Missing Vowels: American Countries Quiz

Answer: Argentina

Argentina is located in the south of South America and is the second largest country on the continent. Although 2.7 million square kilometres (just over a million square miles) is a big area, Argentina is still dwarfed by its larger neighbour Brazil, which is more than three times the size and accounts for nearly 50% of the continent's land area.

The western part of the country is dominated by the Andes mountain range, which also demarcates the boundary with Chile. Mount Aconcagua, the highest point in not just South America but also the whole southern hemisphere, is found in Argentina, close to that border. It stands almost 7,000 metres (22,800 feet) high.

Answer: Guatemala

Volcán Tajumulco is a conical stratovolcano in the Sierra Madre de Chiapas mountains of western Guatemala. It stands at a height of around 4,200 metres (13,800 feet) above sea level.

Guatemala has coastlines on both the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. Most of the country between these two coastlines is rugged and mountainous, but Guatemala also includes the large landlocked Petén department, sandwiched between Mexico and Belize, which is characterised by densely forested lowlands and a large system of lakes and rivers.

Answer: Haiti

Haiti occupies the western part of the island of Hispaniola, the second largest in the Caribbean. It shares a land border with the Dominican Republic. Haiti has two official languages, Haitian Creole and French, the latter of which was adopted when the country was a French colony between 1625 and 1804.

Haiti has the typical tropical climate of the Caribbean island nations, but it is also mountainous and prone to high levels of seismic activity and earthquakes. A major earthquake in 2010 cost at least 100,000 lives (with some estimates suggesting two or three times that figure) as well as causing major economic damage to a country that was already one of the poorest in the Americas.

Answer: Ecuador

The Esmeraldas River flows for around 320 kilometres (200 miles) through the northern part of Ecuador. It empties into the Pacific Ocean at the city of Esmeraldas, which is located in the far north-west of the country.

Ecuador is more famous for being one of the world nations through which the Equator passes. The name of the country means 'equator' in Spanish; Ecuador spent over 300 years under Spanish rule from the early 16th to early 19th centuries. Ecuador is also home to one of the world's tallest volcanos, Mount Cotopaxi, and the famed Galápagos Islands.

Answer: Saint Lucia

Saint Lucia is a teardrop-shaped island in the Lesser Antilles, the chain of islands that extend northwards from the coast of Venezuela. The Windward Islands form the southern section of the Lesser Antilles and include various countries in addition to Saint Lucia, such as Dominica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, and Trinidad and Tobago.

The island of Saint Lucia is largely mountainous. Its well-known landmarks include Gros Piton and Petit Piton - a pair of distinctive volcanic plugs on the south-west coast; the rainforests and mountains of the island's interior, including its highest point, Mount Gimie; and beautiful stretches of sandy beach.

Answer: Canada

The continent of North America has nearly 40% more land area than South America, but is made up of just three countries compared to South America's 12. The reason for this apparently anomaly is that the three North American countries - Canada, the United States and Mexico - are, respectively, the second, fourth and thirteenth largest countries in the world (including inland waters).

Canada gained dominion status within the British Empire in 1867 and became a fully independent member of the Commonwealth of Nations in 1931, as a result of the Statute of Westminster. It has two separate borders with the United States, one of which is the longest continuous land border in the world, while the other separates it from the US state of Alaska. Much of Canada's vast land area is uninhabited or extremely sparsely populated, particularly the most northern parts that lie north of the Arctic Circle.

Answer: Nicaragua

The Mosquito Coast is a strip of land around 60 kilometres (40 miles) wide running down the Caribbean coastline of Nicaragua and its northern neighbour, Honduras. Also known as the Miskito Coast, the area was originally defined by the territories of the local Miskito people. After the arrival of European settlers in the region, it became hotly contested between the Spanish and the British, but remained largely under British control until sovereignty was transferred to Nicaragua in the late 19th century.

Nicaragua is the largest of the seven Central American countries and sits in the middle of the isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south.

Answer: Antigua and Barbuda

While the country is named after its two largest islands - Antigua and Barbuda - it also includes a collection of small islands dotted around the coast of Antigua (Green Island, Great Bird Island, Long Island, Maiden Island and York Island), as well as the isolated rocky island of Redonda about 55 kilometres (35 miles) to the south west. All of these islands form part of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles.

The country's capital and largest city, St. John's, is located on Antigua's north-west coast. The largest city on Barbuda (which is about 50 kilometres north of Antigua) is called Codrington. Both islands are mainly low-lying and are regularly hit by hurricanes and tropical storms. Barbuda was particularly badly hit by Hurricane Irma in 2017, which damaged or destroyed around 95% of the island's infrastructure.

Answer: El Salvador

The capital and largest city of El Salvador is San Salvador. The city's location in the country's highland area means that it is around 650 metres (2,150 feet) above sea level and surrounded by volcanos. The area is prone to earthquakes and as a result San Salvador has been badly damaged on a regular basis over the centuries, including on four separate occasions in both the 19th and 20th centuries.

El Salvador is the smallest of the seven countries that make up the Central American isthmus and is the only one not to have a coastline on the Caribbean Sea. About 85% of the land is mountainous or on the high central plateau that lies between the two mountain ranges that cross the country. The remaining area around the coast tends to be lower-lying and is home to the country's cotton-growing industry.

Answer: Colombia

The five nations in question are the South American countries of Brazil, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela as well as Panama in Central America. While it covers a large chunk of north-west South America, the southern and eastern portions of Colombia are mainly covered by dense rainforest and therefore sparsely inhabited. So, somewhat oddly, it is the more mountainous parts of the country that have the higher population.

Both the country and one of its highest mountains (Pico Cristobal Colon) take their names from that of the famous explorer Christopher Columbus.