Panama Trivia

1. Which Spanish explorer was the first to explore Panama in 1501?

From Quiz A Man, a Plan, a Canal - Panama!

Answer: Rodrigo de Bastidas

Perhaps a more obscure explorer, Rodrigo de Bastidas explored Panama and mapped much of the northern coast of South America. Whilst he was able to claim the upper part of Panama on his Caribbean travels, he was quickly forced to return to Santo Domingo as his ships were in poor shape from shipworm. Just one year later, Christopher Columbus came along and arrived in Almirante Bay in October of that year. Before leaving for the Far East on his fourth and final voyage, he traded with the natives for several precious items. This voyage was almost a massive failure - he was stranded in Jamaica for a year in 1503 and had to pull a party trick of correctly predicting a lunar eclipse for them to keep feeding his crew. He also had to put down a mutiny. In November of 1504, he was finally able to return home to Spain, only to die two years later in 1506.

From Quiz A Man, a Plan, a Canal - Panama!

Answer: Gamboa

Tropical rainforests such as the Gamboa are warm all year round and maintain a high humidity between around 77-88%. Visitors to Panama can visit the Gamboa rainforest on the Gulf of Panama, just half an hour from the capital, Panama City. They can enjoy kayaking tours of the Chagres River, the intriguing man-made Gatun Lake and the nearby Soberania National Park, home to some of Panama's huge variety of birds. Gamboa is highly biodiverse - other than the toucans, jaguars and sloths there's also a butterfly farm, frog pond and orchid nursery to experience at the Gamboa Wildlife Center. Panama's national bird, the harpy eagle, can also be found in these rainforests; it is a large and powerful raptor, albeit an infrequently seen one.

From Quiz Prospecting 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.

From Quiz A Man, a Plan, a Canal - Panama!

Answer: Colón

Colón is situated at the mouth of the Panama Canal on the Caribbean coast and was named in honour of Christopher Columbus; it was established in 1850. The Panama Railroad was completed in 1855 and served as an engine during the Californian Gold Rush which significantly increased passenger and freight traffic to the region. The city has had many devastating fires - the Burning of Colón in the 1885 Civil War, a massive fire in 1915 and The Great Colón Fire in 1940 all set the city back a long way. However, it outlived these fires, since in 1953 it was made a free trade zone and eventually became one of the most significant duty-free ports.

From Quiz Prospecting Panama

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.

From Quiz A Man, a Plan, a Canal - Panama!

Answer: 74,340 km2

Panama is about 50% larger in terms of land area, but is still fairly small. To get a sense of perspective, the UK has an area of 242,495 km2, with the UAE having a comparable 83,600 km2. Even though Panama is a narrow and thin country, it might be surprising to learn that its narrowest point between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans is around just thirty miles. In ascending order, the incorrect options correspond to Belize (22,965 km2), Colombia (1.142 million km2) and Brazil (8.516 million km2).

From Quiz Prospecting Panama

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.

From Quiz A Man, a Plan, a Canal - Panama!

Answer: Isthmus of Panama

As we've established, Panama is a fairly small country, and the Isthmus of Panama is the landmass containing the country. Geologically, scientists believe the Isthmus of Panama had an important role in forcing the Atlantic currents north-ward to form what we know as the Gulf Stream. These waters warmed north-western Europe and without the Gulf Stream the winter temperatures could be up to 10C cooler - in that respect as a Brit I quite appreciate the existence of the Isthmus of Panama! A strait is a narrow passage of water between two larger areas of water, an atoll is a ring-shaped reef or chain of coral islands, and a peninsula is a body of land almost entirely surrounded by water.

From Quiz Prospecting Panama

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.

From Quiz A Man, a Plan, a Canal - Panama!

Answer: Coffee

In 2018, the Geisha coffee was one of the most expensive in the world outside of those created by civet cats and elephants, and could sell for $68 for just one cup in Dubai. The Hacienda La Esmeralda in the Boquete valley in western Panama was the most significant creator of this award-winning specialty coffee and could secure over $500 per kilo of this difficult to grow commodity. Panama isn't strongly associated with its coffee and its economy historically has been more built on service than exports. However, the coffee arabica requires a lot of water and shade and most climates don't support the Geisha variety as well as in Panama, hence the niche degree of success with this specialty coffee.

From Quiz Prospecting Panama

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.

From Quiz Prospecting Panama

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.

From Quiz A Man, a Plan, a Canal - Panama!

Answer: Nicaragua

The United States wanted a canal linking the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and were willing to spend to make that happen. In 1888, French engineer Philippe-Jean Bunau-Varilla found himself stranded in Panama after the Panama Canal Country went bankrupt. He went home and purchased stock in the New Panama Canal Country and worked hard to successfully convince the U.S. Senate and Theodore Roosevelt to invest $40 million dollars in the New Panama Canal Company over the popular alternative, Nicaragua, which had been favoured due to having been a less politically charged region. When a deal was secured in 1902, Colombia - who owned Panama at the time - refused to ratify an agreement allowing the U.S to create the canal. However, with support from Bunau-Varilla and Roosevelt, the Panamanians revolted and secured their independence in 1903, allowing the construction to really get started. In 1914, the project was finally completed, although not without cost - over 12,000 had died in its construction. In a sense, tying it back in with the title, Bunau-Varilla was the man with the plan to create the canal in Panama, not Nicaragua. How different could things have been if Nicaragua had won the bid instead?

From Quiz Prospecting Panama

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.

From Quiz A Man, a Plan, a Canal - Panama!

Answer: Pearl Islands

The Pearl Islands contain Isla del Rey, the second largest Panamanian island after Coiba, and Vasco Nunez de Balboa who found the islands in 1513 named them after their many pearls. The Contadora Island used to be a haven for the Spanish conquistadors who used the island to take stock - the name 'Contadora' derives from 'counter' - and has become a resort island for the wealthy. The other major inhabited island, Saboga, used to have a high-end expensive resort until its owner died in 2011 with the resort's ruins having been left standing. Three of the "Survivor" competitive reality series famed for the battle between two tribes have been filmed in the Pearl Islands -- "Survivor: Pearl Islands", "Survivor: All-Stars" and "Survivor: Panama". They were considered a largely unexplored paradise before these shows made them, relatively speaking, much more of a tourist trap.

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