I'm on another huge journey.
This time, I'm travelling the length of the Americas.
It's a journey down through two vast continents
that cover more than a quarter of the world's land surface.
It'll take me to places of myth and wonder.
Feels like stumbling upon a secret kingdom.
From the frozen beauty of the Arctic...
HE LAUGHS
..I'm travelling to some of the world's great cities...
Oh, this is completely breathtaking.
SOLDIERS SHOUT IN OWN LANGUAGE
..then on into the beautiful and blighted tropics...
We're with armed conservationists.
..to the heart of the battle to save the planet.
GUNSHOT
On this part of my journey down through the Americas,
I'm travelling from Texas into Mexico, and south
towards Central America.
Mexico is chock full of epic landscapes,
beauty...
Buenos Dias!
..and rich history.
And this is actual border wall structure.
But on the border with the US,
there's an unfolding migrant crisis...
Look at all of these people, all these children!
They're actually a favourite target for kidnapping.
..in a region gripped by a deadly drug war.
There's some serious hardware coming with us.
I'm in the very far southeast of the United States,
and I'm just beginning another leg of my journey
down through the Americas.
This is the international border between the United States
on this side, and those people over there are in Mexico!
And I am stunned because this border is the scene of a political
and humanitarian migrant refugee crisis.
But on this side here, there's no-one here.
There's no Border Patrol post.
There's no coastguard.
There's not even any tourists.
There's just us.
For 1,200 miles, the Rio Grande River IS the border.
It runs from its source in the Rocky Mountains
to here in the Gulf of Mexico.
It's a border, a barrier and a moat between the world's richest country
and Mexico and much poorer Central America.
Here in Texas, immigration from the south is hugely controversial.
Hispanic and Latino people have been in what's now the USA for centuries.
With more recent migration, they now number around 50 million.
By 2050, it's been predicted their numbers could rise further
to perhaps 130 million people due to birth rate and more migration.
I think this is the guy.
OK!
Let's go and say hello.
Officer Herman Rivera. Correct. How you doing? Hello, Simon Reeve.
Lovely to see you. Likewise. How you doing?
Herman is one of 3,000 Border Patrol officers in just this region,
the Rio Grande Valley.
There's been much talk about putting a wall along the border,
but it turns out long stretches are already fenced.
This is actual border wall structure which you see here to your left.
So... Oh, right, yeah, this is border wall or border fence.
Yes. We can see it snaking in the distance there.
So on our left is what? Through the fence is the actual...
..the city itself.
And on the right, this is still the United States? Correct.
We're still in America.
Is that efficient at stopping people coming across?
It does what it's designed to do.
Basically, it's to make somebody second-guess, you know,
how they're going to come across and when they're going to come across.
The US-Mexico border is 2,000 miles long.
Successive US governments have put up physical barriers
along stretches.
In total, about a third of the border is already fenced,
with an assortment of steel bars and barriers of different
shapes and sizes.
It is not everywhere where it's needed. Right.
This right here?
That's the furthest-west wall structure
that there is in this sector. Right.
So, further from here on west, there's none of this.
OK. So it's all wide open.
No fence, no wall? No fencing, no nothing.
The idea of building a wall along the entire border
is an extremely divisive issue in the US.
Critics say it would stoke anti-immigrant feeling -
and that a wall would be impractical and very expensive.
High steel fencing stretches along 50 miles of this sector.
Elsewhere, it's the Rio Grande River that's left as the barrier.
I mean, this is eminently swimmable, I would have thought,
in a couple of minutes.
Most of the people that come through this, through the river itself,
they come on a raft. And the reason why they come on a raft is because,
believe it or not, the current in this river is actually very strong.
Right. Dangerously so? Very.
And, unfortunately, people have lost their lives,
you know, crossing this river. Right, right.
It wasn't long before we started finding some of those
who'd made it across.
These people just here? Mm-hm.
That's maybe, I think, four adults? But I'm not entirely sure.
There's a lot of children over there.
I think we're going to stay back a little bit.
I really don't want to freak these poor little kids out there.
This is astonishing! There's...
There's several different family groups here.
We've got people here from Honduras and El Salvador,
but also Ecuador.
Ecuador, which is a lot further away - properly in South America.
I find it heartbreaking.
Why have you come here?
How old is your daughter?
You've taken huge risks to get here.
What are you hoping to find here now?
OK.
I could totally understand, as far as some of the reasons
why they're coming. You know, if I was in their shoes,
I'd do the same thing. But it's...
That's a very powerful thing for you to say. Well...
I mean, it's rightfully so.
I mean, there's gotta be reasons why they come in the first place.
So if they're willing to travel that far, there's gotta be a reason.
You know, it's... You know, it's...
I'm not in a position to make that judgment. You know...
Yeah, they weren't hiding here, were they? Right. They weren't hiding.
They were just out in the open, waiting for somebody -
the first available agent - and that happens to be me.
I was in Texas at a time when migration had surged.
Tens of thousands of migrants were crossing the border illegally.
Migrants here used to be overwhelmingly Mexican.
Now they're mainly from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
It's because of violence and poverty and also drought in Central America,
but it's also for education, health care, jobs -
a complicated mix of reasons.
People come with children to give them a better life,
but also to increase their chances of being allowed to stay.
Er... There's some right there.
Well, they're certainly not running when they hear you coming, are they?
No. No, not necessarily.
There's a pregnant lady there!
I mean, look at all of these people, all these children!
Let me just call in to come pick 'em up. OK.
Hey, Casper, copy?
Migrants were waiting to be picked up by Border Patrol,
and most will then try to claim asylum in the US.
Border Patrol claims that processing the huge numbers
is stretching its resources to breaking point.
The sheer volume of people that we're encountering
within the sector is somewhat staggering.
So two, four, six, eight, nine?
In just one month in 2019,
more than 140,000 migrants were detained crossing the border,
almost 5,000 a day.
Sometimes it felt like Herman was running a shuttle service.
Families are registered by the road,
then taken for background checks at detention centres -
some heavily criticised for poor conditions.
OK, these people right here? They're ones that turn themselves in,
so they might be bringing some more here.
If migrants prove they fled violence or persecution, they may get asylum.
But despite its poverty and gangs, Central America is not at war.
I mean, this is much more like a informal immigration point.
Most are deemed to be economic migrants,
rather than people in genuine need of asylum,
and they face deportation.
But there's a massive backlog in the courts.
Cases drag on for years.
Hundreds of thousands have disappeared,
joined other family members, started new lives here.
The numbers...
The numbers of people coming are clearly really overwhelming.
This is a huge country.
It could conceivably house, home, welcome
millions and millions more people. It could.
But it has no appetite for that.
To me, this situation feels unsustainable.
If current rates continue,
it's claimed 10% of Guatemala and Honduras
will try to migrate here in the next decade.
That'll include some of the brightest and best,
and it's hard for countries to flourish when vast numbers leave.
A majority of time is now spent processing people... Correct.
..and not enough time is being spent monitoring the border for drugs,
for narcotics coming across. Right.
But this is what's concerning about it, is that these agents,
they're going to spend their whole shift literally here, sitting down,
while God knows what is coming through.
It was time for me to cross the river...
..into a dangerous area of Mexico.
It's one of the most violent parts of the entire Americas.
Vast quantities of drugs are trafficked through the border
by the powerful Mexican drug cartels.
The cartels now also traffic and prey
on the huge numbers of migrants -
thousands of desperate men, women and children who've travelled up
through Mexico and wait on the other side of the border
for their chance to cross.
We've got an empty suitcase.
Yeah.
And a lot of soap.
Nido, that's powdered milk.
They ask for Clorox all the time, you know, for disinfectants.
And you've got a whole box... Box of diapers.
..of nappies here. And I don't know if they'll all fit in.
Who's all this for?
This is all for refugees, most of them from Central America,
parts of Mexico.
Jennifer Harbury is a volunteer who makes weekly trips,
taking vital supplies to a migrant shelter across the border in Mexico.
That soap is so heavy! OK. There we go.
Excellent.
Is there any more magic space in there?
I think there's magic space in there, yeah.
I think this is probably the most useful thing I will do all day.
Oh, that's way past useful.
Jennifer, how would you describe this area of Mexico that
we're going towards now?
Impoverished, terrifying, completely subject to cartel rule, deadly.
That's a fairly bleak picture. It is.
I think also what's frightening for me
about that is you're not an American who's just consumed
the propaganda and the media, you've actually been there.
I'm one of the few Americans that's willing to go over there
because of the violence and the kidnappings.
Border Patrol's not allowed to go over there, even to visit relatives.
It's too dangerous.
And how do you feel? Are you safe, going there?
So far, so good.
There's an ironic laugh there, that suggests you're not immune.
Not immune. OK, so we might hold the camera down a little bit now.
We're just still trying to film,
but we might be a bit more discreet because on the left,
there's Border Patrol unit, that looks more like a riot control unit.
Customs... Rolls of razor wire and they've got riot shields with them.
So, here now, is this America or Mexico? This would be Mexico.
Look at the queue over the other side! Yeah.
So, these are people waiting to come into the United States.
Yes, and most of them probably have visas and have jobs
and stuff on the other side.
Most migrants don't even get close to the bridge
because at the behest of the Americans, the Mexican
government has been cracking down and won't let them cross.
Here, they're pushed back into the border city of Reynosa,
one of the most dangerous places in Mexico.
So, it's a very small car, but it's a radio station car.
These are some local friends, who are giving us a little bit of cover.
It looks like we're having a police escort.
This was the trickiest part
so far of my journey down through the Americas.
Much of the city of Reynosa
and this whole region is in the grip of one of the world's most
powerful criminal organisations, the Gulf Cartel.
The cartel trafficks billions of dollars of drugs,
but the Narcos also control illegal migration across the river
border with the USA.
To our right is the riverfront, it's very overgrown, but there
are many sentries down there because the cartels own the riverfront.
You can not cross without having paid the fee
and you get your special PIN number and stuff.
Sorry, did you say a PIN number?
Yeah, they'll actually give you a confirmation number that
you've paid up - and you'd better have it.
They'll call to you as you cross.
The Mexican state has waged a long war against the cartels, but
here in the border zone, there are areas it simply does not control.
So, the police have been following us behind and the police have
now disappeared because we must have entered cartel territory.
And the police... The police don't come here.
Properly get this...
OK. There we go.
Jennifer, what is this place?
This is the shelter for refugees, called Senda de Vida.
Behind you, you'll see many tents.
It used to be 50 to 100 people here, it's now probably 600 today.
600 people just here? Yes, these are all families.
There's never been a flow of refugees like this
and they've always been able to just go to the bridge and go across.
Now, they're trapped here for months and months and months,
so the population's getting bigger and bigger.
Jennifer is a lawyer who has worked and campaigned in Central America.
She's risked her life for decades,
exposing American involvement in human rights abuses
and conflicts which still blight Central America to this day.
In this dangerous part of Mexico,
migrants are desperately vulnerable to exploitation.
This shelter is the only relatively safe haven for miles.
People from around the world have found sanctuary here.
Lovely to meet you. Hello.
Assalaamu Alaikum, lovely to meet you. From Bangladesh, all of you?
Hello, wow!
Hello! Hello!
And why have you come here?
Did you fly from Bangladesh to Mexico? No, no, no.
You walked through Panama? Yes.
How many days you were prisoner?
The police?
So, the Mexican police raided the house you were being kept
in and rescued you?
OK, so you are here waiting to cross the...?
Well, they've had a good experience with the police,
not such a good experience in Mexico.
They've had a very typical experience in Mexico of being
kidnapped. The cartels that own this area... Drug cartels.
The drug cartel, they have learned that although
all these migrants don't have any money themselves,
they have family up north that loves them. In the USA.
And maybe those USA families don't have ten cents either,
maybe they're farm workers, but they will move heaven and earth
to find $5,000 to $10,000 minimum to get their family safe and sound.
So, you know, they see this group,
count how many thousands of dollars that is, and fish in a barrel.
So they're actually a favourite target for kidnapping,
certainly for rape and certainly for trafficking,
so they're probably the most vulnerable group in all of Mexico.
Each year, tens of thousands of migrants are kidnapped
on their journey through Mexico. And by some estimates,
more than half of women are raped or sexually assaulted.
So, I'm leaving here and I'm hoping to meet up with
a representative of the government outside, who is going to
take us on a bit of a tour of this very tricky part of the country.
Gracias. Thank you very much for coming to meet with us.
You're very welcome. And taking us on a little tour.
Victor Martinez is the Chief of Cabinet for the state of Tamaulipas.
So, at the moment, this summer, it's more profitable to send
people across the border than narcotics? Mm-hm. Si.
Hola. Arturo Rodriguez. Arturo, very nice to meet you. Simon Reeve.
Nice to meet you too.
I can explain... I show you what's going on here. Sure. Uh-huh.
Arturo Rodriguez heads up an elite tactical unit,
tasked with targeting the cartels.
Look at the name of them! Black Mamba!
So, this is a hardcore vehicle.
Bloody hell!
You see, this is not OK.
Look at this.
It's an impact from the AK-47. From a Kalashnikov.
That's right.
You can probably see on the top there, this is a... Is it a
Barrett Light Fifty? Yes, it's a .50 calibre barrel, .50 calibre.
.50 calibre bullet. So that's serious firepower.
Yes, very serious.
You are not dealing with 14-year-olds, are you?
You're dealing with trained gunmen, often.
We have dealt with both. Right. Yes.
We have that problem. Sometimes, they are just kids.
A kid with a gun, an AK-47, on a truck, receiving orders,
go and shoot, go and shoot those guys, go and shoot these guys.
I mean, you have to fight back.
Unfortunately, they die, but, I mean, there's no options.
They come and shoot you, you have to shoot back.
Obviously, we want to save your life.
The Mexican government has spent millions training
and equipping this special forces unit.
But in some ways, the cartels are better resourced.
They even run sophisticated intelligence
and surveillance operations.
OK. Show us this, what are these?
Last year, we found these boxes, which are like phone company boxes.
Right. Some of them with even the brand of the phone company. Mm-hm.
And you see they are just like regular phone box. Mm-hm.
But there's some cameras inside.
Look at that! Look! They were watching to us.
We remove all of them. Mm-hm.
What happened, just one month ago,
we find out they've got a new technology, they use these lamps.
It's a street light. Yes.
On the... Look at this! It's the street light here, look at that!
It's a bloody camera!
It's one way of enabling them to terrorise a community.
Oh, yes. Ingenious. Oh, yeah.
But when you see this sort of sophistication,
does that frighten you?
We take it seriously, for sure. But, I mean...
Let me show you one that we just... Yesterday.
We're coming into your bedroom, here? Yeah, you can come!
These rifles were captured yesterday. This is AR-15.
But it's 300, the calibre.
This does say on it, curiously, restricted for military,
government, law enforcement export use only.
And it's very quickly found its way into the hands of the bad guys.
It has a laser. A laser on it.
So, is the laser still operational? Yes. Can you switch it on? Yeah.
You see that?
This is a sophisticated and obviously
ludicrously deadly assault rifle.
You are up against weapons of war.
This is what a soldier, a special forces soldier,
would take into a tactical situation.
That's correct.
There's now more than 30,000 killings in Mexico a year.
It's thought around 70% of gun crime involves weapons brought
and smuggled from the United States.
Cartels and corruption drive violence here,
but so does US demand for drugs and the supply of American firearms.
This is the guys.. The times we have been involved with in a shooting
situation. 41 shoot-outs. Yes.
This is the guy we have arrested.
This is the guy that unfortunately they have died, shooting against us.
So that's the number of combat deaths, effectively. Yes. 83.
My goodness! And this is in a small period of time, eight months.
And this is just your unit, in this area. This is talking about 40 guys.
Of one state in Mexico. Yes.
So, we're heading out on patrol with them.
We've got to get our PPE on,
our body armour.
Gracias.
Bloody hell!
There's some serious hardware coming with us.
I think realistically this is all partly to show that
the Mexican state is here in force.
And it is also partly needed.
This is a dangerous place.
It's been more than a decade since the Mexican government
declared all-out war on the drug cartels.
In the chaos that's followed, it's thought up to 200,000 people
have died, mainly in battles between the cartel gangs.
The American government classifies this area of Mexico
as a category four conflict zone,
on a par with war-torn countries like Somalia or Yemen.
The United States is not just an observer to this situation.
America and Americans have helped to fuel the drugs trade.
As a country, they sell huge amounts of weapons that ends
up in the hands of drug gangs, that result in this sort of situation.
The violence has left much of the economy here shattered.
Foreign companies have left, factories have shut down.
The state government of Tamaulipas is desperate for investment.
In a heavily armed convoy, Victor took me to see a flagship project,
one he hopes will turn the entire region around.
OK. So, we've arrived.
I can take this off.
Why did you think we should come here?
Against all the odds, around 500 wind turbines are being
installed here, providing green energy to the region.
Victor believes this will become the largest wind farm
project in the whole of Latin America.
He hopes it will change everything, bringing power,
jobs and hope to a troubled area.
If we come back in ten years, what do you hope we will see?
There are few things more normal, I think,
than a wind turbine turning now.
It does look very peaceful, it's industry, it's progress,
it's the future.
Even with our heavily armed escort and armoured cars,
my bodyguards were worried about our safety.
After just 15 minutes, we had to leave
because of the threat from cartels.
It was a sign of just how far this area
is from anything like normality.
I'm not going to overnight here. I'm heading south.
I travelled on to Central Mexico, across this huge country,
eight times the size of the UK.
Too many people just associate Mexico with sombreros and drugs.
There's a lot more to it than that.
Mexico has a population of 130 million, tenth
largest on the planet, and Mexico is actually an economic powerhouse.
I'm coming to part of the country where a lot of big
international corporations are basing themselves here,
working from here, and are making stuff here.
Mexico is one of the world's biggest exporters of cars.
I stopped off in the city of Puebla.
It's best known for its colonial architecture,
but I wanted to visit a huge car factory,
where German carmaker Volkswagen has churned out Beetles and Golfs.
Stephanie? Hi. Stephanie Mayoral.
Nice to meet you. Hello, Stephanie. Simon Reeve, lovely to see you.
Lovely to see you too. Welcome to Volkswagen. Thank you.
Let's have a nice tour today.
Is this your tour bus? Yes, this is my tour bus. Wow!
Please come here.
Stephanie Mayoral is the official tour guide here for industry
execs and visiting travellers.
Tell us a little bit about the size of the plant, if you could.
OK, we have four different factories in only one plant and this is
because here, every single car has its own production lines. Right.
And here, we produce four different models.
So... We're going inside. Yes. Wow!
Oh, my goodness! Look at the size of it!
VW has invested billions in this state-of-the-art plant.
Its proximity to the huge US market and free trade deals with other
countries have helped transform Mexico into a major exporter.
The country produces more than five million cars each year,
three times the number made in the UK, and 80% of them are for export.
It's just like being on safari! It really is!
I mean, such an exotic, otherworldly location.
Foreign firms, especially American ones, love Mexico,
partly because wages are lower here.
The average wage at VW is now reported to
be around £18,000 a year, much less than a US car worker would earn,
but a lot of money in a country where the minimum wage is £4 a day.
There we go. There's the finished cars.
Here work 14,000 employees from Volkswagen and in total,
every day, we receive an amount of 42,000 people,
including suppliers that come to work here too and visitors like you.
Volkswagen has created more than 200,000 employees... Wow!
..in Mexico.
Can I ask, though, do you sometimes get foreigners who
come on your tour who are really surprised by that? Yes. Totally.
Because they cannot imagine the impact of this factory.
It's not the image of Mexico.
The image of Mexico is not as a major industrial economy. Yes.
But you are! Yes, that's right. Thank you so much for the tour.
You're welcome. All the best!
Thank you so much. I'm off... For you too. Bye-bye. ..to continue my tour.
The Mexican economy isn't just about production lines or sweatshops.
Here, VW is training up the next generation of managers
and robotics engineers.
Wow!
How much training have you had to do to get to this stage,
to be here at VW?
So, this is your university? Yes.
Is there an age when you first fell in love with cars?
Are you somebody who had posters of cars on your wall
when you were a child?
In the past, I think many Mexicans felt
they could only grasp real opportunities by migrating abroad.
Do you feel that you're a lucky generation?
Mexico is now the 11th biggest economy in the world.
By 2050, it's been predicted it could have a bigger economy
than Japan or Germany.
Areas like this are already wealthier than some parts of Europe.
That helps explain why in recent years far fewer Mexicans
have tried to cross the border to the United States to find work.
In fact, more Mexicans are now coming back from the US to
take up jobs here than are trying to migrate.
I continued my journey, heading towards the far south of Mexico.
And are we able to stop here?
Brilliant. Thank you, mate.
We've just stopped by the side of the motorway, you can do that here,
because there is a volcano that is smoking.
But serve me right for stopping on a motorway!
Have you ever seen such a thing?!
We just stopped to film the smoking volcano and this gentleman
has lost one of these, whatever the hell this is, a drum from his load.
Might need a bit of help lifting it in!
I have been in more ridiculous situations, but not many.
Yay!
Nice! No problem!
Stay safe!
Mexico needs many things,
but perhaps tightening up the regulations on what you can
load into a vehicle might be on the top 100 list!
My journey was taking me to Southern Mexico and the rural
and mountainous state of Chiapas.
I arrived in San Cristobal de las Casas.
Built by Mexico's Spanish conquerors,
this colourful colonial city is a popular tourist destination.
Buenos dias.
More than 40 million international tourists visit Mexico each year.
It's the seventh biggest destination in the world.
Look at the police here, compared to what we've seen elsewhere in Mexico.
The south is a very different part of the country.
Beetle!
Many of the people who live in Chiapas are descendants
of the original inhabitants of the Americas.
There are 12 million indigenous people in Mexico,
around one in ten of the population.
Between them, they speak more than 60 languages.
Buenos dias. Un vasito, por favor.
A couple of crickets.
Gracias.
They've been salted
and somebody's poured about a pound of chilli over them.
I mean, actually, they're crunchy and delicious.
Outside San Cristobal, mobile phone signals disappear
and you're out into a world of small scattered rural communities.
Chiapas is the poorest state in Mexico.
Two-thirds of people here live in poverty
and indigenous communities are the poorest of all.
Fuel stop.
Petrol station, Chiapas style.
Inequality rates in Mexico are shockingly high.
Household income in Chiapas is six times less than in some
areas of wealthier Central Mexico.
Millions here in Chiapas don't have access to the basics of life
that others in Mexico can take for granted.
Please can I ask, you've got a lovely little shop
and petrol station here, you've got a building made out of concrete,
you're next to a busy road,
I'm surprised you don't have any running water here.
Where does your drinking water come from?
Is it expensive to buy?
This largely indigenous state holds a third of the country's
supplies of water and yet,
many communities here don't have running water they can drink.
Indigenous people have been marginalised, enslaved
and murdered from the time the Americas were first
conquered by the Spanish in the 16th century.
To this day, many indigenous Mexicans complain,
with much justification, they live a second class citizens.
Gracias.
I think we're here.
Let's just hop out.
Simon.
This is your shop.
Do you have any bottled water?
Do you have your own piped running water supply?
Is it possible for us to go to see that?
You are a good team. Good shop assistants.
Oh, wow!
So, this is your... This is your water supply?
This is what your family drink and use for everything?
Locals here believe water levels are falling because factories
have tapped deep wells into the underground water supply.
Just down there is a huge Coca Cola factory.
They have preferential government supplied and agreed access to
billions of litres of delicious Chiapas drinking water.
And, yet, some of the villages around here don't seem to have
barely a drop to drink.
Coca Cola denies responsibility.
It says it pays a market rate set by the government for its water
and provides hundreds of jobs to the local community.
Water is just one of the controversies here in Chiapas.
The state is packed with other natural resources, like gas,
oil and minerals.
But local people complain these resources are being extracted
by big businesses, with few benefits coming to their communities.
Over the years, there have been protests, even uprisings.
Look at all the razor wire here.
So, this is a simple, pretty small, actually,
but definitely very military Mexican army base.
There are a few watchtowers watching the valley,
luckily not seeing us filming.
Tens of thousands of Mexican soldiers have been deployed
here in Chiapas since an armed uprising in 1994.
It was described as a peasants' revolt,
mainly involving indigenous people.
Rebels took control of communities across the region
and declared an independent republic.
In recent decades, there's been uprisings
and campaigns across the Americas,
as indigenous people have demanded more rights and development.
Here, there was a peace process, but tensions have simmered ever since.
Some local officials have come and don't seem very happy about us
filming here.
We're being stopped from filming. Time to go. OK.
Did they explain why we're being stopped from filming? Let's go.
What I think has happened is that some local security, perhaps,
has turned up and they started saying to our guys,
"Look, we don't know who you are, we don't like the look of you,
"and if you don't leave, we're going to get some friends,
"we're going to detain you, and this doesn't always end well."
Most indigenous people in Mexico
and the Americas now live in poorer areas of towns and cities,
or survive on small patches of farmland.
But others here remain closer to their roots,
living alongside or inside the jungle.
Vast areas of Chiapas are covered by rich, dense forest,
including the largest tropical rainforest in all of North America.
I'm heading out on the river, into the jungle.
Pablo!
Buenos dias.
Really feels that for the first time
like I'm properly in Central America.
This is the rainforest.
My guide, Pablo, is one of the Lacandon people.
Until the middle of the 20th century,
the Lacandon generally had little contact with the outside world.
There's now fewer than 1,000 Lacandon.
Today, the rainforest still plays a vital role in their survival.
Bloody hell!
The size of this tree!
How old do you think this one is?
So, the forest isn't just your larder, it's your pharmacy.
Just hidden here amongst 100ft trees,
suddenly you just find these epic remains.
This is the ancient city of Yaxchilan.
There's incredible ruins, all the way down there!
All around!
Feels like stumbling upon a secret kingdom.
We have stumbled into a secret kingdom!
This city was built by the Maya, the culture and civilisation
which flourished here for more than 2,000 years, until around 900 AD.
Pablo, what is Yaxchilan?
Is that a howler monkey?
It's a howler monkey.
In the trees!
The majesty and scale of the Maya civilisation is only now being
fully revealed.
Archaeologists are using lasers to uncover Maya
cites in Central America with tens of thousands of buildings.
How do you feel when you come here?
It's quite an impressive claim, isn't it, to be the descendent
of one of the most sophisticated human civilisations in our history?
Hold on a second! I want to get a good look at this.
Are you saying this is a classic Mayan nose?
The latest revelations about the Maya mean world history
is being rewritten.
It's now thought the areas around great Maya cities could have
been home to up to ten million people, with markets,
palaces, irrigation systems, roads.
It's been described as one of the most sophisticated
infrastructural civilisations in world history.
In 1492, Christopher Columbus claimed he'd discovered a new world.
In many ways, this was the old. By then, the Maya were long gone,
but there were other huge cities
in the Americas rivalling any in Europe.
Indigenous people have often been marginalised in the history
of the Americas.
In schools, people are still taught often, around the world, that brave
European explorers came across the Atlantic Ocean
and discovered a land largely empty of people.
And that is completely untrue.
At the time Europeans arrived in the Americas,
there were tens of millions of people living on these
continents, often in hugely sophisticated cities.
The Europeans conquered with horses and guns,
but they also introduced diseases like small pox, measles and flu,
which annihilated indigenous people, who had no immunity against them.
Some academics have estimated that in the first 130 years after
Europeans appeared off the coastline with their horrible new diseases,
up to 95% of the population of the Americas may have perished.
It's thought to have been one of the greatest demographic
disasters in our history.
Many of those that survived, like the Lacandon,
were in remote jungles.
But now, Pablo and his community face new threats.
Bloody hell!
What...? What has happened here?
They have chopped and hacked the rainforest down.
You can see where they've burnt it here.
Who's done this?
It's a cheap way of clearing land to feed a family.
Pablo, how on earth do you feel when you see this?
Most of the deforestation that's happened to this rainforest
has happened in the last half century.
The Lacandon lived in the rainforest for hundreds of years without
destroying it. Throughout the Americas,
indigenous groups are dying out because of deforestation.
Rainforests are under threat across the entire Tropics.
As well as clearing for agriculture,
millions of acres are taken for logging, plantations and mining.
It's been estimated more than 15 billion trees are now being
cut down each year, cut and chopped and burned.
It's a disaster for the climate and for biodiversity.
The Lacandon Rainforest is one of the most biodiverse on the
planet, with 1,500 tree species and a third of all Mexican bird species.
It's a biodiversity hot spot
and Pablo has dedicated his life to its protection.
What's this?
A wildlife camera?
Your camera has caught a jaguar crossing the track, just here?
What have you got? Oh, you've got the footage on the phone!
Look at that cat!
In your forest!
How special is that?!
Wow!
This is mine for the night.
Or at least, upstairs here, apparently.
Fantastic!
I had a room for the night in one of Pablo's guesthouses.
Oh!
Fantastic!
A bed for the night,
in the rainforest!
THUNDER RUMBLES
We've been invited for dinner.
Hola!
We saw some terrible deforestation today.
What do you think is the future for the forest
and for the Lacandon people?
That's absolutely horrific.
Ten years? You think it could be gone in one decade?
ANIMAL BELLOWS
You can't always see life in the rainforest, but you can hear it!
Heroes like Pablo give me hope.
There is still much that can be done to save the environment,
and us, as I discovered on the next leg of my journey,
which took me on into Central America and to beautiful,
green Costa Rica.
But before that... BANG
..I hit the violent streets of El Salvador...
Bloody scary!
..and meet a team of young volunteer paramedics making a difference.
How you been? Welcome to El Salvador! Thank you, mate.