Simon travels through three of the world's most extreme environments as he takes in the salt flats of Bolivia, Brazil's Pantanal wetland region and Paraguay's Chaco Forest. In Bolivia, he meets a family making a living carving salt from the vast white expanse of the Uyuni flats, while in Brazil he has a close encounter with South America's apex predator, the jaguar. In Paraguay, Simon visits a Mennonites school, where traditionally clothed children are drilled in Bible texts and there are no smartphones to be seen.
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Simon sets off on a journey through the continent, beginning in the remote and little-visited north-east. In Venezuela, Simon meets some of the thousands of migrants fleeing the economic collapse of their country, while he learns that neighbouring Guyana could be on the verge of its own oil boom. He also meets a gun-toting former warlord who is now one of Suriname's most successful businessmen, and ends his journey in French Guiana, where he goes to the launch site of the European Space Agency.
2022 • Travel
Simon starts his travels through Brazil in one of the remotest regions of the Amazon with the Waiapi people, who cling on to their traditional way of life, which is under threat from logging and mining interests. In Manaus, the city at the heart of the Amazon, he visits a neglected indigenous neighbourhood and meets a nurse who was the only source of healthcare during the pandemic. Simon ends this leg of his journey on the west coast in the city of Rio de Janeiro, where the government has built a hi-tech control room to monitor all parts of the city for potential disasters such as floods.
2022 • Travel
Simon travels through the Andes mountains from Peru to Bolivia, beginning at the world-famous ruins of Machu Pichu. He then visits a remote valley where the mostly indigenous population farms coca leaves. the primary ingredient of cocaine. Heading across the border into Bolivia, Simon discovers how the indigenous women known as cholas have battled for increasing have battled for increasing influence and representation.
2022 • Travel
Simon travels through three of the world's most extreme environments as he takes in the salt flats of Bolivia, Brazil's Pantanal wetland region and Paraguay's Chaco Forest. In Bolivia, he meets a family making a living carving salt from the vast white expanse of the Uyuni flats, while in Brazil he has a close encounter with South America's apex predator, the jaguar. In Paraguay, Simon visits a Mennonites school, where traditionally clothed children are drilled in Bible texts and there are no smartphones to be seen.
2022 • Travel
The last leg of Simon's journey through South America takes him from Chile's Atacama Desert right down to Tierra Del Fuego, the most southerly inhabited place on Earth. In the Atacama, one of the driest places on the planet with is as little as 1mm of rain per year, Simon discovers shocking evidence of human pollution.
2022 • Travel
The Banat region borders on Serbia and Hungary, so its capital, Timisoara, is a very multi-cultural, cosmopolitan city, and provides the main social and economic hub for western Romania.
S1E7 • Flavours of Romania • 2018 • Travel
Giles Coren and Monica Galetti head to the Andean Cloud Forest of Ecuador to work at Mashpi Lodge, a $10-million modernist hotel featuring an extraordinary gondola cable car that 'flies' guests one mile through the jungle canopy at a dizzying height.
S1E2 • Amazing Hotels: Life Beyond the Lobby • 2017 • Travel
Four months into his journey, explorer Levison Wood arrives in the capital of the world's newest nation, South Sudan, only to be arrested by secret police. After several days' delay he and his guide Boston are allowed to continue onwards and soon enjoy a highlight of the trek - an encounter with members of the Mundari tribe. This community has set up a cattle camp on an island in the middle of the River Nile, where its members lead a very simple and sustainable existence of only drinking milk, burning cow dung, washing in cow urine and covering themselves in ash to ward off flies and mosquitos. After bidding them farewell, Lev finds himself caught up in the worsening civil war as his path winds through minefields and he witnesses increasing numbers of refugees fleeing in the opposite direction.
S1E2 • Walking the Nile with Levison Wood • 2015 • Travel
Michael begins the third leg of his journey in the mineral-rich state of Minas Gerais, where he learns about the Brazilian mining industry and meets some of the people dedicated to overturning the environmental damage it causes. He then heads to Rio de Janeiro, focus of the next World Cup and Olympics, where the authorities are ridding the streets of violent drug gangs that have controlled the city's shanty towns. On a lighter note, the globe-trotting broadcaster also learns to celebrate a goal like a well-known radio commentator and visits a `love hotel'.
S1E3 • Brazil with Michael Palin • 2012 • Travel
This week, Julia’s journey reaches the Sporades. Known as the ‘Paradise Islands’, their lush pine forests and breathtaking coastlines are recognisable to millions as the backdrop of the movie Mamma Mia. On Skiathos, Julia boards a fishing boat in search of a secret world of hidden coves and deserted beaches,
S1E4 • The Greek Islands with Julia Bradbury • 2020 • Travel
Charlie wraps up his explorations in western Transylvania, where he descends into an ancient Roman gold mine and drinks a locally made palinca.
S2E10 • Flavours of Romania • 2023 • Travel