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H is for Honduras

Fast Facts

  • Named for: “Depths,” possibly of the Bay of Trujillo
  • Long/Lat: 14.6 N/87.13 W, 2700 miles and 5 hours east of Castro Valley
  • Population: 9.6 million, 145x CV
  • Size: 43,400 sq mi, 2500x CV
  • Avg temp in April: 90 F/32 C (phew)
  • Median household income: $7,000 annual
  • Ethnicity: 83% Mestizo, 7% white, 7% indigenous
  • Main industries: Bananas, shrimp, agriculture

Honduras either literally means “depths” (the noun) and/or it was originally fondura in a Spanish dialect, and someone mis-quilled the first letter, reporting back to Ferdinand and Isabel. In either case, it was described by Columbus, in theory, because the anchorage in the Bay of Trujillo was deep. There he goes again, naming islands for days of the week or their maritime statistics. As a famous alien once said, humans are so unimaginative, they named their planet after the dirt.

The Mayans flourished all over the Yucatan and across Honduras, with one major settlement at Copán. Graphic by Madman2001.
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G is for Georgia

Fast Facts

  • Named for: It’s a long story, but probably Greek, γεωργός  Georg, tiller of land, from Gaia + ergos. Although it could be Persian, Gurj; or gurgan, land of the wolves. The Georgians call their country Sakartvelo (საქართველო; ‘land of Kartvelians’).
  • Long/Lat: 41.4 N/44.4 E , 6900 mi or 14 hours West of Castro Valley
  • Population: 3.7 million, 56x Castro Valleys
  • Size: 27,000 sq mi, 1588 CVs
  • Avg temp in April: 65 F/20 C (similar to CV)
  • Median household income: $8500 annual
  • Ethnicity: 87% Georgians, rest Armenian, Azerbaijani, others nearby
  • Main industries: Mining, transport, ancient wineries
The ancient region between the Black and Caspian Seas was called Colchis,

The ancient Greeks called it Colchis (Κολχίς) which was their version of what they thought people said, now Anglicized. They told a famous ancient story about a golden ram, whose pelt hung on a tree guarded by a dragon. The mythical explorer Jason sailed the Argo across the Black Sea and, after seducing the king’s daughter, took the golden fleece and daughter back home. Later, he cheated on her, and Medea was not pleased. She ended up poisoning the paramour and killing the children.

Coins from the Laryssa region of Greece, @700 B.C., depicting Jason and the Golden Fleece.
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F is for Fiji

Courtesy Countryreports.co, Fiji is east of Australia. (Islands are not as close together as they may seem.)

Fast Facts

  • Named for: Fiji is the Anglicized pronunciation of the Tongan pronunciation of the indigenous’ name Viti.
  • Long/Lat:  18.1S/178.3 E (almost in the West), 5500 mi, 10 hours west
  • Population: 926,000 (14 Castro Valley’s worth)
  • Size: 7000 sq mi of land (411 CVs) but 75,000 sq mi total territory, 332 islands
  • Avg temp in April: 89 F/31 C, tropics!
  • Median household income: $6000 annually
  • Ethnicity: 57% indigenous Fijians, 38% Indo-Fijians
  • Main industries: Tourism, sugar cane, gold

Fiji is not a particularly small island, compared with others that we’ll see later, however, it is the smallest country beginning with F. It’s actually two big islands, plus 330 other small islands, some with and some without people. Plus, technically, a lot of water in between.

Beaches and mountains on the two largest islands, Viti Levu and Vanau Levu.

We might, perhaps, be tiring of the pronunciation issue. Fiji is called that because that’s what Captain Cook heard the Tongans call it, i.e., the name is not what the people who live there call it. But since their language isn’t ours anyway, they may not care how we butcher their name. They know who they are. Also, it always pleases me to remember that the arrogant colonizer Cook ended up clubbed to death because he opened fire on indigenous Hawai’ians who thought he had given them his boats. He said, “No, I take them back, you savages,” and they said, “Yeah, well you shot one of us, but while you’re reloading your fire stick, we avenge all our island brothers.” *whomp*

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