Prospecting Panama Trivia Quiz

Answer: False

There are over 300 varieties of birds found in Panama, as well as some of the rarest and most beautiful butterflies. The plant and animal life in Panama is very diverse. Colombia, though, has more varieties of birds than Panama.

Answer: Constitutional Democracy

Panama is a Republic, but its government system is that of a constitutional democracy. The president is the head of state and the head of government. Presidential elections in Panama occur every five years.

Answer: Spanish

As with other Central American countries, the official language of Panama is Spanish. It is the smallest Spanish-speaking country in the Americas, in terms of population, not area, with Uruguay being the second smallest.

Answer: US Dollar

Panama uses the Balboa as its coinage, but uses U.S. dollars for all its paper currency. In 1904, the balboa replaced the Colombian Peso, following the country's independence.

Answer: Yes

Panama lies between the Tropic of Cancer and the Equator. This means that the climate is tropical. The temperatures throughout the country are consistently high, and there is little variation between seasons. The climate tends to get colder towards the highlands, however.

Answer: Three

The flag is divided into four rectangles, two at the top, two at the bottom. The top left and bottom right rectangles are white, and are said to represent the peace in which the two political parties partake. The top right and bottom left rectangles are red and blue respectively, which represents the colours of the political parties (red for the Liberals, blue for the Conservatives).

There is also one five-pointed star in each white rectangle (blue in the top left, red in the bottom right), which also represent the parties.

Answer: 1914

The Panama Canal has proved extremely valuable for ships wishing to travel from one side of the Americas to the other. Before the canal was built, ships leaving one side of the USA for the other had to sail all the way down to the southern end of South America, around Cape Horn, and back up the coast.

The Panama Canal alleviated this problem and enabled ships to greatly expedite their progress, to the extent that the journey time was halved.

Answer: Panama City

Panama City is the largest city in Panama, home to over 800,000 people. It was founded in 1519, but in 1671, it was destroyed by Henry Morgan, a Welsh pirate, and rebuilt two years later about 8 kilometres from the original city.

Answer: Two

Panama is the southernmost country of Central America, and, therefore, North America. To the southeast is Colombia, and to the north west is Costa Rica.

Answer: Baru

Baru has the highest elevation of the three volcanoes in Panama, at 3474 metres (or 11397 feet). Baru, El Valle and La Yeguada are extinct volcanoes, with the most recent eruption being La Yeguada in 1620. Miravalles is a Costa Rican volcano.