A Chilean Potpourri Trivia Quiz

Answer: Pedro de Valdivia

All of these Spaniards are associated with the colonisation of South America, but it was de Valdivia who made the most impact on Chile. He was not the first Spaniard to visit the country, but he was sent there in 1539 with specific instructions to conquer the country. Having won the Battle of Mapocho in the early stages of the long drawn out Arauco War, de Valdivia established Santiago del Nuevo Extremo, which is still Chile's capital.

It was on the orders of Pizarro that de Valdivia went to Chile. Pizarro had already subdued much of the northwest of South America, Peru in particular, and sent de Valdivia as his lieutenant general to carry out the conquest. Cortés is associated with Mexico and de Orellana was the explorer who sailed the length of the Amazon River.

Answer: Humboldt

This medium-sized penguin lives on the Pacific coasts of Chile and Peru. Its name comes from the cold stream of water which flows past these two countries and which, itself, is named for the explorer Alexander von Humboldt. It is the coldness of the Humboldt Current, and the nutrients it supplies, that allows the penguins to live further north than most other species.

Chinstrap penguins live in Antarctica and sub-Antarctic regions while the Adélie also lives in the region, including in the Southern Ocean. Fairy penguins, also called Little penguins, live on the southern coasts of Australia and New Zealand.

Answer: Copper

Mining is a major contributor to Chile's economy with copper being the most productive - Chile became the world's largest copper producer in 1983 and has held that record for decades since. Lithium is another major export, while gold, silver and iron are among other minerals mined in the country.

The Escondida mine is situated in the Atacama Desert, as are many other mines, and is an open pit, not an underground mine. It is one of the country's leading producers of copper.

Answer: Tennis

Gonzales had a successful tennis playing career but never managed to claim a major title. His best result came in 2007 in the Australian Open when he lost to Roger Federer in the final. He also reached the semi-final at the French Open in 2009, the quarter-final in 2005 at Wimbledon and made the US Open quarter-finals twice, in 2002 and 2009.

Gonzales also has three Olympic medals in tennis to his name, winning the doubles gold in 2004, in Athens, and a bronze in singles at the same games. The silver came in the final of the men's singles in the Beijing Olympics of 2008, where he lost to Rafael Nadal.

Answer: Rainbow Valley

The Spanish speakers playing will have an advantage as "arcoiris" is the Spanish word for rainbow. The name comes from the wide range of colours in the rocks which form the valley. Reds come from red ochre, iron has oxidised to turn green and other elements include halite and gypsum. Other colours seen are yellow, purple and pink.

The Atacama Desert is the driest hot desert in the world and stretches for 1,600 mk (1,000 miles) to the west of the Andes in northern Chile.

Answer: Cowboy

A huaso is the Chilean equivalent of the Argentinian gaucho. They are skilled in horsemanship and primarily farm cattle. Traditional attire includes a straw hat, known as a chupalla and a poncho, a sleeveless cloak, called a manta.

Huaso is also the name of a horse breed, called the Chilean criollo or corallero, which is particularly used by the horsemen.

Answer: Literature

Both Mistral and Neruda are classed as poet-diplomats, as they wrote poetry and served Chile as political representatives, Mistral as a diplomat and Neruda as an ambassador. Mistral, whose real name was Lucila Godoy Alcayaga, was born in 1889 and died, in New York, in 1957. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1945 with the citation saying: 'for her lyric poetry which, inspired by powerful emotions, has made her name a symbol of the idealistic aspirations of the entire Latin American world'.

Neruda was a little later, living from 1904 until 1973. His real name was Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto. His Nobel Prize award came in 1971, saying: 'for a poetry that with the action of an elemental force brings alive a continent's destiny and dreams'. Neruda's death, in Chile, is controversial with suspicion falling on the military dictatorship in power at the time of having arranged it.

Answer: Rapa Nui

Rapa Nui is probably better known to English speakers as Easter Island, in Spanish as Isla de Pascua, and is classed as a special territory of Chile. It is situated in the southeastern area of the Pacific Ocean and is classed as part of Oceania. The island is well-known for the large stone figures, called moai, of which there are close to a thousand located there. The island is a UNESCO designated World Heritage Site.

The Galápagos Islands are a province of Ecuador, Fernando de Noronha is a group of islands classed as a district of Brazil, and the Rosario Islands are part of Colombia.

Answer: Augusto Pinochet

Pinochet was the leader of the junta which overthrew the President of Chile, Salvador Allende, in 1973. Allende's government was left-wing, promoting socialist principles and Pinochet brought in a hardline, right-wing leadership style, acting as a dictator. Any opposition was ruthlessly suppressed, with torture and execution.

Pinochet loosened his hold a little in the late 1970s and a new constitution agreed to hold a plebiscite, a country-wide referendum, in 1989. When he lost the support of the populace, Pinochet stayed in office until the election of a new president, a Christian Democrat named Patricio Aylwin, in 1990, who restored democracy to Chile.

Stroessner was Paraguayan and Bolivar was associated with several South American countries, but not Chile.

Answer: Monkey puzzle

The tree is native to the Andes with its scientific name relating to the Aracaunian people who live in the region. It is believed to date from the Jurassic period as fossils of very similar trees have been found. Seeds from the tree were brought to Britain in 1795 by a plant collector who had eaten them while visiting South America. It became a popular addition to gardens, including London's Kew Gardens.

The popular name is said to have originated in the nineteenth century from a chance remark saying that 'it would puzzle a monkey to climb that'. Despite being Chile's national tree, the Chilean pine is endangered due to fires and being cut down, often illegally.