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.
HE SHOUTS INSTRUCTIONS
Then on into the beautiful and blighted tropics...
We're with armed conservationists.
..to the heart of the battle to save the planet.
GUNSHOT
GUNSHOTS
On this leg of my journey, I'm travelling across Central America,
from the Caribbean coast of Belize to the Pacific coast of Costa Rica.
It's one of the most beautiful and biodiverse places on Earth.
Oh, my God!
I was just hugged by a manatee.
In Guatemala, I meet farmers facing their greatest challenge.
This is a disaster.
I hit the streets in one of the most violent cities in the world.
Bloody scary!
And I meet extraordinary young volunteer paramedics delivering
healthcare and hope.
Welcome to El Salvador! Thank you, mate.
It's completely idyllic.
We're pottering along through an incredible mangrove forest
on both sides.
That side is Mexico.
This side is the Central American country of Belize.
And we're heading towards a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Bacalar Chico National Park and Marine Reserve
is an incredible protected area at the northern tip of Belize.
It's 40 square miles of mangrove swamp,
seagrass, coral reefs and the beautiful Caribbean Sea.
Dolphins.
Here they are, right in front of the boat.
Oh, there's quite a few. Maybe six?
Jen Chapman and Andreina Acosta are marine biologists working
for Blue Ventures, a British conservation charity that works
globally with local communities to preserve life
in and around our oceans.
I grew up near the reef, so every time I come out,
it just feels like I'm at home.
We're going down to your home. Yes. Yes.
I'll show you around. All right. Thank you, Mermaid.
That's what they call me. Do they?
No!
The sea here teems with life.
Time to strap on the tanks.
Thank you very much. All right.
You just have a look at the sea around us, look!
You have no idea from above the surface
what is beneath the waves.
The Mesoamerican Reef is the second largest barrier reef system
on the planet.
600 miles of fabulous corals are home to more than
500 species of fish.
Coral reefs occupy less than 1% of seabed, but they're crucial
to the ocean ecosystem, sustaining around a quarter
of all marine species.
Coral reefs are under serious threat.
Rising sea temperatures are taking a terrible toll.
Oceans are now said to be warming 40% faster than predicted
as recently as 2014.
But here in Belize, conservation efforts are beginning to work.
This area of reef has been removed from the endangered list.
It's completely spectacular.
Beautiful? Perfect. The variety of the coral is amazing.
You can find species of corals that you don't find
in very many other places in the world.
So there are some really special and important
different species down there.
Ahh!
If we want to protect coral reefs, we also have to protect the complex
ecosystems that surround them.
Here, there are huge beds of vital seagrass,
lagoons and an endless labyrinth of beautiful mangrove forest.
We would not have our reefs if we didn't have mangroves.
They are absolutely essential.
They are not only such an important ecosystem,
but really poorly understood.
A lot of people just think they're just trees,
and they're actually this critically important fish nursery.
In what way are they a nursery?
If you take a look into the trees, you'll see all the roots
are tangling together,
and the tiny juvenile fish see that as a safe place
to grow up, basically.
So the tiny little fish that will eventually move out
and live on the reef, they're all growing up
in the mangroves because they're safe
and they're protected from other predatory fish
that you'll find out on the reef.
It's quite bizarre to think of marine life
depending on a forest.
But that's kind of... That's what it is, isn't it?
I've never thought about it like that, but, yeah,
that's exactly what it is.
I now start to see in a completely different way. The mangrove forests
are a completely essential element in the connected web of marine life.
Oh, my God!
Look!
It's a stunning and critical
natural habitat.
And here in Belize, the mangrove forest is also home to one
of the strangest and rarest of all marine creatures.
Can you pull the boat from the back?
You've got it.
So who would have put this up?
Blue Ventures volunteers.
The manatee is a marine mammal like a dolphin or a seal,
but is actually more closely related to elephants.
Belize is home to one of the largest surviving populations,
but these mysterious creatures are still extremely rare.
What does it mean, no wake? I suppose it means go...go slow.
Yeah, exactly. And one of the big problems
is that you have boats coming through here that like to come into
these lagoons for sport fishing.
And a lot of those boats, not all of them, but a lot of them
are going to speed through here very, very quickly.
And the number one cause of death for manatees and the number one
threat to manatees is being hit by boats.
There are less than 1,000 Antillean manatees left in Belize,
and up to 50 have been killed a year recently, mainly in boat strikes.
Many more are seriously injured.
Jasmine Velazquez is from Wildtracks, a charity rehabilitating
injured and orphaned manatees in the hope of releasing them back
into the wild.
So, over here in this pool is where we have Sandy.
Come, Sandy!
There's a baby manatee!
It looks sort of furry.
They're sensory hair.
So this is how they can detect when people are in the water
or threats or anything - sensor hair.
How big do they get?
They can get anywhere between six and eight feet.
They can knock you out with their tail. Knock you out? Yeah.
Not that they would do that, of course, but.
But there's force in a heft...
There's force in their tails, yeah. ..in them?
So over here we have Chelsea, and right now she's going
to be feeding Sandy, who's definitely expecting her feed.
Chelsea, is it time to feed the baby?
It is time to feed our manatee, yes.
Look!
Manatee calves generally stay with their parents
for one to two years, and we give her company every hour
for 30 minutes.
But when we're not in the pool, she has that floaty to act
as her surrogate mum, so she can go tuck underneath that floaty.
So the floaty is her surrogate mother at the moment.
So that's not a toy?
It's not a toy, it serves a purpose.
Everything here at Wildtracks serves a purpose.
That's her surrogate mother at the moment.
Sandy's real mum was almost certainly killed by the propeller
of a boat.
Sandy was found stranded and alone, and brought here.
Oh, my God!
Well, you can really clearly see the propeller marks there,
how the propeller... Oh! ..has corkscrewed down across the body.
Yes. That's horrific.
This manatee actually did survive this attack.
I've seen many cases.
Sadly, many of them did not survive.
So when I see the report, the manatee passed away shortly after
and it saddens me, because that's one less for our population
that's already small.
And your population is...
Well, your population is actually one of the largest in the region.
In the region. In the world. Yes.
And yet, still, we're only talking about a few hundred left in Belize.
Every single one... Counts. ..counts and matters.
So this is Lucky. This...
I thought he was holding a bit of old carpet or a towel.
So this is what happens when manatees become orphans
or stranded from their mothers.
This is the extent to how dehydrated and emaciated they could get.
So because he came in this condition, everyone thought
he wouldn't make it.
He was, like, 95% already half dead.
But he actually did survive
because we put in the tender love and care.
We put in the 24-hour care required, because every one counts.
So this is Lucky. Where is Lucky now?
So he's in the lagoon.
He's being fed.
But eventually he will move on to complete release.
So he's in almost his last stage of rehabilitation.
We set off to look for Lucky in the murky lagoon.
It was easier than expected
because it was manatee mating season.
Manatee - in the water just here!
That one is Twiggy.
And the one over there is Lucky.
No! Yes.
This is Lucky here,
who we saw nearly died?
Yes, that is Lucky.
Now Lucky is busy having sex with Twiggy.
He's having fun.
Having fun. He's enjoying himself, definitely.
It is nature, it is happening here.
And Lucky is getting busy.
It was a big day at Wildtracks.
The team were introducing a manatee called Hope into the lagoon,
a major step towards release into the wild.
The Peli cases contain trackers,
so they can know where they are, because it's quite hard
to find them otherwise.
Jasmine coaxed Hope from the holding pen.
Here they come. Here they come. Look, she's just coming out.
It's out - look!
Aw, she's out! Yes!
A manatee has come out of the gate, that's a success.
I think it's gone that way, so they're wondering...
Look, it is.
HE GASPS
Oh, my God!
It's a wonderful project to see.
Even just briefly, just to be a tiny, tiny part of.
But in and of itself, it's not enough.
Too many manatees are being killed, still, every year in the waters
of Belize and along this part of the coast of the Americas.
Much more needs to be done to protect them.
It's got its flippers around me.
Look, he's having a smell.
WHISPERS: I was just hugged by a manatee.
Belize is a small country with a population less than Leeds.
It's the only English-speaking nation in Central America.
In a part of the world that suffered endless civil wars
and American-backed despots,
Belize has had a less-turbulent history than many of its neighbours.
But it's still poor, and you need to have a laid-back approach
when you're travelling around.
Sir. A hand crank! Yes, sir.
And hard work.
Like working hard.
Right, let me give you a hand.
Sure. To show how hard it is.
Yeah!
Are you ready? You're doing all the work. Yeah.
Well, I'm trying. You're just making it easy for me.
It's not so hard.
Just getting the ferry going is the tough bit.
You did the hard work!
THEY LAUGH
I love doing this. Really?
Getting me stronger.
I'm getting... Tell you what, I'm a little bit older than you.
It's definitely working ME!
Really?
Done.
Whoo!
HORN TOOTS
My journey down through the Americas took me on, deep into the interior
of Belize, near the border with Guatemala.
It's an area of dense jungle...
..and some big surprises.
Now that is off-the-scale epic!
HE LAUGHS
A new scale!
Look!
The Chiquibul Caves are the largest and longest cave system
in Central America.
Wow.
When you stand here and you look at it, you could put
an aircraft carrier in here.
It's thought that only a fraction of this underground world
has been discovered.
Some of the huge caves here extend more than 20 miles into our planet.
We're the only people here!
Belize!
Hidden treasures on the edge of the Chiquibul Forest.
And we're heading in!
This is the Chiquibul Forest in Belize, an enormous national park.
It's an area of outstanding biological diversity,
and a home for many endangered creatures.
THROATY ROAR
A wildlife ark.
I joined up with a small group of conservationists and rangers,
the FCD, who patrol and protect this park.
Si.
Their leader Rafael Manzanero has studied, lived and worked here
since he was a teenager.
Rafael, what is out here?
All the big things occur here.
I mean, the Africans, they talk about the big five.
You know, here, we are looking at all the five species of cats,
ranging from the jaguars to the mountain lion
to the jaguarundi to the ocelot to the margay.
How many species of birds do you have coming through?
There have been recorded over 300, but that is still unknown.
Up to 300 and still counting? Exactly.
And that is still minimum.
What you're talking about is a global treasure. Exactly.
This is a...
Central America is a biodiversity... Exactly.
..mega hotspot, isn't it?
But you're sweltering here.
Our ambition has been really to move
this to the second World Heritage Site for Belize.
Rafael and his men have dedicated their lives
to defending this treasure.
They're conservationists but they're also forest rangers.
They've been trained by the British Army to protect the park
and its inhabitants.
And these rangers are deadly serious.
We're with armed conservationists.
It's astonishing that it's come to that, but it has.
The threats here come from poachers, wildlife traffickers, farmers
and loggers crossing the border illegally
from neighbouring Guatemala
to plunder the forest's natural riches.
You are creeping out now and you are moving into an open area.
All of this is now open, see? Oh, I see.
Oh, my God.
This was cleared by Guatemalans in that case, coming in and trying
to find land for the agriculture of crops,
particularly corn, beans and pumpkin.
So this is Guatemalan farmers who have crossed the border illegally
into Belize, they've crossed the border into the national park.
That's correct. And they have cut it down to farm?
Exactly. That's right. They are chopping the forest,
they are burning the trees and they are planting crops
and using it, ultimately, they hope, one day for ranching cattle.
Around the planet, poor farmers are nibbling away at the edges
of national parks, occupying and using the land to ranch
and grow food.
But nibbling over time by huge numbers destroys enormous areas
of precious wildlife habitat.
So, look, there's a pond here that's being used for cattle.
Farmers from the other side of the border, from Guatemala,
have been using this to water their cows.
Inside the national park!
And here it's not just poor farmers.
Drug gangs operate in this border area.
They're actually laundering their money through cattle ranching.
Guatemalan cowboys are one of the rangers' main enemies.
There... OK. Just go and check if everything is clear.
WHISPERS: Or if anyone's there? Mm-hm.
WHISPERS: Down, down, down!
There's people up ahead...
..who shouldn't be here.
RAISED VOICES
GUNSHOT
GUNSHOTS
Go, go!
GUNSHOTS
So the guys are now chasing people on horseback.
Straight to Guatemala? Yes.
So is that where you think they've come from?
I mean, these guys are good and young,
but they can't keep up with people on horseback.
What was incredible about that is, they were firing warning shots
in the air, right next to these people, and they took off.
They knew if they were captured, they will be prosecuted.
And for them, taking the risk of running for it
was better than a jail.
That's already Guatemala.
The thatched house and the zinc roof? Yeah. It's in Guatemala.
So we are now basically at the border.
Yes, you are on the border.
With the horses. Can you see them?
Safe across the border,
the Guatemalans were out of reach of Rafael and his men.
And look what we can see here.
Look at all this deforestation down here.
Over in Guatemala, the forest has been almost totally wiped out,
cleared for farming and ranching.
If the Chiquibul National Park isn't protected, this could be its future.
Rafael had brought along some satellite images
of this border region.
So what you will see here
is basically the human footprint expansion.
That line is the border there?
Yes, that's right. And where we are standing
would be somewhere around here.
And you can see how the edge of the forest
is being nibbled away at. That's right.
That is completely stark.
Around the world, an area of forest nearly the size of Italy
is being lost every year.
That's billions of trees gone.
Forests are our most critical habitat.
80% of the biodiversity found on land lives in forests.
Now, that is a coati.
A little mammal, lives on the forest floor.
In recent years, almost 8,000 acres of the Chiquibul has been lost,
cleared illegally.
Rafael and his men risk their lives to protect their beloved forest.
They're giving their all, but there's only around a dozen
of them patrolling an area of 400,000 acres.
What a day!
HE EXHALES
It's been hot and sweaty and knackering,
but quite extraordinary.
What an amazing place this is.
It's an extraordinary situation, isn't it, Derrick?
It's unusual.
But, Derrick, who loves this forest, he wants to conserve it,
still has to become partly a soldier...
Yeah. ..partly a warrior to defend what he loves.
Yeah. We're police, we are soldiers.
You know, we have to defend it.
You know, we have to protect it.
It's ours, you know?
That's what the rangers are committed to.
And over the years, I have seen that, you know, the challenge
to protect, you know, the forest, it's really... It's a big challenge.
Hmm. It's a big battle.
It's an uphill battle.
We are protecting our forest.
It's OUR forest.
Breakfast is finished.
We're going to pack and head to Guatemala.
The guys gave me a lift to the border, where my guide
in Guatemala was waiting for me.
Morena!
Hello! Hello. Simon. Lovely to see you.
Welcome. Welcome to Guatemala.
OK. You need some help? There's more. Yeah, if you don't mind. Sure.
One, two, three!
Good work.
I've been to something like 130 countries, and I can never remember
being held up by a piglet in the road before.
This whole region of Guatemala is now dominated by farmland.
The population here has grown dramatically
from around 20,000 50 years ago
to three-quarters of a million today.
People need space. It's led to massive deforestation.
Until the middle of the 20th century,
this whole area of Guatemala was
very much like the Chiquibul Forest -
lush, impenetrable jungle.
Most of the 16 million Guatemalans survive on less than $2 a day.
Alex, can we stop?
Thank you, mate.
They work the land, often relying on one crop -
a real treasure and a creation of the Americas...
Corn! Maize!
One of our most important inventions ever.
And we have the people of the Americas to thank for it.
It has no obvious wild ancestor.
So the thinking is that corn
was bred and tweaked
and created over generations to create
this really quite incredible foodstuff.
For tens of millions of people across Central America,
across South America as well,
they depend on this.
I continued my journey south, up into Guatemala's remote
and beautiful highlands.
This is a rugged and unforgiving landscape.
Peasant farmers have grown corn here for generations,
just about surviving on these steep slopes.
In one of the hundreds of small villages around here, Morena took me
to meet a local farmer called Jacinto Garcia.
Buenas tardes. Buenas tardes.
Buenas tardes.
Jacinto took me to the nearby river, which brings water
down from the mountains.
It's crucial for the crops here.
TRANSLATION:
Can I ask, do you remember the river running full,
the river running high?
In the last seven years, you've never seen the river run high?
All right. Look, very sorry for holding you up.
Everyone I spoke to told the same story.
More unpredictable weather, long drought.
Buenas tardes. How's your crop looking?
There is - look, that's it!
This is a disaster.
That's quite ironic, really, isn't it?
So one of the main uses you're going to get from this now
is using the dry husk to start fires.
Si.
When I visited, this area of Guatemala was experiencing
a terrible drought, putting millions of people at risk of hunger.
Stripping the land, soil erosion -
they're also major causes of hunger here,
and they've had droughts in the past.
These are tough people.
But now our climate crisis is on a different scale.
Guatemala has been described as one of the ten countries in the world
most vulnerable to climate change.
In so many parts of the world, climate change isn't something
to be worried about in the future -
it's something happening right now,
driving migration, poverty and malnutrition.
The failure of the harvest has incredibly serious
consequences for people.
We've met up with a charity called Action Against Hunger,
and they're taking us to a remote community.
We headed high into the mountains to a health clinic,
the only one serving impoverished villages in this entire area.
We've arrived.
I met up with a nutritionist from Action Against Hunger,
Joanna Chacon.
Buenos dias, Joanna! Mucho gusto. Mucho gusto. Simon.
Mucho gusto.
Buenos dias!
Joanna's health care team were weighing and measuring
the children to assess levels of malnutrition.
What they've found is frightening.
About half the children across the whole country
are malnourished?
So malnourishment for a small child affects their entire life.
Guatemala has the fourth highest rate of chronic malnutrition
in the world.
At this time of drought, Action Against Hunger gives out
emergency food rations to families.
Many people can't make it to the clinic,
so Joanna and her team travel out into remote rural communities
where problems are most acute.
Buenas tardes. Buenas tardes.
Esperanza? Si.
Esperanza lives here with her husband and children.
Can we ask, what are you planning to have for dinner tonight?
You're having tortillas made from corn here.
Is this corn from your own land?
Do you have enough food?
CHILD CRIES
Eight days? Eight days of food left?
And then what happens?
Is what you're seeing here malnutrition? Hunger?
Is it in some cases... Is it, as some have suggested...is it famine?
The weather here is now much less predictable
and more extreme.
Longer periods without rain and then heavy downpours
that wash away crops.
Buenas tardes!
Locals are struggling to survive.
Most people left here were women, children and older men.
So are you saying that one of the main drivers behind migration now
is climate change?
On my journey down through the Americas,
I'd stood on the southern border of the United States and witnessed
a migration crisis, as thousands of people from Central America tried
to cross illegally into the US.
Finally, here I could see why.
Right on the border, I heard from people who had been kidnapped
and held hostage. It's a gamble - people are risking their lives,
but it sounds like they're risking their lives here as well.
Migration is emptying villages.
It's been claimed 10% of the entire Guatemalan population
will try to migrate to the USA alone in the next decade.
I found this very moving.
I feel like this is...
This is the front line, this is ground zero, call it what you will,
for both our changing climate
and also the migration crisis
that has been affecting Central America
and the American border over recent years.
One of the main factors that is forcing and encouraging
people to leave their land and make the perilous journey north
to the United States is our changing climate.
It is crops failing and people going hungry.
As our climate crisis worsens, migration will surely only rise.
I travelled south
through a beautiful and remote region of Central America
towards the next destination on my journey through the Americas.
I'm leaving Guatemala now and we're heading towards El Salvador.
Three countries in Central America -
Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador -
now account for almost 70% of all migration into the United States.
This region is remote and insecure.
Smuggling, drug-running and people-trafficking
are serious problems here.
I had a little help getting through to the border with El Salvador.
So we've got some local security in front of us who are provided
by the government.
Looks like they're rather useful at smoothing our passage.
So we're right at the border.
My luck was about to run out.
Turns out they weren't so used to foreign telly travellers
and their kit crossing here.
We had all the forms, but perhaps we looked suspicious.
If you're travelling in this part of the world,
you've got to accept a few hiccups.
So while the team dealt with the bureaucracy, I had a nap.
We made it across the Guatemalan border super quickly.
We've now been held for an age on the El Salvadorian side.
And customs officials here are going through paperwork,
paperwork, paperwork.
After hours of waiting, we finally got through,
and I met up with my guide in El Salvador, Fred Ramos.
El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America.
More than two million people live in and around the capital,
San Salvador.
It's a beautiful country, but it's had a horrific few decades
with civil war, endless conflict and, more recently,
terrible gang violence.
El Salvador is held back and terrorised by having
one of the biggest problems with organised gangs
anywhere in the world.
In some years recently, the murder rate in this country has been higher
than that in countries which are in active conflict,
like Libya and Somalia.
TRANSLATION:
These guys are the heavy mob.
They're called the STO, an elite new police unit tasked
with battling the gangs.
They're on the front line as the government tries to take back
control of the streets.
What's the operation? What's the plan?
SIRENS BLARE
The operation that we're on is all part
of an attempt by the new government in El Salvador to retake the country
from the gangs.
MS-13 is the most notorious and dangerous gang in Central America.
It has tens of thousands of members, and rules entire neighbourhoods
across the whole region, using extortion, kidnapping and murder.
Part of the reason they're moving quickly is
they want the element of surprise.
The gangs have lookouts everywhere, and they'll be tracking our progress
through the city.
OK, they're deploying.
The police were targeting addresses they believe belonged
to gang members.
DOGS BARK
BANGING
They're staying clear of the door
just in case somebody shoots through.
The government now calls the main gangs terrorist organisations.
So what happened?
So, basically, you're keeping an eye on him?
Are you from a community like this?
Do you know what it's like to live in a place like this?
Tens of thousands have died here in gang violence in recent years.
The roots of the tragedy lie in the brutal civil war fought here
during the 1980s, when left-wing guerrillas battled
a US-backed military regime.
Hundreds of thousands fled the fighting,
many ending up in the United States.
Young men formed gangs that grew quickly, both on the streets
and inside US prisons.
Then, in the 1990s, the US began deporting
thousands of the now-violent gangsters back to Central America.
They basically dumped tough and hardened criminals on countries
that could not cope or deal with them.
And it was a recipe, quite frankly, for disaster.
It's getting dark now.
And night is when the gangs do most of their killing.
The cocaine trade through Central America drives this violence.
Powerful Mexican drug cartels recruit the local gangs
and use their staggering wealth to corrupt and control the police
and politicians in Central America.
They've overwhelmed weak states, creating poverty and unemployment.
We headed into a gang stronghold where police had previously
been forced back by gunfire from automatic weapons.
DOGS BARK
SHOUTING
GUNSHOTS
There's a young lad on the floor here.
Bloody scary!
Thank God nobody with an assault rifle is home.
It's astonishing how...
DOGS BARK
..police wearing balaclavas are holding a man on the ground
and people just walk around as if it is the most normal thing,
because it IS here.
Actually, he's just a kid.
But that's who the gangs use for a lot of their really dirty work.
Kids as young as 13
are brought in as gunmen. Killers.
Children of eight and younger
are couriering drugs and guns around
and brought basically into the gang.
If you're a youngster, it can be hard to avoid the lure of the gang.
Heavy police crackdowns on the gangs have been tried before.
There are even allegations of government-run death squads.
My view is, the authorities have used a lot of stick
and not enough carrot, like providing jobs and opportunities.
Breaking the cycle of violence here requires much more focus
on combating high-level corruption and low-level poverty.
It's hard to find anyone in El Salvador who hasn't been affected.
My guide Fred and I were taking a look at the centre of the capital
when he started to tell me HIS story.
So, do you know what happened?
Why did the gang go after your dad?
So a 13-year-old child killed your father
as part of an initiation, almost, to get into the gang?
What has been the impact on your family?
Central America can seem trapped by its past and its present,
by civil wars,
American interference, a selfish powerful elite,
and now global drug gangs and climate change.
Successive governments in Central America have failed their people.
More than anything, these countries desperately need good leaders.
But Fred wanted to show me some of the thousands here who are trying
to help others. Some of the many heroes.
Let's go.
The Comandos de Salvamento is a group
of volunteer emergency paramedics.
They're ordinary but extraordinary people
who brave the dangerous streets,
responding to desperate calls from the public. Unpaid.
There's thousands of volunteers in this organisation.
They sometimes take huge risks because they take
first aid wherever it's needed, sometimes across gang lines.
They're a national organisation of some 3,500 volunteers,
and they recruit kids in their early teens from tough neighbourhoods
infested with gangs.
Sandra? Simon.
Sandra, how old are you?
So you are a volunteer paramedic.
When you first came here, you were just 14 years old
and you didn't like blood?
Like many of the young people here, Sandra grew up in a dangerous area.
Her dad brought her here to keep her safe.
Giving a home to youngsters who are at risk of being targeted by gangs
or forced into gangs is part of the Comandos' mission.
Sorry for just busting in here like this.
Is this where you stay as a volunteer,
or are you actually living here?
You're 18. What do you want to do with your life, Sandra?
So I think we're going to see Dr Sandra in the future.
SPANISH OVER RADIO
On each 24-hour shift,
the Comandos here will respond to dozens of calls,
from traffic accidents to gang shootings.
SIREN WAILS
They've just said that we're going to a dangerous area.
They weren't sure about taking us, but we said we're just going to stay
in the ambulance, we're not going to get out.
The Comandos have been caring for El Salvador for decades.
They were treating the wounded during the civil war,
after earthquakes, mudslides, flooding, hurricanes.
Throughout the recent tumultuous history of this country,
they stood shoulder to shoulder with the people.
They ARE the people.
MAN GROANS
HE GROANS
He's been beaten up by a lot of people? Yes.
What do you do for your normal job, Manuel?
What? Who speaks English?
Somebody right there?
Somebody right here. Hey, hey. I can hear you.
How are you doing? I'm BLEEP!
Oh, my God.
I must go to the hospital.
But I got... I got stamped on my head and they're taking me
to the BLEEP. To the hospital.
To the national hospital. That's right. National hospital.
How you been? I'm not a volunteer.
I'm from British television.
Oh, you're British? Yeah...
Oh, shit, eh?
You're British. Give me that shit, hey?
All right. How you been doing?
Welcome to El Salvador.
Thank you, mate. Yes.
Are you a tourist here? No, I was born right here.
I'm just deported.
I've been here ten years.
Wow. Yeah.
I'll be back soon. You're going to go back across the border?
Yeah. I don't want to be here.
Look what happened to me! God, yeah.
I've got to come out your way. OK. Good luck.
So he's being taken into a hospital there.
So he was living in America and he was saying
he's been deported from America.
He's been back here for ten years and he's going to try and get back
to the United States.
It's just a chaotic situation, but it's another Saturday night
in San Salvador.
Across El Salvador, there are thought to be more than
65,000 gang members.
They've brought anarchy and violence to many areas...
..but they're less than 1% of the population.
Tackling them requires addressing poverty and lack of opportunity.
Organisations like the Comandos show how it can be done.
They give youngsters family and identity.
They teach the value of each human existence.
Perhaps most importantly, they give volunteers
a real sense of purpose and meaning.
Is this another group of volunteer paramedics?
What are you guys doing here? And who are you, sir?
One of the other volunteer team was just ten years old.
What would the 14-year-old Sandra have made of the 18-year-old Sandra?
It had been a real privilege to be thrown into this extreme world,
even for just a short time, and to see the work
of this brave team.
Personally, I find everything here and everything they're doing
completely inspiring.
In a very dark place and a very dark situation,
at a tricky time for this country, they are a candle burning bright.
SIREN WAILS
Good luck, guys.
This first part of my journey through the Americas
was coming to an end.
As I'd seen, Central America is a troubled region.
But my final destination was a country that's a real beacon
of stability and hope - Costa Rica.
So I'm in Costa Rica,
which is known as a bit of a tropical paradise, I would say.
This is the last country I'll be visiting on this part
of my journey down through the Americas.
So the end is ahead somewhere.
And I'm travelling with Mari here. Hello!
Mari Jimenez is a guide and environmentalist
who organises adventure treks.
Oh, look at this!
It's so beautiful!
I feel very honoured every day to be born in this country,
with no army, surrounded by nature everywhere.
That's something quite extraordinary about Costa Rica, isn't it?
That you are in a part of the world where armies have often
been running the country.
Yeah. But here you abolished the army.
We are not used to seeing people walking on the streets
with big guns. That is really shocking for me.
Like, when I go to some other countries in Central America.
Look, the iguana!
There's an iguana just by the side of the road.
We were heading towards the Pacific coast of Costa Rica,
where I would finish my journey,
but passing through stunning forest along the way.
How beautiful! A lot of butterflies.
Oh, look at this one.
It's so cool how just one tree can attract so many insects.
And this is just like a tiny sample of what we have here in Costa Rica.
For its size, Costa Rica is one of the most
biodiverse countries in the world.
There are more than half a million different species
of animals and plants.
More than 800 different birds, and unique types of frogs, lizards,
snakes, spiders, monkeys, crocodiles, hummingbirds.
The whole place is just alive.
I mean, this is...
..right here.
This tree attracts the scarlet macaw.
They usually travel in pairs. They mate for life, don't they?
Exactly.
They are so endangered across the rest of Central America.
We are very, very lucky. Here as well?
Yeah. Here as well. Here they're endangered.
But we do have a lot of organisations that are working
to protect them, so we have a big population, actually.
Costa Rica is a very special place, isn't it?
You are...an incredibly...
..a super-hot biodiversity hotspot.
Exactly. 6% of the biodiversity of the world, to be exact.
6%? Yes. Of the planet's? Yes.
That's astonishing. Yeah, it is.
Bloody hell!
That looks amazing! Welcome to Costa Rica, Simon.
Wow!
That is overwhelming!
SHE LAUGHS
Did you expect something like that? No. No, I didn't.
When you said waterfall,
I thought it would be significantly smaller.
That is totally breathtaking!
Costa Rica is a poor but stable democracy, that for life expectancy
and wellbeing gets close to countries in Scandinavia.
Costa Ricans say they're committed to protecting the environment.
As a nation, they're aiming to be the world's first
carbon neutral country, massively reducing the impact of industry,
transport, of humans.
Oh, this is very nice.
A bit of rest for a weary traveller.
Look...
..at that view!
HE GASPS
The Pacific Ocean.
BIRD CALLS
Is that a toucan? Look!
Well, this is all very eco touristy, and that's very much the image
of Costa Rica that many foreign visitors have.
It's not bad, is it?
Tourism is at the heart of Costa Rica's green plan.
Of course, there's a contradiction.
They want to preserve the environment here,
especially for tourists.
But more than two million visitors a year come here,
most jetting around, like me, on planes that burn fossil fuels.
At least here in Costa Rica, they're trying to counter
and offset the pollution.
Mari, where are we going?
I'm taking you to a re-forestation project.
That is something that Costa Rican people do all the time.
Well, this is quite the scene.
Mari had found the perfect way for me to end my first journey
down through the Americas.
So many times on my journey so far, so many people in so many places
have stressed the importance of a simple, wonderful act -
putting trees in the ground.
Planting more trees,
vast numbers of trees,
is one of the biggest and cheapest ways of taking carbon dioxide
out of the atmosphere and tackling the climate crisis.
Costa Rica still loses land to cattle ranching,
but they're fighting back.
Half the country's forests are now protected parks.
And across Costa Rica, schoolchildren are taught
about the importance and value of the environment.
We've got kids who are, what, five, six and upwards from that.
Start with the young.
Yes, but the younger, the better,
because if they feel the connection, if they are part
of the creation of a new forest, in the future,
they won't destroy it.
OK?
In the four decades to the 1980s, Costa Rica
lost two-thirds of its forests.
But then people and the government began to value the natural world.
Since the 1980s, forests here have doubled in size.
They've gone green.
At the dawn of human civilisation,
there were, very roughly, six trillion trees on this planet.
We've since lost about half.
And we need a lot of them back.
On this journey,
I'd met people in the Americas reeling from the impact
of our changing environment.
From melting glaciers in Alaska,
to forest fires in California,
and the tragedy of drought in Guatemala.
A thousand changes are needed to improve life on this continent,
but planting trees and projects like this
are a pretty good way to start.
Is that deep enough, boss, or more?
Just a little bit more. Just a little.
I'm going to bring the tree. OK.
Rosewood!
Other countries are talking about investing in the environment,
and combating climate change.
Here in Costa Rica, they're actually doing that already.
Sometimes it's a small country that can teach the rest of the world
a thing or two, and show us a possible path ahead.
Get some back in the ground.
That's fine, actually.
It's more than 6,000 miles from the start of my journey in Alaska
to here in the heart of the tropics.
I'd travelled through some
of the most glorious landscapes on the planet.
My journey through the Americas had included a few scary moments
and a lot of emotion.
But more than anything, I've been bowled over by the extremes of life,
and the warmth of big characters that I'd met along the way.
Oh, my goodness.
I've reached the Pacific coast of Costa Rica.
This is the end of this part of my journey,
and my travels down through the Americas
have already shown me such complete extremes.
It's been completely overwhelming, and I'm only halfway!
I've travelled one continent.
Next up is South America.
I can't wait.