acres) located in Frogner Park. In the Vigeland Installation, there are 212 sculptures in bronze, granite, and cast iron, which were all produced by Gustav Vigeland (1869-1943), born as Adolf Gustav Thorsen, who had great prominence among Norwegian sculptors both for his creativity and productivity.

The sculptures show people of different ages performing several activities such as running, wrestling, hugging, dancing, and so on. The main piece is the "Monolith" or the "Human Column", made up of 121 human figures, struggling to reach the top of the sculpture, carved from a single block of granite 15.5 m (51 ft) tall. All works in the park were produced by Vigeland in the period 1907-1942 and were installed in the period 1940-1943. They are the result of 40 years of Gustav Vigeland's professional life. A very popular figure in the park is "The Angry Boy".

Answer: China

The tomb containing the "Terracota Army", also called "Terracota Warriors" was found by chance by farmers who were digging a well near Xi'an, Shaanxi province, China in 1974. Archaeologists found the army which is located three-quarters of a mile from the outer wall of the tomb of the Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang (260-210 BC), who unified China and started the construction of the Great Wall. It is believed that the army was created to protect the emperor in his afterlife.

The army has about 8,000 life-size terracotta soldiers and horses, grouped into a specific military formation. With the army were also found wooden (now disintegrated) and bronze chariots, iron farm implements, objects of silk, linen, jade, and bone, weapons, such as arrows, spears, and swords, cast from a 13-element alloy, which have shine and cut to this day. The work of the archaeologists continues today, alongside the exhibit hall that opened to the public in 1994. This area was one of the great archaeological discoveries of the 20th century.