Welcome to North America! In this episode of Curiosity Ignite, we’ll explore all 23
North American countries, from the icy North of Canada to the tropical beaches of the Caribbean.
The first country alphabetically is Antigua and Barbuda, an island country in the Caribbean.
Antigua and Barbuda are considered low lying islands, with its highest peak, Mount Obama,
standing at 402 meters above sea level. Originally called Boggy Peak, this mountain was renamed Mount
Obama in 2009 even though Obama has never set foot in Antigua and Barbuda. The change was
to honor and recognize him as a symbol of black achievement. Just like the presidency of Obama,
the name lasted eight years before being reverted back to Boggy Peak. You think naming their highest
peak Mount Obama is hilarious? Wait till you hear about the neighboring county of Saint Kitts and
Nevis. The smallest country in the Americas, both in terms of land area and population,
has a bunch of delightfully named places such as Monkey Hill, Gingerland, Rices, Computer,
Canada, Fig Tree, Half Way Tree, Orgees, and I’m not making this up...Shitten Bay!
Jamaica, yet another country in the Caribbean, also has amazing names for places. They have
Rest and be Thankful, Poor Mans Corner, White House, Light Hole, and the funniest of them all,
Me-No-Sen-You-No-Come. All the way in Central America, close to one million people live in
Guatemala, Guatemala, Guatemala. That is because country Guatemala is divided into
22 departments with the capital, Guatemala City, located in the Guatemala Department.
If you ever plan to visit Guatemala, make sure to take a trip up north because that’s where you
get to see all the ancient Mayan sites. Also, if you have enjoyed a Happy Meal as a child,
you have Guatemala to thank. Happy Meal was invented in Guatemala in the 1970s.
Bordering Guatemala is Belize, home to the first and only jaguar preservation reserve in the world.
As a former British colony, Belize is the only Central American Country where English is the
official language. Belize is also the only country in Central America without a Pacific coastline,
but it doesn’t mean they don’t have an interesting shoreline, though. Belize’s Caribbean shoreline to
the East houses the massive Belize Barrier Reef, the second-largest coral reef system
in the world after the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. It is Belize’s top tourist
destination, popular for scuba diving and snorkeling. To the North of Belize is Mexico,
the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world. Mexico is home to The Great Pyramid of Cholula,
the largest pyramid as well as the largest monument ever constructed anywhere in the world,
with a total volume estimated at over 4.45 million cubic meters. Mexico is also a country
where you can find the largest bullfighting ring on earth, with a sitting capacity of over 41,000.
Up north in Mexico is this town, which is split from this town in California by the
Mexico-US border. The name of the towns? One is Mexicali, and the other one is Calexico.
California is by far the most populous state in the United States of America. More people live in
the state of California than the entire country of Canada combined. Canada, despite being the largest
country in North America and the second-largest country in the world, only borders one other
country. The U.S-Canada border is the longest bi-national land border in the world, measuring
over 8,891 kilometers in length. Canada is also a country with the longest coastline and the most
lakes. It is estimated that there are more lakes in Canada than the rest of the world combined!
The country that combines continents and oceans is Panama. The Panama Canal, arguably the single most
important and influential waterway in the world, is the gateway between the Atlantic Ocean and the
Pacific Ocean. It turns the journey of this into this. It brings the U.S East Coast closer to Asia,
and it brings the U.S West Coast closer to Europe. As North America’s southernmost country, Panama
also links North America to South America. Panama is so far south that the entire country is further
south than Northern Colombia and Venezuela, both of which are located in South America.
Another North American country, below Northern Colombia and Venezuela, is Trinidad and Tobago,
which to me has a shape of a tobacco pipe...with smoke. Trinidad and Tobago is located at a mere
11km off the shores of Venezuela, and it’s the southernmost island country in the Caribbean.
Here, you can find The Tobago Main Ridge Forest Reserve, which is the oldest legally protected
forest reserve geared specifically towards conservation purposes. Trinidad and Tobago is also
a country where you can find one of the hottest peppers in the world. Indigenous to Trinidad and
Tobago, the Trinidad Scorpion Butch T Pepper has a whopping 1.4 million Scoville Heat Units. Speaking
of spice, Grenada, another Caribbean country, is known as the Island of Spice due to the
large production of nutmeg and mace crops. Like the rest of the Caribbean islands, Grenada was
formed by volcanic activities. The country has two main volcanos: Mount Saint Catherine, the tallest
point in Grenada, and Kick ‘em Jenny, an active submarine volcano on the Caribbean seafloor.
Kick ‘em Jenny... people in the Caribbean are really creative with their names, aren’t they?
Over to the east of Grenada is Barbados, the birthplace of Rihanna. Barbados is a single
island nation located in the Atlantic Ocean around 100 miles away from the other Caribbean Islands.
The physical shape of the island is said to look like a pear or the leg of a sheep, but to me,
it looks like Luxembourg... in the middle of the ocean. Barbados is a country where you can find
the world’s oldest commercial rum distillery, Mount Gay Rum, dating all the way back to 1703.
Like many Caribbean countries, Barbados also has fabulous sounding place names like Pie Corner,
Graveyard, and Friendship. While Barbados has Friendship, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
has Friendly and Diamond...such fancy names. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is home to the oldest
botanical garden in the Western Hemisphere. Conservation of rare plant species has been
practiced here since 1765. The country also prides itself on being a filming location for the
blockbuster film Pirates of the Caribbean. Another island seen in the Pirates of the Caribbean is
Dominica. There’s no way I’m going to talk about Dominica without mentioning its flag because
this is one of only two sovereign states in the world that has the color purple in their flag.
The other is Nicaragua, although some might argue that the purple on the Nicaraguan flag is actually
violet. I have to admit, having purple on a flag looks really cool. What’s not so cool,
however, is the boiling lake in Dominica. The boiling lake, measuring over 70 meters across,
is the second-largest hot lake in the world after Frying Pan Lake in New Zealand. Just to be clear,
Dominica is NOT the Dominican Republic. Although they are both located in the Caribbean, they are
two separate and distinct countries. Located on the island of Hispaniola, Dominican Republic is
where everything with European colonialism in the Western Hemisphere began. Santo Domingo,
the capital and largest city of the Dominican Republic, is the oldest continuously inhabited
European settlement in the Americas. Santo Domingo is the site of the first university, cathedral,
and hospital in the New World. The other country sharing the island of Hispaniola with the
Dominican Republic is Haiti. The country has been described to take on the shape of a horseshoe,
but I personally think it looks like the head of a T-Rex... with a tiny broken tongue.
Haiti formally declared independence from France in 1804. In doing so, it became the
first independent nation of Latin America and the Caribbean, the second republic in the Americas,
the first country to abolish slavery, and the only state in history established by a successful slave
revolt. The Island country east of Haiti is Cuba, one of only four communist states in the world,
the only one outside of Asia. Cuba is also the largest island in the Caribbean in terms of
size and population. Other than its large population, Cuba is also endowed with a
wide variety of endemic bird species that are not found anywhere else in the world,
such as the Cuban Torgon, the national bird that resembles the colors of the Cuban flag,
the Cuban grassquit, this angry-looking bird, and the Bee Hummingbird, the world’s smallest bird.
Up north of Cuba is The Bahamas. Despite being located within the Bermuda Triangle,
also known as the Devil’s Triangle, The Bahamas attracts millions of visitors annually,
the majority of them via cruises. Tourism as an industry not only accounts for about 50%
of the Bahamian GDP, but it also provides jobs for about half of the country’s workforce.
If you get the chance to visit the Bahamas, make sure to drop by Harbour Island, as this is one of
the very few places on earth where you can find beaches with pink sand, caused by sand mixed with
crushed pink seashells. Another famous attraction is Big Major Cay, nicknamed the Pig Beach,
for the fact that the island is populated by swimming feral pigs you can pet and feed.
The only Caribbean nation not yet mentioned is Saint Lucia, the only country in the world to be
named after a historical woman. Between the late 1600s to the early 1800s, the rule of the island
was changed fourteen times between the French and the British. The back and forth between French and
British rule, along with African slaves, brought rise to the Patwa language, a French-based Creole
spoken by 95% of the Saint Lucian population. The language combines the syntax of African language
origins and vocabulary primarily derived from French with English influence. If you travel east
from Saint Lucia across the Caribbean sea, you’ll end up in Nicaragua, the largest country in all of
Central America. Nicaragua is also home to Lake Nicaragua, the largest lake in Central America.
An interesting fact is that even though the lake is less than 15 kilometers from the Pacific coast,
it actually drains into the Caribbean sea through the San Juan River, which creates parts of the
Costa Rican border. Costa Rica, like Nicaragua and three other countries in Central America,
is bicoastal with the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. On the Pacific side is a small
town called Whale Bay. The town is named Whale Bay for two reasons. One is that it has a whale-tailed
shaped sandbar that extends into the ocean, and two, you can actually go whale watching
here. Twice a year, humpback whales give birth to their offspring off the coast of Whale Bay.
Another interesting fact is that, as per their constitution, Costa Rica is one of the
few countries in the world without armed forces. Waging war with Costa Rica, however, is a terrible
idea because Costa Rica maintains an alliance with and is protected by the United States.
Speaking of wars, El Salvador and Honduras engaged in one of the most bizarre wars in history—the
Football War. Yes, football matches between these two nations erupted into an actual war. El
Salvador and Honduras had existing land reform and immigration issues, which reached a tipping point
in 1969, shortly after the qualifying matches for the 1970 World Cup between these two nations. The
war started when the Salvadoran military launched an attack against Honduras. The war lasted for
four days before a ceased fire was called. In the end, thousands of troops perished, and some
300,000 Salvadorans were displaced. El Salvador and Honduras were the final two North American
countries to be covered in this video. If you are hungry for more, you can head over to my playlist:
Every Country in the World. The plan is to cover every single country in the world, segmented by
continents. South America is next, so make sure to subscribe and turn on the notification bell
to catch it when it is posted. Thanks again for watching, and I’ll see you in the next video!