INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT ARGENTINA

Aconcagua, Cheese and Wine

 

The name Argentina comes from the Latin word for silver, argentum. When the original Spanish conquerors first met the indigenous people in the region, they received silver objects as presents.

Population–wise, Argentina is one of the least densely populated countries on the planet.

In 2001, during the year of the country’s worst financial and political crisis, Argentina had five presidents in just 10 days.

In 1892, Argentina became the first country to use fingerprinting as a form of identification when Francesca Rojas confessed to killing her own children in an attempt to improve her chance of marrying her boyfriend. Her bloody thumbprint was found at the scene of the crime.

The country boasts the highest and lowest points in South America! The Aconcagua in Mendoza stands at a whopping 6972 metres elevation and the lowest point is the lake "Laguna del carbon" at -105 metres in the Santa Cruz province.

Tango, the sensuous Latin dance and music, originated in the 1880s in the dance halls (and reportedly the brothels) of Argentina’s capital city, Buenos Aires.

 

Tango Show

 

The remains of the largest dinosaur ever discovered were found in Argentina. Said to be the largest creature to have ever walked the earth, the new species of Titanosaur was discovered in a desert near La Flecha in 2014, usurping the Argentinosaurus previously discovered in Argentina.

The highest and lowest ever recorded temperatures ever recorded in South America were also in Argentina. The current pope, and the first from the Americas, Pope Francis, used to work as a nightclub bouncer in Buenos Aires.

Argentina’s deceased football player Diego Maradona has inspired a religion: the Church of Maradona. It has over 120,000 members.

 

The Bonbonera

 In the Chubut province of Patagonia in southern Argentina, around 5,000 people speak Welsh. In 1865, a group of Welsh settlers crossed the Atlantic to settle in remote Patagonia. Today, some 50,000 Argentinian nationals can claim Welsh ancestry.

 Argentine farmer Pedro Martin Ureta cultivated a guitar-shaped forest to honour his late wife, Graciela, who died during childbirth in 1977. He has never seen his creation from above except in photos from friends.

The world’s widest avenue is in Buenos Aires, Avenida 9 de Julio (Avenue 9 July, Argentina’s national day of independence). It has 14 lanes of traffic and four lanes of parallel streets.

Since 1953, the national sport of Argentina has been Pato, a game played on horseback that fuses elements of polo and basketball. Pato is the Spanish word for ‘duck’ as early games used a live duck inside a basket instead of a ball.

 

Yerba Mate

Government officials in Lionel Messi’s hometown in Argentina, have banned parents from naming their children Messi because an influx of babies named Messi could ‘lead to confusion’.

The Cuban revolutionary leader Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara was born in Rosario, Argentina.

In 1977, Argentina sent a pregnant mother to Antarctica in an effort to claim a portion of the continent. The boy, Emilio Palma, was the first human to be born in Antarctica. He was born in Fortín Sargento Cabral at the Esperanza Base near the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula and weighed 3.4kg (7lb 8oz).

Argentina shares a border with 5 different countries, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia.

In 2010, Argentina became the first country in Latin America to legalise same-sex marriage.

 

Aconcagua Campsite

 

The highest mountain outside of Asia is in Argentina. Aconcagua is 6,961m (22,837ft) high and is located in the Mendoza province. It is also one of the seven summits.

Major political parties in Argentina produce their own craft beers and brand them with historic political icons.

Argentina has the world’s highest number of psychologists. In 2012, the number of practising psychologists rose to 196 per 100,000 people.

Train at the End of The World