THE TRAVEL BOOK

MichAEL Dubois KATRi hiLDEn JAnE PRicE

Everyone knows which is the world’s highest mountain, but do you know which

country banned chewing gum? Or what’s the world’s stinkiest fruit?

Or who invented roller skates? Or which building leans more than the

Leaning Tower of Pisa? Or where can you eat fried spiders as a snack?

Here at Lonely Planet we decided to make a book about the world’s

countries for children, not parents. The world is a very big place,

and in The Not-for-Parents Travel Book we’ve concentrated on the really

interesting bits to create a snapshot of what each country is like.

(Warning to parents: these might not be the same ‘really interesting bits’

that you like…where to buy coffee, how many stars the hotel has, what’s

the phone number for the airport, blah, blah, blah.)

In this book are the epic events, amazing animals,

hideous histories, funky foods and crazy facts

that make the world’s 200 countries so fascinating. Each country

has a page to itself – so tiny Tuvalu gets as much space as

superpower USA.

If you want to know all the cool stuff

about every country in the world, turn the page...

the story of THE TrAvEL BOOK

6 Canada 7 UnitedStatesofAmerica 8 Mexico 9 Belize 10 Guatemala 11 ElSalvador 12 Honduras 13 Nicaragua 14 CostaRica 15 Panama 16 Bahamas 17 Cuba 18 Jamaica 19 Haiti 20 DominicanRepublic 21 SaintKitts&Nevis 22 Antigua&Barbuda 23 Dominica 24 SaintLucia 25 SaintVincent& theGrenadines 26 Barbados 27 Grenada 28 Trinidad&Tobago

29 Suriname 30 Guyana 31 Venezuela 32 Colombia 33 Ecuador 34 Peru 35 Brazil 36 Bolivia 37 Paraguay 38 Uruguay 39 Argentina 40 Chile

41 Scotland 42 Ireland 43 Wales 44 England 45 Portugal 46 Spain 47 Andorra 48 France 49 Monaco 50 Netherlands 51 Belgium 52 Austria 53 Germany 54 Luxembourg 55 Switzerland 56 Liechtenstein 57 Italy 58 SanMarino 59 VaticanCity 60 Malta 61 Slovenia 62 Croatia 63 Bosnia&Hercegovina 64 Serbia 65 Montenegro 66 Albania

NoRTHAMERICASoUTHAMERICA

EURoPE

AFRICA

67 Greece 68 Macedonia 69 Bulgaria 70 Romania 71 Moldova 72 Ukraine 73 Hungary 74 Slovakia 75 CzechRepublic 76 Poland 77 Belarus 78 Lithuania 79 Latvia 80 Estonia 81 RussianFederation 82 Finland 83 Sweden 84 Denmark 85 Norway 86 Iceland

87 Morocco 88 Algeria 89 Tunisia 90 Libya 91 Egypt 92 Sudan 93 Chad 94 Niger 95 Mali 96 Mauritania 97 CapeVerde 98 Senegal 99 Gambia 100 Guinea-Bissau 101 Guinea

Contents

140 Georgia 141 Azerbaijan 142 Armenia 143 Turkey 144 Cyprus 145 Syria 146 Lebanon 147 Israel 148 Palestine 149 Jordan 150 SaudiArabia 151 Yemen 152 oman 153 UnitedArabEmirates 154 Qatar 155 Bahrain 156 Kuwait 157 Iraq 158 Iran 159 Turkmenistan 160 Uzbekistan 161 Kazakhstan 162 Kyrgyzstan 163 Tajikistan 164 Afghanistan 165 Pakistan 166 India 167 SriLanka 168 Maldives 169 Nepal 170 Tibet 171 Bhutan 172 Bangladesh 173 UnionofMyanmar(Burma) 174 Thailand 175 Laos 176 Vietnam

177 Cambodia 178 Malaysia 179 Brunei 180 Singapore 181 Indonesia 182 EastTimor 183 Philippines 184 Taiwan 185 HongKong 186 China 187 Mongolia 188 NorthKorea 189 SouthKorea 190 Japan

191 Palau 192 PapuaNewGuinea 193 Australia 194 NewZealand 195 Vanuatu 196 SolomonIslands 197 Nauru 198 FederatedStates ofMicronesia 199 MarshallIslands 200 Tuvalu 201 Fiji 202 Tonga 203 Samoa 204 Kiribati 205 Tahiti&FrenchPolynesia

206 WorldMap

ASIA

oCEANIA

102 SierraLeone 103 Liberia 104 Côted’Ivoire(IvoryCoast) 105 BurkinaFaso 106 Ghana 107 Togo 108 Benin 109 Nigeria 110 Cameroon 111 EquatorialGuinea 112 CentralAfricanRepublic 113 SãoTomé&Príncipe 114 Gabon 115 RepublicofCongo 116 DemocraticRepublic ofCongo(Zaïre) 117 Uganda 118 Kenya 119 Somalia 120 Ethiopia 121 Djibouti 122 Eritrea 123 Rwanda 124 Burundi 125 Tanzania 126 Mozambique 127 Malawi 128 Zambia 129 Angola 130 Namibia 131 Botswana 132 Zimbabwe 133 SouthAfrica 134 Swaziland 135 Lesotho 136 Madagascar 137 Seychelles 138 Comoros&Mayotte 139 Mauritius

P A C I F I C

O C E A N

G u l f o f

M e x i c o

Mérida

Chihuahua

Tijuana

Mexico City

Acapulco

La Paz

GUATEMALA

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

BELIZE

EL SALVADOR

8

★ Official language:MexicanSpanish

★ Population:111,211,789

★ Currency:Mexicanpesos

★ Area:1,900,000sqkm(733,594sqmiles)

HOLA(ollah)ThesuninMexicoisveryhot,sodon’tforgettowearasombreroanddoaMexicanhatdance.Thepeopleloveeatingchocolatechicken(calledchickenmole),tacosandhotchillies–butalsoyoucangobbleflyeggsthatyoumixwithchoppedcactustomakeafly-eggomelette!BeforeHernánCorteslandedin1519andclaimedthelandforSpain,theMayaandAztecssacrificedpeopletothegods.Sadly,diseasesbroughtbytheSpanishwipedout20millionmore.

MexiCO★ MexicoCity

Haveabash A piñata is a big, bright clay or papier-mâché figure, filled with toys and treats and hung from a big string. Kids take turns whacking it with a stick so all the treats fall out.

DayoftheDead

every2Novemberthedeadcomebackto

sayhello.Notahorrormovie,butahappydayaspeopleputoutfood,

flowersandtreatsintheirhomesfortheirdeadpalstoenjoy.Somelightcandles

ingraveyardsandsinganddancetogether.

Happyhat Sombreros are big straw hats you can wear, or put on the ground and dance around.

TheygrowonyouImagine growing a new leg! Axolotls can. These ‘walking fish’ are really salamanders and can regrow hurt body bits.

•MexicoCityissinkingby10cm(4in)ayear.

•TheancientToltectribewenttowararmedwith

woodenswords–sotheywouldn’tkilltheirenemies.

•MexicohasmoreSpanish–talkingpeoplethanSpain.

•Thechihuahua(chiwawa)istheworld’ssmallestdog,

growingonlytoabout15cm(6in)high–halfaruler.

•Mexicohastheworld’sthreelongestunderwatercaves.

Crazy Facts

Countingthedays Chichén Itzá is an old pyramid with 365 steps – one for each day of the year. In spring and autumn, a shadow shaped like a snake slides down the steps to join a stone snake head at the bottom. (For another New Wonder of the World, see the Taj Mahal on page 166.)

HeadsUpAtChichénitzáthereisa

hugeballcourtwhereplayers

wouldtrytohita5kg(11lb)

rubberball–orperhapsa

humanhead –

throughhigh

stonehoops.

Loserswere

puttodeath!

Scary Stuff

Hideous History

Headsthroughhere,please.

Taco

ONeOFTHe

NEW WONDERS

OFTHeWORLD

N O R T H A M e R i C A

C A R I B B E A N

S E A

Belize City

Punta Gorda

Dangriga

San Pedro

Orange Walk

Belmopan

HONDURAS

GUATEMALA

MEXICO

9

N O R T H A M e R i C A

★ Official language:english

★ Population:307,899

★ Currency:Belizeandollars

★ Area:22,966sqkm(8867sqmiles)

ARRigHT?(arrrite?)TinyBelizehasoneoftheworld’sleastpopulated

capitalcities,Belmopan,withonly20,000people.MaybetherearesofewpeoplebecauseBelizeisthehomeof

elSisimito,amythicalcreaturewithbackwardsfeetandnokneesthateatshumanflesh!Jaguarsandpumaslurkinthecountry’sjungles,whichhidehundredsofMayanruins,someofthem4000yearsold.Theseaisalsofulloflife –theBelizeBarrierReefistheworld’s

secondlargest,afterAustralia’sgreatBarrierReef.

BeLize★ Belmopan

HoleLotofWaterThe Great Blue Hole on Lighthouse Reef is 300m (984ft) wide and 130m (427ft) deep. It’s so big you can see it from outer space! It’s full of bright corals, colourful fish – and sharks.

LizardlunchIn Belize, they call iguana meat ‘bamboo chicken’. They grow big green iguanas on farms to eat them.

Nowhearthis Howler monkeys are one of the loudest animals in the world. Their growls can be heard 5km (3 miles) away.

QueeneatsRat!

WhenQueenelizabethiivisitedBelizein1985,

shewasservedalocalrodentcalledagibnut,

whichsomepeoplesaylooksabitlikeagiant

ratwithoutatail.ittasteslikerabbit.

Whaleofatime Imagine snorkelling with a fish

10 times as big as you are! Whale sharks can grow

more than 12m (39ft) long, but they won’t eat you.

WORLD'STOP5

Loudest

Animals

1. Tigerpistolshrimp:

AtlanticOcean

2. Bluewhale:

world’soceans

3. Howlermonkey:

SouthAmerica

4. greywolf:

NorthAmerica

5. elephant:Africa,india

SparklingBones

AncientMayasacrificedhumanstothegodsinthe

ActunTunichilMuknalcavesmorethan1000yearsago,and

thebonesarestillthere.TheCrystalMaidenistheskeletonofa

teenagegirl,probablyasacrificevictim,whosebonessparkle.

Hideous History

Scary Stuff