Search for Posts, Maps, and Topics
First of all, I want to express my thoughts and well wishes for everyone in JAMAICA 🇯🇲, HAITI 🇭🇹, CUBA 🇨🇺, and other places in the Caribbean dealing with Hurricane Melissa and its destructive aftermath.
In the sixth episode of The Amazing Race Season 38 (U.S. Edition), teams drove a manual stick-shift vehicle northwest from Dubrovnik, CROATIA 🇭🇷 (HRVATSKA) to the town of Trsteno. Here, they visited the Trsteno Arboretum featuring trees that are over 500 years old. 🌳 Teams found a clue near the arboretum’s Neptune statue then drove further northwest along the Adriatic Sea coastline to the partially walled town of Ston. They encountered the “Bag It Up” versus “Pull It Up” Detour challenge. In “Bag It Up”, teams filled ten bags of local raw salt — each bag weighing slightly over 20 pounds each. In “Pull It Up”, teams visited a major oyster harvesting area known as Mali Ston Bay. They rowed a boat to find buoys with oysters attached; the teams then gave those oysters to a local restaurant known as Bota Sare. 🦪
Overview map of Trsteno — a town northwest of Dubrovnik and known for its arboretum
Remaining in the town of Ston, teams visited Park Komarda for the “Who Knows Their Way Around Croatia?” Roadblock. 🚧 With the navigational help of a 3D relief map of Ston, a member of each team visited several locations throughout the town to find and remember Croatian (Hrvatskan) facts. These facts involve multiple topics: letters not featured in the Croatian alphabet (Q, W, X, and Y), one of the several mottoes of Croatia (“As long as there is heart, there is Croatia”), highest mountain in Croatia at 6,007 feet* (Dinara), famous poet in Croatia (Ivan Gundulić), original length of the Walls of Ston (22,965 feet*), the date when Parliament proclaimed independence from Yugoslavia (June 25th, 1991), first king of Croatia (King Tomislav) 👑, and Croatia’s coastline length (3,625 miles*). Amazing Race contestants arrived back at the map and were tested with three questions asked by a Croatian. Contestants who did not answer the questions correctly had to answer a different set of questions for their next attempt, so some of them went back to the locations to memorize all facts.
Overview map of Ston — the second town featured in this episode
Prapratno Cove was the Pit Stop for this episode. 🏁 Eric and Tucker arrived in first place and both won another trip — this time to various locations in EGYPT 🇪🇬 including Cairo, Alexandria, and the famous pyramids. Tucker excitedly mentioned that Egypt was always on his bucket list, so it is awesome that he can check that one off! ☑ Kristine and Rubina were the eighth and last team to arrive, so they were eliminated from The Amazing Race.
* 6,007 feet equals 1,831 meters, 22,965 feet equals 7,000 meters, and 3,625 miles equals 5,834 kilometers.
According to Encyclopædia Britannica, CUBA’s population in the year 2020 was about __________ and was ranked 83rd among populations of the whole world’s countries, dependencies, and territories. The correct answer is listed further below!
A — 11,192,000
B — 192,000
C — 111,192,000
ANSWER
A — 11,192,000
A country governing in isolation despite being surrounded by countries such as The Bahamas, Haiti, Jamaica, Mexico, and the United States, the Caribbean Sea country of CUBA does not always maintain an amicable relationship with its neighbors. Regardless, there are plenty of towns in the United States named after the sometimes unfriendly Cuba and its capital, Havana. Two of these American towns are only about 15.2 miles (24.5 kilometers) away from each other in the U.S. state of Illinois.
Home to 1,648 residents in 1980 and 1,294 residents more recently in 2010, the town of Cuba, Illinois sits almost perfectly centered in Fulton County. Communities surrounding the town of Cuba — some of which appear in the map above — include Bryant, Buckeye, Canton, Checkrow, Civer, Depler Springs, Dunfermline, Fiatt, Lewistown (Fulton County’s county seat), Marietta, Saint David, Seville, and Smithfield. Straddling the Illinois River, Havana is home to 4,277 residents in 1980 and 3,301 residents in 2010. Named after Cuba’s national capital, Havana is the county seat of Mason County. Communities surrounding the town of Havana include Baldwin Beach, Bath, Buzzville, Chautauqua Park, Duncan Mills, Eckard, Enion, Kelsey, Little America, Liverpool, Long Branch, Maples Mill, Matanzas Beach, Peterville, Poplar City, Quiver Beach, Sepo, and Topeka.
The following items are major exports of CUBA: agricultural machinery, beans, chromium, cigars and tobacco, citrus fruit, cobalt, coffee, construction materials, medical products and pharmaceuticals, nickel, petroleum, potatoes, rice, salt, seafood, silica, and sugarcane. According to the International Monetary Fund (data.imf.org), countries and territories buying and importing most of those exports (February 2017 statistics) include Spain (top importer), Venezuela, Russia, Hong Kong, Bolivia, Germany, Lebanon, Cyprus, Belarus, France, Taiwan, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Dominican Republic, Turkey, Mexico, Belgium, Italy, Panama, and Canada.
Click on the map image above to enlarge it in a pop-up window.
Known as the largest island country in the Caribbean Sea, CUBA has a total of 16 provinces — provincias in Spanish. In alphabetical order, they are Artemisa, Camagüey, Ciego de Ávila, Cienfuegos, Granma, Guantánamo, Holguín, Isla de la Juventud, La Habana (Havana, Cuba's capital), Las Tunas, Matanzas, Mayabeque, Pinar del Río, Sancti Spíritus, Santiago de Cuba, and Villa Clara. Artemisa and Mayabeque Provinces came into existence in 2011, when both provinces were created from the former La Habana Province. The current La Habana Province is now the country's smallest province.
Below, simply match the past president with the correct country. Argentina and Mexico both have two answer choices. Answers are found multiple spaces down below. Of course, try not to consult the Internet or any other sources to see if you have great knowledge or guessing skills about these questions!
1. Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira was the 21st president (1956-1961) of __________.
2. Bernardino Rivadavia was the 1st president (1826-1827) of __________.
3. José de San Martin was the 1st president (1821-1822) of __________ and encouraged the independence of Argentina from Spain.
4. Jean-Pierre Boyer was the 2nd president (1818-1843) of __________, one of two countries on the island of Hispaniola.
5. Raúl Alfonsín was the 46th president (1983-1989) of __________ and was the country's first democratically elected president after a previous military government.
6. Miguel Alemán was the 46th president (1946-1952) of __________.
7. Fulgencio Batista was the 9th president (1940-1944) and the 12th "president" (basically a dictator from 1952-1959) of __________.
8. Pedro Santana was the 1st (1844-1848), 4th (1853-1856), and 8th (1858-1861) president of the __________, the other country on the island of Hispaniola.
9. Lázaro Cárdenas was the 44th president (1934-1940) of __________.
Answers
1. Brazil
2. Argentina
3. Peru
4. Haiti
5. Argentina
6. Mexico
7. Cuba
8. Dominican Republic
9. Mexico
As of May 15th, 2015, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ for CUBA in the Caribbean Sea and North America lists 11 extinct species since the IUCN began record-keeping, 1 species extinct in the wild, 67 critically endangered species, and 110 endangered species. Erythroxylum echinodendron coca plant is the single species that is extinct in the wild but still living in captivity. Some extinct species in Cuba include the Caribbean Monk Seal, Cuban Coney rodent, Cuban Macaw, Orientale Cave Rat, and Torre's Cave Rat. Some critically endangered species include the Bachman's Warbler, Cuban Crocodile, Cuban Great Funnel-eared Bat, Cuban Khaki Trope "dwarf boa," Cuban Kite, Elkhorn Coral, Hawksbill Turtle, Ivory-billed Woodpecker, Jamaican Petrel, and Zapata Rail.
Cuba post (links opens in new tab/window)
The Greater Antilles is an island group containing the largest islands in the Caribbean Sea. The major islands that are part of this group are the Cayman Islands, CUBA, JAMAICA, Hispaniola (DOMINICAN REPUBLIC and HAITI), and Puerto Rico.
The capital of CUBA, the largest island nation in the Caribbean Sea, is Havana, also known as La Habana. Havana has around 2 million people. Click Here (link opens in new window) to view the Cuba post.
CUBA is the largest island country in the Caribbean Sea. Cuba is north of the Cayman Islands and Jamaica and southwest of The Bahamas. According to Encyclopædia Britannica, Cuba’s population in the year 2020 was about 11,192,000 and was ranked 83rd among populations of the whole world’s countries, dependencies, and territories. The capital is Havana (La Habana), which has a population exceeding 2 million. The second largest city in terms of population is Santiago de Cuba.
Dual Currency System Ended
Cuba formerly had a two-currency system until May 2014. The controversial Convertible Peso (CUC) was pegged to the United State Dollar and was not used by most residents; instead, it was used mainly for foreign exchange and tourism purposes. Also, it was more valuable than the Cuban Peso (CUP). In May 2014, the government officially unified the currency; Cubans currently use the regular Cuban Peso.
Fidel Castro's Death
On Friday, November 25th, 2016, dictator Fidel Alejandro Ruz perished at the age of 90. Due to his Communist ideology, some people found it interesting that he died on Black Friday — a day that embodies capitalism! Leaders from around the world have expressed condolences or well wishes for the people of Cuba. In a statement, U.S. President Barack Obama (2008-2016) expressed condolences to family members and Cubans who are in mourning. President Obama also expressed optimism that the Cuba-United States relationship can positively grow in the days and years ahead. While there is a wide dichotomy of viewpoints about Fidel Castro, history will look back to note that the leadership of this arguably controversial, notorious, and passionate leader had an impact on Cuba and the world.
Blog Content
● The author of this GeoFact of the Day Blog creates and curates original, authentic content and posts information based on established facts. Blog posts are not generated by artificial intelligence (AI) but published by the author.
● Content and image graphics from other sources are properly credited. Many geography facts are well-established and therefore do not belong to any one source, but occasionally a fact requires attribution/credit if it is unique and hard-to-find — for example, facts found from specific cultural, anthropological, geological, and scientific (etc.) research.
● I do not copy and paste from other websites. Therefore, all posts are original but may sometimes include information, links, and/or images from credited external sources. To use a GeoFact of the Day Blog image for your website or project, write a comment below a post — then I may approve your request.
● Feel free to offer comments, suggestions, and compliments on any post or page! You can be anonymous. Spam comments with non-relevant links will be deleted.
● Thanks for your loyal readership on the educational and reliable GeoFact of the Day Blog, in existence since 2008!
