- 2 days ago
Tracing the 2,400-mile (3,800 km) land route along the Tropic of Capricorn (latitude 23.5° S) connects two of South America's powerhouse nations. This overland journey cuts from northern Chile's arid Atacama Desert, across the rugged Andes, and through Brazil's vast countryside, ending near São Paulo.
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00:05Imagine a line, more than 22,000 miles long, that cuts through some of the most remote regions of the
00:11Southern Hemisphere.
00:17The Tropic of Capricorn marks the southern edge of the Earth's tropical zone.
00:22It runs through Southern Africa, Australia and South America.
00:26On the final leg of my Capricorn journey, I'm travelling from Chile to the coast of Brazil.
00:32It's more than 2,000 miles across the driest desert in the world and over the longest mountain range.
00:40Along the way I meet some of the last forest people.
00:43I think I prefer the honey to the bee larva.
00:48I witness environmental devastation.
00:51Just ripping it down, look at this!
00:54And I visit the biggest city in the Southern Hemisphere, where I'll be trying to stay out of trouble.
01:00Ah, bloody hell!
01:13What a sight!
01:15I'm here on the coast of Chile, beginning another leg of my journey around the Tropic of Capricorn.
01:20On this bit of the trip, I'll be travelling all the way across South America.
01:28Just a few miles south of Capricorn is the city of Antofagasta, where I met up with my Chilean guide
01:35and translator, Constanza Mujica.
01:40What awaits us across Chile?
01:43Basically, the driest desert in the whole world.
01:47And that's an extremely awesome experience.
01:51How the world would probably be if everything ended.
01:54That's the desert.
02:00Ahead of us lay the vast Atacama Desert.
02:03And Constanza had arranged for us to hitch a ride on a giant freight train.
02:07The start of my journey zig-zagging along Capricorn.
02:10So this is the landscape we're going to be heading into.
02:14Yeah.
02:14It's barren, isn't it? Barren as hell.
02:18Kilometres and kilometres of straight line.
02:21That's it.
02:23Voila!
02:37This train hauls thousands of tonnes of copper and supplies to and from Chile's biggest mine.
02:43It's half a mile long and pulled by three locomotives.
02:48How important is copper to this part of Chile?
02:52It's important for the whole of Chile, not only this part of Chile.
02:56We actually usually say that copper is Chile's salary.
03:01We all eat from what comes in copper.
03:0438% of everything we export is copper.
03:0738%?
03:09Yeah.
03:11Chile is now the world's biggest exporter of copper.
03:14Rising demand from China has pushed international prices for the metal through the roof.
03:19Creating a boom in Chile that many hope will continue.
03:23There's a sense of excitement that great things are going to happen that we will be able to sell each
03:29Chinese guy one of our apples or one kilo of our copper and become automatic millionaires.
03:35So there's a great sense of expectation of what is going to happen with the Chinese demand for our products.
03:42All the way along the Trophy of Capricorn, China has a presence.
03:47It's buying up natural resources and minerals or it's investing.
03:51It's there basically and here as well.
03:54So here in Chile.
03:55Well if you pay the right price you'll get it.
04:03It's so bright out here.
04:05I think this is about as bright a light as we've seen, as we've had while we've been travelling around
04:11Capricorn.
04:12And the heat as well is really starting to pick up.
04:18The Atacama Desert is millions of years old and covers 70,000 square miles.
04:24It's much more arid than even the Sahara.
04:27And parts have had no rainfall for hundreds of years.
04:32But mining companies that work out here need water to extract copper.
04:36And their attempts to find supplies have brought them into conflict with some of the local indigenous people.
04:44We eventually arrived in the small town of San Pedro de Atacama.
04:48Built around an oasis by the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century.
04:54Little survives in the desert.
04:56But the Atacameno people have lived here for more than 11,000 years with their herds of llamas.
05:04Many of the Atacameno are now unhappy with the mining firms that provide so much of the country's wealth.
05:12Hello, good morning.
05:14Rosa, hello.
05:15In San Pedro we met up with community leader and guide Rosa Ramos.
05:20Is this our picnic?
05:21Yes, yes.
05:22Fantastic, we've got bananas.
05:24Rosa has been one of the most vocal opponents of the mining company's plans.
05:28And where are we off to today?
05:30Well, the idea is to visit the two lakes in Altiplano.
05:35It's over the 4,000 metres.
05:374,000?!
05:39To a couple of lakes.
05:44Leaving the desert, Rosa took us up into the Altiplano, the high plains of the Andes,
05:49to show us an unprotected Lakeland area she believes is under threat.
05:54Halfway up, we cross the Tropic of Capricorn.
05:59We've arrived again on the Tropic of Capricorn.
06:03Yeah.
06:04This is a sort of Capricorn monument, is it?
06:07Yes, yeah.
06:08And my modern GPS tells us that we're now at 2,505 metres above sea level.
06:17Two and a half kilometres up.
06:19Are we going to get ill?
06:21Am I going to get ill?
06:22No, please, you need to feel okay.
06:25I don't want to get ill, but I have suffered from altitude sickness in the past.
06:30Well, I would like to give you some coca leaves because I don't feel bad there.
06:35So what, you put it into your mouth to chew?
06:37Yes, you put it into your mouth a little bit, the coca leaves.
06:42So how much should I take?
06:43Five, four.
06:45Coca leaves can be used to make cocaine, but in their raw form the leaves are widely used as a
06:51traditional remedy for altitude sickness.
06:53So while I become really overconfident and start talking crap, and I stuff them into my cheek pouch.
07:06Excuse me, messy eater.
07:09Okay, and then now relax.
07:12We can walk.
07:16Fortified by Rosa's herbal remedy, we drove even higher into the Andes.
07:24We're now at 4,000, just over 4,000 metres.
07:28So we're nearly, we're nearly the equivalent of halfway up Everest.
07:33We've just come round the corner to see this amazing lake just out here on the plain in front of
07:39us.
07:42This is just nature showing off.
07:48Look at this, this is like a Caribbean, a Caribbean sea, a tropical sea.
07:55Four kilometres above sea level, we're up in the high Andes.
07:59And there's a, there's a tropical sea.
08:03It's amazing.
08:05It actually brings a lump, a lump to my throat, man.
08:08It's so, it's just so beautiful.
08:14And we're going to try and get to the edge of this beautiful lake over here.
08:19We also have to go quite slowly because of the altitude we're at.
08:24There's not much oxygen in the air.
08:28What a sight.
08:29The birds that we saw from a distance are actually flamingos.
08:35I'm, I'm absolutely staggered by this.
08:40What does this lake mean to you and to the indigenous people of, of this area?
08:45Does it hold a special place in your, in your beliefs?
08:55For us, the Andes are the gods who gave us the water in the desert so we could survive.
09:02Our people have lived here for thousands of years.
09:06We've always respected the environment.
09:12But now people are destroying it and killing our animals and plants.
09:17And we're very sad.
09:23The mining companies are now hoping to drain water from these high Andesan lakes.
09:28Rosa fears the consequences.
09:33Firstly, even us indigenous people understand that mining is important.
09:39For the country's economy.
09:41We know this.
09:42But we don't think it's necessary to sacrifice such a fragile ecosystem.
09:48For an economic gain that could be achieved just as well by bringing water from the sea.
09:59The lake is unprotected and its future is uncertain.
10:03On our way back, Rosa took us to a local village.
10:05Where they're using their meagre water supplies in a sustainable way.
10:10Until recently, the village of Talabre had only intermittent electricity.
10:14But then the villagers decided to build their own micro hydroelectric plant.
10:18To harness water that trickles down from the Andes mountains.
10:25So on this street, you can see, look, they've got electric street lights here.
10:30That have been installed quite recently.
10:32And that makes a huge difference in a community like this.
10:35Because it means life can go on after dark.
10:39Rosa took us to meet a friend in the village.
10:43The new generator has dramatically improved the lives of Antonia Mondaca and her family.
10:48So look, and this is where you see the effects.
10:52You see the electric lights. Look at this.
10:54How has the electricity helped and changed lives here?
10:59We only used to have three hours of electricity between six and nine at night.
11:06It's changed everything. The whole atmosphere.
11:09And it's great for the kids.
11:13Now they can watch educational programs on TV.
11:19Let's ask the kids a very important question.
11:22What is your favorite TV program?
11:25What is your favorite TV program?
11:27The Simpsons.
11:29The Simpsons.
11:31The Simpsons.
11:36That evening, Rosa invited us to join her and some friends
11:40for a barbecue in a remote and beautiful part of the desert,
11:43known as the Valley of the Moon.
11:48There was only one main dish on the menu.
11:51Barbecued Llama.
11:57Rosa, look what you have organized.
11:59Yeah.
12:00This is the ultimate Andean sandwich.
12:05We've got it here.
12:08Llama meat.
12:11It's delicious.
12:13So, here we go.
12:15This is the first time I've eaten Llama.
12:19Let's just try it like this.
12:21Never mind the bun.
12:31It's tough but it's good.
12:36It's good, no?
12:37It's good, yeah, yeah.
12:39Rosa is part of a new generation of politically active indigenous people in South America,
12:44who are now fighting for their rights.
12:46In your lifetime, do you think things have changed?
12:49Do you think indigenous people are getting more power?
12:51It's changed, yes, it's changed, yeah.
12:51Yeah, yeah.
12:52Today we think we wake up and we reaction and we say stop.
12:59Our government prefers here the people that have powers.
13:07The politics, no, no, it's clean.
13:10No, it's clear.
13:12I think it happens everywhere, but specifically.
13:15No.
13:15Yeah, but it's true.
13:16Yeah.
13:17Well, Rosie, I want to say thank you to you for showing us some of the most, some of these
13:23amazing places around San Pedro in the Atacama.
13:26It's an extraordinary place.
13:28So thank you.
13:29And thank you for my alarm as well.
13:36The next morning, we headed even higher into the Andes, towards the border with Argentina.
13:42It was a hundred-mile climb through a landscape so barren, it's used by NASA to simulate conditions on Mars.
13:50Running down the length of the continent like a jagged spine, the Andes is the longest mountain range in the
13:56world.
13:58We're now really high up in the mountains.
14:03Wow, we're at 4,600 metres now.
14:07And we're still going to be climbing up even higher.
14:09This is the highest we've been on Capricorn, on our journey.
14:14I'm really feeling it.
14:17It's harder to breathe.
14:20And you really feel it when you do take a breath.
14:23You're not getting enough oxygen into your lungs.
14:31We climbed to nearly 5,000 metres above sea level and crossed the border into Argentina.
14:37As we descended on the other side, the whole landscape changed.
14:43After crossing the driest desert on Earth, a spot of rain was a welcome sight.
14:51The Argentinian foothills are lush and fertile.
14:55We were heading to a valley right on the Tropic of Capricorn.
15:00And here I can see a sign just ahead. Vicunias.
15:05I had come in search of a bizarre and secretive creature, native to the Andes.
15:10They look quite shy and delicate.
15:13The Vicunia is a smaller cousin of the llama.
15:16Its wool is so valuable it was once hunted almost to extinction.
15:23Hello.
15:24Good morning, Hugo.
15:25Welcome.
15:28Hugo Robles owns this ranch.
15:31And I arrived just in time for a Vicunia Roundup.
15:35Look, it's beautiful here.
15:40A government program is encouraging ranchers like Hugo to farm Vicunias sustainably.
15:46The population has now recovered from a low of less than 10,000 to around a quarter of a million.
15:53Today, they're going to be catching them, or trying to catch them and vaccinating them.
15:58Which, given the fact that these are very shy, nervous creatures that run away when you're within half a mile
16:04of them,
16:05it's going to be a bit of a challenge.
16:08Explain to them that the Vicunias are already in that corner.
16:12Yes, yes, look, there they are.
16:14The Vicunias.
16:16Look, they're already running away.
16:18Right. Am I coming with you, Hugo? Am I your new farm hand?
16:22Everyone who wants.
16:24Yes, with all pleasure.
16:26So, I just climb over.
16:27Oh, God.
16:29I'm not sure I'm too heavy for this snow.
16:33So, the Vicunias have just legged it in this direction.
16:36What they're trying to do is drive the Vicunias down this, into this corral, really, that snakes down like a
16:44tunnel, really.
16:46And then they can catch them.
16:48Hugo, they're like cheaters. I mean, look at them. How on earth are we going to catch them?
16:52No, I can't. Abajo, eh.
16:55I don't know, I appreciate it.
16:57Who goes off to chase them?
17:02Corran, corran.
17:09What the hell are we doing?
17:12Oh, we are going to get them.
17:15Che, che, che, che, che.
17:19Can you please stand still?
17:23No wonder their fibres are worth so much, because nobody can catch them.
17:30They've caught two in the funnel.
17:33No! They're going to escape!
17:37Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!
17:42Oh, bloody hell.
17:43Shut the gate!
17:45Despacito, despacito!
17:46Here we go.
17:48Look, they're in the corral.
17:52Success!
17:53Look at them.
17:56These are the Vicunias.
17:58And their fibres are finer than cashmere.
18:03The finest fibre in the world comes from these creatures.
18:07And for that you pay a hefty price.
18:11A suit made from the fibre from one of these creatures can cost about 15,000 pounds.
18:19No, no, no.
18:19Shh, calm down.
18:20So they just need to calm down.
18:22Calm down.
18:23It's okay, it's okay.
18:25With the Vicunias finally safe in their corral, it was time for them to have their jabs.
18:31But look how cute this creature is.
18:35It's so soft, isn't it?
18:40It's like a woolly Bambi.
18:44Very soft.
18:46Oh, look, there's a bit coming off.
18:48How much is that worth?
18:50That's probably worth about a hundred quid.
18:55Ugo, so, Ugo, we just, we put this on the, over the head.
19:00Exactly.
19:01Alright.
19:02Okay, so, it's alright.
19:04It's okay.
19:05Poor thing, it's okay.
19:07Oh, there we are.
19:09There we are.
19:11It's okay.
19:13Oh.
19:17And there we go.
19:19The blindfold comes off.
19:21There you are.
19:23Wasn't too bad, was it?
19:29Run free.
19:30Okay.
19:34There goes a very expensive woolly jumper.
19:41The next morning we set off, travelling east across this remote region in the far north of Argentina.
19:48It had been raining all night and landslides had strewn mud and rocks over the mountain roads.
19:55There seems to be one person clearing rocks from the road.
19:59Great.
20:01So, he should have the road cleared by about the middle of next year.
20:07It looked like we would make it through to our next stop on Capricorn, but heavy lorries were completely stuck
20:13in the mud.
20:17We were heading for a small indigenous settlement just north of the line, on the edge of a remote forest.
20:28Traditionally hunter-gatherers, the witchy people have lived in this region for thousands of years.
20:34But like indigenous communities across South America, their way of life is under threat, as their land is taken over
20:40for farming cattle and crops such as soy.
20:45John Palmer is an Oxford educated anthropologist who has studied and lived among the witchy for decades.
20:52Hello John, Simon.
20:54John's witnessed the destruction of this forest at first hand.
20:58He's married to Tocquea and they have two children.
21:02How severe or how serious is deforestation in this area?
21:07What could be the best word? It's catastrophic. It's very severe.
21:16What effect is it having on people's lives here?
21:20Well, in the immediate sense, there's a lot of ill health.
21:24They've got no chance to be independent economically.
21:27It's like having the supermarket shop.
21:31Where do you go for your food?
21:34One of the few remaining foods the witchy can harvest from the forest is honey.
21:40Rocky Miranda, the leader of this witchy community, invited us out on their daily honey hunt.
21:45I'm a bit worried about being stung by angry South American bees.
21:57That's where the bees are.
22:00Just in here.
22:04I didn't really want to antagonize the bees.
22:09So a little fire is being lit and smoke will be used to, well really to dull the bees, to
22:15make them a little bit dozy and discourage them from attacking us.
22:19And Rocky's getting ready.
22:20That looks very serious.
22:24Rocky's putting on layer after layer as a protection against the bees, which makes me feel a little bit exposed
22:31with bare arms.
22:32But I did bring a jacket.
22:35And this bag can be used to cover the head.
22:40So he's wafting some smoke into the hive.
22:43I'm going to put my head on.
22:44That one.
22:52And here come the bees.
23:02I don't think this smoke is working guys.
23:06Bloody hell.
23:07I've just been stung once.
23:10It's going.
23:20They're not going to like that, are they?
23:23So there he's opening it up and there it is.
23:25There's the honey.
23:30Look at it glistening there.
23:32It looks incredible.
23:34Proper wild honey straight from the forest.
23:38The bees aren't happy to lose it.
23:40Aye.
23:42Just been a bit in a game.
23:44If everybody was to hold one of these, then we'd put up more smoke around us.
23:51Okay, let's try some pure honey.
23:56Oh, fantastic.
24:02That's amazing.
24:04Perfecto.
24:08And what is, this is honey and what else is that there?
24:11That's the larvae.
24:14So this is the larvae of the bees.
24:16And you eat the larvae as well?
24:18The larvae as well?
24:19The larvae as well?
24:20The larvae as well?
24:23The larvae as well?
24:34Choking on the smoke.
24:35I think I prefer the honey to the bee larvae.
24:42But as the forest is cut down, the 50,000 witchy in northern Argentina are losing their natural food supply.
24:48They're producing many weeds and food.
24:55So, all of these vegetables are losing its way.
25:06We don't have to do this with the larvae.
25:07I've been under the larvae as well.
25:12I mean, I've been under the larvae to have their love.
25:15So, can I have to worry about this?
25:15this forest. This is a remote part of Argentina and they cannot stop the deforestation happening
25:21around them. The bulldozers just keep getting closer. A few hundred metres from the village
25:31I witnessed the devastation at first hand. So here we've got a really new area of deforestation.
25:43It's really shocking to suddenly come across this. Look at this. This is just being torn out.
25:55This is forest that the witchy depend on, obviously the rest of the world depends on,
25:59these are lungs for our earth. Look at this round here.
26:06This is what they use. This is what they use to destroy the forest here.
26:12They put these huge chains between two bulldozers, stretch it out and then just run it across
26:22the, across the trees. Ripping the trees up.
26:29I can barely lift just this. Can you imagine the devastation this causes?
26:42Just five days before our visit, Rocky and some of the other villagers had confronted the bulldozer
26:47drivers and begged them to stop. But later the same night, they heard them felling again.
27:02When we came back at about 11 o'clock, they'd moved to this part of the forest and were cutting
27:06it down.
27:10They must have known we would come back to stop them, so they were in a hurry.
27:14Finally, they left this area and headed off over there.
27:22The land is being cleared for farming cattle and crops like soy. The bulldozers have stopped for now,
27:30but the witchy know they will return.
27:33You can imagine the scene here the other night when these villagers come out of their community
27:42and they come to these bulldozers and they say,
27:44you're taking away our absolute livelihoods, our absolute being. We can't survive without this.
28:02There's no electricity in the village and that night John and I joined Rocky around the communal fire.
28:14Do you think that witchy culture can survive the destruction that you're seeing around you?
28:26Well, I reckon that when our forest has gone, we'll have nothing to live on.
28:32As the leader of the community, I'm aware that the witchy are in dire straits
28:36because they don't know what's coming to them.
28:39None of us know what to make of it because it's all so new, this deforestation.
28:45How can any of us make sense of it?
28:48I wonder what will become of my children when I'm gone.
28:50I wonder what will become of my children when I'm gone.
28:58I wonder what will become of my children when I'm gone.
28:58So, quite a depressing day today,
29:01seeing all the destruction of the forest.
29:06You know, it's the sort of thing you hear about at a distance.
29:10But then when you see it close up, it really is...
29:14It really is desperate.
29:17You can only feel a great sense of sadness for the witchy, I think,
29:23because they're very gentle people.
29:27Gentle people tend to get walked over.
29:38The next morning, we set off towards Paraguay.
29:42It's a 500-mile drive along a relentlessly straight road.
29:47In order to cross the border, we had to head south of Capricorn towards the capital,
29:51of the capital, of the capital, of the capital, of the capital, of the capital, of the capital.
30:01We arrived in Paraguay on one of the biggest days of the year,
30:05the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.
30:10There's loads of stalls selling all sorts of stuff.
30:14Some of it's even religious.
30:16My guide in Paraguay was journalist Andrea Machain.
30:19There's balloons, sunglasses.
30:23There's a collection of ceramic frogs here.
30:26Look, we've got statues here.
30:29Baby Jesus with gold pants on.
30:32So it's not just a religious festival or a pilgrimage.
30:37It's a gathering where people come all over, like a national party.
30:42For the whole of Paraguay.
30:43For the whole of Paraguay.
30:44Even more important than Christmas, I would say.
30:47More important than Christmas.
30:48More important than Christmas.
30:49Surely not.
30:52Religion has always been a powerful force in Catholic Paraguay.
30:56These people are broadcasting live, the mass, and its own national TV.
31:02Today, Paraguay is a democracy.
31:04But from the 1950s until 1989, the country was ruled by Alfredo Stresner, a brutal dictator even by South American
31:13standards.
31:15Paraguay was so isolated from the outside world that it became a haven for notorious Nazi war criminals like Josef
31:21Mengele.
31:25The next morning, Andrea took me to a cafe in the capital of Stresner, which was a clandestine meeting place
31:31for those brave enough to oppose Stresner.
31:34What was happening to people who spoke out or expressed an opinion against the regime?
31:39Nothing good.
31:41The Stresner dictatorship didn't go against you personally if you said something against it, but against your whole family, even
31:49your children.
31:51So even the bravest people would take the danger and the risk for themselves, but couldn't cope taking the risk
31:59for the people they loved.
32:07We're here at the museum of, well it says memories really, but it's a museum of torture, almost.
32:15Here with Dr. Filartiga, who we will ease out of his car.
32:21Andrea introduced me to one of the most prominent victims of the Stresner regime, Dr. Joel Filartiga.
32:27We met at a museum which documents some of the worst excesses of Stresner's secret police.
32:34So just on the way here, the doctor was saying that he was tortured four times by the regime.
32:40And that's part of the reason he needs a little bit of assistance now from his grandson.
32:47The history of state terrorism, three languages.
32:54So here this is, this is the man himself. This is Stresner.
32:59What did you say?
33:01The tyrant.
33:02The tyrant.
33:05Can we see any specific case here? This looks like a child.
33:11She's a little girl who was tortured and raped.
33:15She was about 12 or 13 years old.
33:19Can you see the picture here?
33:21Look at the, this is a regime that would, that would torture children.
33:27These records were discovered by chance in a suburban police station.
33:32They document the fate of 400,000 people who were imprisoned and 50,000 who were murdered.
33:39It's an extraordinary, an extraordinary place.
33:45But it can't be easy for people to come back here and see what happened.
33:50This is a mock-up.
33:52But even as a mock-up, it's really quite unsettling.
33:56This is what happened here, doctor.
34:01The dead were wrapped in barbed wire when they were finished with.
34:05They were packaged up and thrown away from a helicopter, dumped in a river, or buried.
34:14Dr. Filartiga's crime was to run a free clinic treating political dissidents.
34:20He was tortured in a bath with electric shocks, in this very cell, but he survived.
34:27But what haunts him the most is that the regime then went after his son.
34:32I know it must be incredibly painful for you to think back to that time, but can you tell us
34:38a little bit about what actually happened to your son, how he was killed?
34:46They hung him from his ankles.
34:49They tortured him with electrical equipment, with shocks.
34:53Stroszner himself was listening on the radio to my son's answers.
34:57He dictated the questions.
35:04I lived in fear of it.
35:06I told my son not to go out.
35:09I had an idea it might happen.
35:12Every day I suffer.
35:14I can't sleep at night.
35:22Stroszner was overthrown in 1989 and died in exile.
35:27Today, Paraguay is free from tyranny.
35:31You've lost as much as anyone has in getting rid of the old regime.
35:37Are you happy with the Paraguay you've got today?
35:43I am satisfied, but sadly another form of oppression has appeared.
35:49There's a new demon now.
35:5193% of our country is deforested.
35:54There is a culture of death which prefers money to life.
36:03We flew north, back towards the tropic, to investigate the deforestation that so angered Dr. Filartiga.
36:11In the last 50 years, nearly all of Paraguay's forest has been destroyed.
36:16We were heading towards the Embaracaju Reserve, one of the last pockets of forest in Paraguay.
36:25The once mighty Atlantic forest used to cover almost all of eastern Paraguay.
36:30In its place now were endless fields of cash crops, especially soy.
36:40It was a sheep on the runway, we just missed it.
36:44It was close.
36:45She was a quick runner.
36:49Lucky for us as well.
36:53Like a cork from a bottle.
36:59So this is almost the entrance then to the forest.
37:03The last bit.
37:04I met up with Renni Palacios, the head ranger at the Embaracaju Reserve,
37:09who showed me this unique habitat.
37:12So here we're entering the Atlantic Forest.
37:16The Atlantic Forest, it used to extend over an area much larger than just Paraguay, didn't it?
37:22Oh yes, it came all the way from the Brazilian coast, the Atlantic coast, down to Paraguay and
37:32North Argentina.
37:33Tell us what the Atlantic Forest actually is, because not many people have heard of it.
37:39Well, we have many, many species of plants, more than 2,000.
37:44A lot of birds.
37:46You can find here the big mammals, like,
37:49other animals.
37:50You know, have you heard about jaguars?
37:51I have heard of them.
37:53You can find them here?
37:54Jaguars, yeah.
37:56What else have you, what else, what other animals have you got?
37:58Oh, we have pumas too.
38:00Pumas?
38:00Yeah.
38:01And do you know about the tapirs?
38:04It's almost a bit like a pig.
38:06Yeah, but big, 300 kilos of mamma.
38:09A giant pig.
38:11Oh, yes.
38:13Back at his headquarters, Rene explained that the forest has been cut down to make way for crops
38:18like soy.
38:20We had a huge deforestation in Paraguay, in the Atlantic Forest, and most of the
38:28deforestation was made for agriculture. The land in Paraguay used to be very low price, so
38:35many, many people came, especially from Brazil, bought land and plant soy, because the soy hill
38:42is very good. They have very good production, their productivity is very high.
38:50Soy now accounts for nearly half of Paraguay's exports. In one of the poorest countries in South
38:56America, many people see this cash crop as Paraguay's economic salvation. But there's a growing
39:03campaign against soy. Wow, it really is just a sea of soya.
39:10Activist Diego Segovia took me to soy fields on the edge of the reserve.
39:15When you see these huge fields of soy, where there used to be great forests, what do you feel? I
39:23mean,
39:23this, the forests here have been lost really in your lifetime, haven't they?
39:30We say they've become a green desert because there's no other form of life that isn't soy,
39:35nothing but soy. And the herbicides they use kill everything else. They kill the soil, they kill the
39:41water, they kill the rural communities. Soy is high in protein, and most of Paraguay's harvest goes to
39:49China and Europe to feed our pigs and cattle. But it's also now being used to make biofuel,
39:55a replacement for fossil fuels like petrol. But surely biofuel, it's seen as something that might
40:02save us from climate change. Isn't it a good thing?
40:09We think this is a myth. It's a lie, because to produce biofuels you need to cut down the forest.
40:17You have to get rid of the trees, and the trees are the living things that absorb the most carbon.
40:25I think this is madness, converting our fields into fuel for cars.
40:34Just a few decades ago, the Paraguayan forest was home to dozens of indigenous communities,
40:40like the witchy we met in Argentina. But most of them have now been displaced.
40:48We were heading south to the border crossing with Brazil. All we could see on the drive were endless
40:55fields of soy. Much of it destined for Europe to fatten livestock and put meat on our tables.
41:05Our world is so globalised now, it's extraordinary that we have such a little connection with
41:10the food we eat in places like Europe. We just don't realise where the different elements that
41:17make up our plate are coming from. When you come out here and you see the damage that soy is
41:23doing to
41:24the forests and the people who live in the forests, it really does make you think more than twice about
41:31it.
41:35Just as the sun was setting, we finally reached Ciudad del Este, right on the border with Brazil.
41:50A city of more than a quarter of a million people, Ciudad del Este is a giant,
41:55crowded, claustrophobic cash and carry. Deep in the heart of South America,
42:00this is the third largest tax-free zone in the world, after Miami and Hong Kong.
42:09The shoppers flock here from across the region, keen to pick up a bargain.
42:15There's only one way to travel in Ciudad del Este, motorbike taxi.
42:24About to get smashed up.
42:31The turnover in all manner of tax-free goods in the city
42:34is a major contributor to Paraguay's national economy.
42:40It's quite weird to come out of rural Paraguay and come here and see all this going on, I tell
42:46you.
42:47Look, you've got inflatable beach stuff, tents, even though we're hundreds,
42:53thousands, maybe a thousand kilometres from the sea, something like that.
43:03It's a dirty, dusty shopping centre, but with an edge.
43:12I've got a huge inflatable pile of Christmas.
43:16There's a man with an AK-47 there, guarding a shop, selling children's rucksacks.
43:25The lawless atmosphere and tax-free status has made the city a hotbed of counterfeiting and smuggling.
43:33It's a crazy, duty-free, anything-goes, cash town.
43:40Gracias, gracias, gracias.
43:44So now we need to head to Brazil.
43:50So here we go, we're crossing now the Rio Paraná, the Paraná River,
43:55from Paraguay on that side to Brazil on this.
44:00You get the feeling there is a greater degree of order here,
44:04and that we've come to a very smart, huge immigration customs point.
44:11The border was packed with Brazilians returning from Ciudad de Leste with their duty-free shopping.
44:18At the time you leave Brazil, you should leave this case, OK?
44:21OK, fantastic, thank you, obrigado.
44:25But not everyone was bringing in goods legitimately.
44:28We'd only been at the border a few moments,
44:30when the police stopped a man smuggling packages from Paraguay.
44:34So this is the bag the guy had, just cutting it open.
44:44Look at that.
44:45And inside you've got 20, 25 bullets.
44:49And this is one of the great problems for the Brazilian police and customs in this area,
44:54because just across the border you've got essentially a completely lawless city that we've just come from.
44:59And people are able to buy things like this fairly openly.
45:06On the other side of the border is the Brazilian city of Foz do Iguaçu.
45:12Brazilian photographer Fernando Cavalcanti was to be my guide through the last country on my Capricorn journey.
45:18You could say that this city was built on smuggling money.
45:22Well, all this illicit stuff.
45:24But now it's changed, you know.
45:26It's slightly swinging towards tourism and the waterfalls and stuff like that.
45:33Now we're here, we've got to go and see the waterfall.
45:39We headed off towards the breathtaking Iguaçu Falls.
45:43In front of us we can see what it looks like to me.
45:46It looks to me as though there's smoke rising from the forest.
45:49But in fact, this is water vapour coming off a huge waterfall.
45:55We're approaching one of those extraordinary natural sites on this planet.
46:00Look at this, look at this light.
46:03Oh my God.
46:07We're just flying into the vapour now.
46:10But below us it's as if there's a giant flare in the air.
46:14Brazil has nearly 20% of the world's fresh water.
46:18And it's one of the country's greatest natural resources.
46:21At its peak flow, six and a half million litres of water per second cascade over these falls.
46:26I think it was Eleanor Roosevelt when she first saw this waterfall.
46:31She just looked at it and said,
46:33Oh Niagara.
46:35I've never seen a site like this.
46:39This, for me, is one of the most extraordinary natural sites on this planet.
46:48It was time for the last stage of my journey.
46:51We flew to Sao Paulo, back on the Tropic of Capricorn.
46:56With a population of at least 20 million, it's the biggest city in the southern hemisphere.
47:02Here we are.
47:03So we're just crossing the Tropic of Capricorn now.
47:07Well done.
47:08Thank you. Well done to you.
47:11And we're heading into Sao Paulo.
47:13Yes.
47:14Man, it's huge.
47:16I'm sure going to be impressed.
47:18It's the biggest city in the country.
47:20It's where the money is.
47:24Sao Paulo is the commercial centre of Brazil's rapidly developing economy.
47:29It's home to a new class of the super rich.
47:33So this is a quite wealthy area.
47:35Quite wealthy.
47:36It looks ferociously wealthy to me.
47:40Luxury, huge, mansions almost.
47:44It's a bit like Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, isn't it?
47:46Look at all.
47:47BMW to the left.
47:49That is in front of you.
47:51On the right here, you could see some, you could see some Porsches.
47:55Look at this.
47:56Brazil is still a developing country, but you wouldn't know it around here.
48:02The rich in Sao Paulo are going to extraordinary lengths to protect their wealth.
48:07See?
48:08Electric fences on the top of every wall.
48:12This one has infrared.
48:13See the little sensor over there?
48:14Bloody hell, it has this one.
48:16They have to hide your wealth behind the walls.
48:20That's not much fun.
48:23Living just a few minutes away from the wealthy in their gated mansions of Brazil's urban poor,
48:30the huge gulf between the haves and the have-nots has helped create a frightening rate of violent crime.
48:36Last year, there were 3,000 murders and 70 kidnappings in Sao Paulo alone.
48:43Perhaps not surprisingly, the city has more private security guards than any other in the world.
48:53The city has more private security guards than any other in the world.
48:54Fernando took me to a company that's making a fortune supplying bodyguards to wealthy Brazilians.
49:03Jose Neto is the vice president of the firm.
49:07Jose, so, um, how's business going?
49:09Jose Neto is the biggest security company in Brazil, with over 14,000 employees.
49:19500 of whom are close protection bodyguards.
49:23The demand for our services is very high, because the problem of crime is very severe in Brazil.
49:31Okay, well, let's see what your men do.
49:34Yeah, come on.
49:36Okay.
49:41Jose suggested I play the role of a VIP in one of the training exercises.
49:49This is my cue.
49:55Okay, so I'm walking to the shops.
49:59Ah, bloody hell!
50:06I have no idea what happened to the kidnappers, but I've got to go.
50:11One minute I was walking towards three plates on the wall, and the next I was being picked up,
50:16chucked in the back of the car, and we were off.
50:19It was very dramatic.
50:27We're leaving the wealthy parts of Sao Paulo now, and we're heading towards
50:33the suburbs, and then into what in other countries would be called the shanty towns.
50:38Here they call them the favelas.
50:40And we're heading to one favela in particular, which used to have the reputation of being the most
50:45dangerous place on the planet.
50:56Just a few years ago, the murder rate in Jardim Angelo was the highest of any neighborhood in the
51:01world, with drug massacres almost every week.
51:10Community worker Osney Santos offered to take us on a tour of the favela.
51:16He insisted it wasn't safe to take our shiny new hire car, so we traveled in his van.
51:25It's a bit of a squeak on the brakes there.
51:28Has this had its MOT recently?
51:31Not sure.
51:33We don't have a MOT here.
51:35I can see, clearly.
51:40We're going to cross the famous Morro dos Calados.
51:44I'm not going to stop at the morro.
51:45I'm going to go a little bit faster, because it's not good to be filming a lot here.
51:51Why do you call the Quiet Hill?
51:55Because no one can open the door of the traffic.
52:00It's much better to stay quiet if you want to live.
52:05As in developing cities across the planet, many people here have been moved off rural areas
52:10to make way for huge industrial farms. So they come here in search of work.
52:16I mean, do most people here have jobs?
52:18I mean, 60% of the population is unemployed.
52:2360% are unemployed?
52:2560%
52:2660% of the population is unemployed.
52:30Life in Jardim Angela is starting to improve.
52:33And with leadership from the Catholic Church, the community is taking back streets from drug
52:38dealers and gangs.
52:41We visited a church community project where youngsters are now taught skills like cooking
52:46and hairdressing to keep them on the straight and narrow.
52:49Is that all right? It's okay?
52:52I'm ready to make pizzas.
52:55My cookery teacher is teenager Luis Fernando.
52:59I'm really bad at all forms of cooking and I burn toast.
53:02So I'm very keen to learn how to make a pizza, particularly the Brazilian way.
53:08What do we start with?
53:14Is that all right?
53:23Luis is only 17, but he's already had a chequered past.
53:32I was in the wrong life.
53:35I did a lot of stuff I shouldn't do.
53:37My dad got very worried.
53:39I thought there was something there for me because I wanted to fill that emptiness I felt inside.
53:47And what age did you start?
53:50Did you get involved with drugs?
53:5314 years old.
53:54First it was weed and then the flower.
53:58But not this one, the other one.
54:00Cocaine?
54:01Yes.
54:04Bit by bit I got out of drugs and now I don't take anything anymore.
54:08I'm here, steady, strong, learning with them.
54:15With little formal education in the favela, the teenagers are now learning skills that will improve
54:20their chances of finding a job.
54:22I don't know what I'm doing wrong.
54:24I mean, apart from everything.
54:26Look at the state of mind compared to his.
54:28Why is mine like that?
54:31What's going on?
54:32What have I done wrong?
54:34Unbelievable.
54:44It's like that, is it?
54:45I see.
54:48Joking apart, the sense that I really have here, I don't know whether you feel this,
54:52but there's just, these kids have got incredible potential.
54:56There's so much potential in a place like this and for so long it's just, it's just gone to waste.
55:01I think they've been neglected for too long.
55:07It was time for us to leave Sao Paulo on the very last leg of the journey.
55:13We're coming to the coast now and we're heading to a town called Ubatuba,
55:18which is right on Capricorn. It's right at the point where Capricorn leaves Brazil,
55:24leaves South America and heads out across the Atlantic Ocean.
55:29The Tropic of Capricorn is the most southerly point on the planet where the sun can appear to be
55:34directly overhead. We were arriving at the coast on the day when this happens, the solstice.
55:42What are the chances we're going to see the sun on our, on the solstice on Capricorn?
55:48I would say very slim. Oh really? Yes. Ubatuba has a reputation of being a very rainy place.
55:57We actually joke that Ubatuba should be called Uba Chuva. Chuva meaning rain, because it rains a lot
56:04down here. Look at this. Hmm, I smell fish.
56:21Ubatuba was once just a small fishing village, but today it's a busy holiday resort for Brazil's
56:27burgeoning middle classes. It's supposed to be somewhere around here. We think we're coming
56:33up to Capricorn here. Well, that's the airport, and I heard the monument was just by the airport.
56:42Maybe it's that. Look, maybe it's that one. That's the monument. Well, that's a skate park,
56:46and there's, that looks like a globe. Yes. I think we got to Capricorn. Finally. Amazing.
56:57We're at the Capricorn monument on the coast of Brazil. This is it. This is really the end.
57:04This is where we started. This is where we started our journey months and months ago on
57:08the coast of Africa in Namibia. We went across Africa, across Madagascar, which they seem to
57:14have forgotten on this globe, across the middle of Australia. That's Australia there. Round here,
57:20around the world. And then we hit the coast of South America in Chile. We've gone across South
57:27America. Look, Brazil is outlined here. We've come across Brazil. And look, there we are now.
57:34There's a little hole being drilled for Ubatuba. I feel a bit odd about this, actually. I mean,
57:40I didn't think I'd feel quite as, almost emotional as I do, but honestly, it's been such a long journey.
57:51And this is it. Here we are. The sun's come out just at this final second. Look at that.
57:59On the solstice at midday. The sun is overhead. The shadow falls underneath. We're at the southern
58:07point, the southern border of the tropics. We've traveled all the way around. We've seen so much
58:12on the way from the rise of China in Africa to deforestation in South America. It has been an
58:18amazing journey. I've got a huge lump in my throat now.
58:26We've made it.
58:33Come on, let's have a dream. Yeah, you're right. We deserve one. We do. We work for Capricorn.
58:42Discover some stunning and untouched parts of Indonesia tomorrow when Simon Reeve explores the
58:48equator at 20 to 5. But next on BBC Two, Alex Polizzi's The Fixer, helping a family firm
58:54of sausage makers face up to the supermarket giant.