Latin America Equator

I've followed the Equator across Africa and across Asia,

and now I've got just over one month to follow the line

across Latin America.

Hopefully I'll make it across the continent

in time to ride on a giant wave.

Now, the route is going to take me

across some of the most dangerous parts of Colombia

and some of the most beautiful parts of Brazil.

But right now, I get to witness one of the great wildlife spectacles

on the planet, here on the Galapagos.

The final leg of my long trip around the Equator

took me across Latin America.

It's a continent rich in natural resources

and home to the lungs of the planet,

but dogged by drugs and civil war.

I began in the Pacific Ocean, off the South American mainland,

at an island archipelago straddling the Equator -

the Galapagos - where I witnessed a spectacular display of wildlife...

..like nowhere else on Earth.

It was young Charles Darwin's visit to the Galapagos in 1835

that ultimately transformed our understanding of evolution

and put these islands on the map.

Today, I'm being guided around by conservationist Paul,

who wanted to show me the sea lions,

some of the very few mammals native to the islands.

Ah!

Fantastic!

That was absolutely extraordinary.

This is one of those breathtaking sort of moments.

The seals are swimming and dancing all around us

as we're under the water.

Scientists regard the Galapagos

as one of the most precious habitats on Earth,

and the islands are carefully preserved,

with a whopping 97% of them declared national park

by the government of Ecuador.

I just had a wonderful moment then where I was going down

and a sea lion was coming up,

and he looked quite surprised to see me,

and it just kicked its tail and just went whoosh, raced out of the way.

It's just... Extraordinary creatures, they really are.

What a privilege.

-The landscape here really is completely otherworldly.

-It's stark.

Millions of years ago, these islands emerged from the Pacific Ocean

as a result of volcanic activity.

Their isolation has helped keep them unspoiled,

providing scientists with a portal to the past.

A quarter of the shore fish, half of the plants,

and almost all of the reptiles are only found here.

The land iguanas are really the highlight of this island.

-You're tripping over them, almost.

-Look at this huge beastie here.

-They're all around us.

-They're all around us, they're all on the move.

-They don't seem particularly concerned by our presence.

-No.

Fearless. Absence of predators,

-absence of humans chasing them and eating them.

-He's just so close.

You're a fearsome-looking creature.

We have a huge yellow one that's on the move over here,

and we might have a bit of action.

Looks like he's going to chase the other females.

Ooh!

He's stopped now cos we've caught him at it!

They have a hemi-penis.

-A hemi-penis? What is that?

-It's almost like a little double penis,

so it doesn't get too awkward to have to move things around too much,

you just have one on each side.

-It doesn't mean they can have two lady iguanas at once?

-No.

But it means if one of them goes unserviceable,

they've got a back-up. Quite nice.

He's not going to show us his todger, is he?

No, he doesn't usually.

I'm almost relieved. I'm not sure I want to have any envy

-in that department.

-No, no.

Particularly not from an iguana!

How come no mammals ever made it here?

-Do you think they might have done, and couldn't survive?

-Well, no.

The biggest limiting factor to life in Galapagos is the journey across.

So if you're coming on floating rafts on the ocean current,

-the minimum time it takes to get here is two weeks.

-Right.

Two weeks without food or water.

-That's too long in the baking sun for a mammal?

-Exactly.

A mammal cannot live for more than three days without water.

-But reptiles...

-Whereas a reptile can.

And that is the limiting factor to life, terrestrial life on Galapagos.

Argh!

That was one of the worst so far.

'No wonder land mammals had trouble making it across the ocean.

'As we headed to the capital island,

'Santa Cruz, we were given a real battering by the Equatorial waters.

'And my idea of a relaxing four-hour boat trip was disappearing fast.

'One by one, we all succumbed to seasickness,

'including my producer, Steve.'

HE GROANS

"Come to paradise," they said.

"Have fun," they said.

"See the animals."

Hang on - this is what YOU said!

Argh!

Visitor numbers to the Galapagos National Park

have more than doubled during the last decade,

now reaching 100,000 tourists a year, and bringing in 200m.

But not all the 30,000 inhabitants

of the islands are benefiting from this influx of cash.

Down at the harbour,

it's not only the pelicans who are scraping together a living.

Fishermen on the islands claim it's difficult to make a living

because of fishing quotas imposed by the government,

who say they are trying to protect fish stocks.

It didn't look as if any of these fishermen expected

to make their fortune playing cards,

so I thought it was safe enough to take my chances among the sharks.

Can we play a game with you? I've got 20.

LOUD CHATTER, LAUGHTER

I've got 20!

-Come on, then. Sit here?

-Yeah.

-OK.

Are we playing for a lot of money?

LAUGHTER

There's no way I'm going to win any money!

Protect the cards!

-Which one do you think I should put down?

-That two.

-OK.

This happens all the time.

He says you've got the wrong teacher. HE LAUGHS

I'm a bit flummoxed by this game.

Is this the popular game, Fleece the Tourist?

LAUGHTER

While conservationists want to preserve the Galapagos,

these fishermen just want to make a decent living.

A growing number are furious about restrictions on their work,

and say the government cares more for the wildlife than for humans.

In recent years, the anger boiled over,

and fishermen besieged the prestigious Darwin Research Centre,

holding scientists and animals hostage.

Jose defends the protest.

TRANSLATION: All the problems started because there are too many

conservationists in the park.

Have they stopped you working?

Not stopped as such, but we have

a growing problem with sea cucumber fishing that gets worse every year.

Now we are only allowed to fish it for two months of the year,

and that has caused many problems.

Also, we have been trying to sell our local products,

mainly fish, internationally,

and we have got the buyers, but they have been clamping down on that.

The angry fishermen confined

30 scientists and several rare tortoises to the Darwin Centre

for four days and refused them any food or supplies.

You were holding people there,

almost holding them hostage then, and the tortoises as well?

It took place at the entrance to the park.

A net barricade was put up by the gate.

They didn't even try to leave.

They wouldn't have been able to do so because of the people outside.

There were ten times more of them.

That war was not started by fishermen.

They were the ones who started that war.

The gang of disgruntled fishermen came here to the Darwin Centre,

wielding machetes and knives,

and threatened to kill Lonesome George, one of the best-known

residents of the Galapagos.

I've come to see Lonesome George,

who's really perhaps the most famous of the tortoises here.

Oh, there he is! He's huge!

Hello, George.

George is an 80-year-old giant saddleback Galapagos tortoise,

and the last of his kind.

Since 1972, the Darwin Centre has been trying to save his sub-species

by encouraging him to mate.

But poor old Lonesome George has always resisted.

What have you been doing to try and find him a mate?

-TRANSLATION:

-So that he can reproduce, a girl came from Switzerland

so that the tortoise can learn

to be friendly with people because he was very timid.

-You're talking about a human?

-A human.

-A human being?

-A human Swiss girl, yeah, a scientist.

-A scientist.

And why did he need a friend?

He needed her to extract his sperm.

First of all, she started touching

him in sort of strategic areas and trying to get him excited.

-So, this scientist had to masturbate this giant tortoise?

-Yes, she did.

Just so we're clear about that.

When the Swiss scientist failed to produce the goods,

two female tortoises were moved into George's pen.

But that was more than 14 years ago.

I'm just on my way to see one of the ladies who George has rejected.

Oh, she's not fantastically attractive from the back,

but from the front, I'm reliably informed,

she's a bit of a looker for a tortoise.

He's the last of his kind.

Aren't you?

It would be such a shame if his particular sub-species

was to die out

along with him.

The Galapagos are so isolated,

it's an incredible 600 miles across the Pacific Ocean,

along the Equator,

until you finally hit land again - the west coast of Ecuador.

I think this is Karina, who's going to be our guide

and who's going to take us across Ecuador.

Karina!

DOG BARKS

I wanted to stick closely to the Equator,

so we hired a four-by-four to get us across Ecuador's

agricultural heartland.

The population here is a mix of indigenous tribes,

descendants of African slaves and of Spanish colonisers.

A full 70% of the 14 million people live below the poverty line.

My foot is right down.

Straight through it.

ENGINE REVS

Go, go, go, go, go, go!

-Go, go!

-Ow!

Sounds like the engine's going to explode.

Go, go, go, go, go, go, go!

-Go, go, go!

-Oh...

OK, we're stuck.

Oh, dear.

Oh, and it's so sticky.

KARINA LAUGHS

So, now we sort of know how difficult it's going to be...

to travel along the Equator.

There's the town. I can see the town.

'We managed to free ourselves from the mud,

'but that was the easy bit.'

Oh, no!

Argh!

There's no way we're going to get across there.

-Argh!

-What do you think?

It's very frustrating, cos we've just driven a hell of a long way.

THEY SPEAK IN SPANISH

He does not recommend us to cross,

-because if the car turns off, the river will take us.

-Really?

-Yeah.

He has people that can push us.

Push us? Oh, that's very kind.

OK, I think we should try and drive across, then.

These guys, the villagers, are very kindly standing in the water.

They are going to guide our car across,

which means I've gotta drive through the river,

-which I'm a little bit nervous about, to be honest.

-OK!

-OK!

-OK!

'I was hoping to make it across, and stay dry.'

Oh...

I can feel the water.

Gracias!

Aye, aye, aye.

OK, we're having trouble now.

OK, OK. Ah, we're drifting.

SHOUTING

KARINA: Bravo!

Yes!

Gracias! Everybody who's wet gets a beer, I think.

-These guys deserve lots of beers.

-OK.

Beers all around.

Hey!

Does anybody else need a beer?

Due to a major fault line that cuts across the Equator,

Ecuador has one of the greatest densities of volcanoes in the world.

Its Avenue Of The Volcanoes is a stunning 325km-long valley.

Tucked away, right in the middle of these volcanoes, lies Quito,

the world's second-highest capital city.

1.8 million people, surrounded by several active volcanoes.

Experts say they are expecting a huge eruption,

but no-one seems to be taking any notice.

We set off from Quito to climb the volcano Pichincha,

the closest volcano to the city, and the most threatening.

Pichincha has erupted at least 25 times.

The worst eruption was in 1660,

when more than 25cm of ash and volcanic rock covered the capital.

We'd arranged to meet Theo,

a volcanologist on a mission to save Quito.

-Hi, Simon.

-Theo.

-Hi, Theo. Here's Simon.

-Hiya.

-How are you?

-Nice to meet you.

You look as though you've got properly togged up there.

We're regularly up here, we know what to do.

In 1993, two volcanologists were killed climbing Pichincha.

They were working at the crater mouth

when Pichincha suddenly erupted,

hurling out steam and ash, killing the two scientists instantly.

Theo was taking me to the very same crater.

We just take it...

nice and slow.

Is there any connection between the Equator, the actual line,

the Equatorial line,

-and all these volcanoes?

-I would say yes.

All those volcanoes which are bordering us are the result

of this chain of volcanoes,

which were born or formed at the Galapagos.

Now, those volcanoes, they move toward the South America continent.

There is a connection. You cannot deny this.

A person denying this must be religious,

with no idea from science.

Is anybody listening to you when you're warning about this?

People live there, they say,

"I always lived here. Nothing happened the last 30 years.

"Oh, nothing big." They just want to forget, to ignore the danger.

But I say, " No, this is stupid."

-Craziness?

-Craziness, exactly.

The threat is there, it's out there.

'We climbed nearly 5km into the clouds,

'more than halfway up Everest.'

HE PANTS

'The altitude left me breathless and exhausted.'

We're on top of the world.

Oh, it's knackering up here.

You've got to be a mountain goat to go up here.

Theo, promise me we're nearly there.

Theo, we've made it!

We can't see down into the crater.

The weather is absolutely terrible.

You've brought me to the top of the world.

I'm absolutely shattered.

'The mouth of the crater, where the two scientists had met their end,

'might seem a dangerous place to stop for a picnic,

'but Theo had brought some artichoke hearts.' Mmm!

Cheers!

I think it's time to go down.

We continued east towards Colombia,

intending to cross the border on the Putumayo River, near the Equator.

But our travel plans were scuppered by the Colombian authorities,

who forced us to make an annoying detour north, away from the Equator,

to Ipiales, where there is a heavily controlled immigration point.

The word "Colombia" is just synonymous with assassinations

and death squads and murder

and cocaine and drugs and killings and kidnapping of Westerners.

Welcome to Colombia.

-Hi, Simon.

-Nice to meet you.

'My Colombian guide, Juan Pablo met me in Puerto Asis,'

a jungle town on my route south,

as I tried to get back onto the Equator.

Puerto Asis is the heart of the multi-billion-pound

cocaine industry.

Government forces have militarised the town in an attempt

to recapture this entire region

from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - FARC -

left-wing guerrilla rebels

who have been at war with the state since the 1960s.

How safe is it in the town where we are now, for foreigners?

Yeah, I mean the town is a little bit difficult for everybody.

Difficult? What does that mean?!

Very, very dangerous.

'Getting back onto the Equator

'would take us through one of the most dangerous regions of Colombia,

'where the army regularly battles with FARC guerrillas.'

HE SPEAKS IN SPANISH

To secure safe passage south,

we needed the help of the local Army commander,

Lieutenant Colonel Quintero, a man whose battles with FARC

have left him with a hefty price on his head.

What we didn't expect was that the colonel would insist

on personally escorting us, along with his armed bodyguards.

I'd just hitched a ride with one of the FARC's most-wanted men.

I know you've got a bounty on your head.

Do you know how much money FARC is offering for you,

and what are the chances of you getting attacked?

TRANSLATION: FARC have offered a lot of money, but they can't stop me.

We die the day we're meant to.

Despite assurances from the colonel that the army was now in control,

dozens of soldiers had been killed in recent battles,

and FARC were still launching attacks,

in this case, bombing the town's oil supply.

OK, it's formed this sort of lake of just oily water.

Why do you think they attacked the pipeline?

TRANSLATION: They want to punish the civilian population

because they support the state,

the government, the army.

They always attack the civilian population.

We are here to protect defenceless civilians.

God, I mean it just looks like we're part of the bloody army,

doesn't it, now? This is exactly what we didn't want.

We wanted to keep away from the military if we could.

We're now connected with the military,

and that makes us a much more inviting target.

Behind the camera, there's about 15 soldiers following us.

-We need to get out of here.

-Let's go.

'We decided it'd be safer to leave the colonel

'and his bodyguards behind, and continue south on our own.

'This stretch of the road sees regular FARC activity,

'and I didn't want to be caught up in any crossfire.'

We only got a few hundred metres outside town

and we've just been pulled over by a few of the Colombian army soldiers.

I heard the word "gringo" there.

The FARC is very eager to kidnap gringos,

or to see if they can get some...

I hate that word "kidnap"! I hate that word.

This is what life is like here, for the people who live here.

Constant checkpoint, conflict,

two sides battling against each other.

For the locals,

they just want to get on with their lives and pass through.

Later that day, we reached the unnervingly quiet town of Teteye,

which had been attacked and captured several times

by one side, and then the other.

The population has dwindled to a few dozen.

This is the president of the town.

He's just come and found us, he's come straight from his fields.

Why has everybody left?

TRANSLATION: They were afraid,

because sometimes there is conflict between the two sides.

They came here and cautioned them...

..then killed them.

Shot them in the head.

And who did this?

TRANSLATION: It was the army.

The army came here and started to ask, "Where are the guerrillas?"

But people don't have anything to do with the guerrillas,

so they don't give the army any information.

'Colonel Quintero had insisted the army was protecting civilians,

'but if what the president of this town says is true,

'it's clear the people of Colombia suffer, whoever's in charge.

'In the decades of fighting between the army, right-wing paramilitaries

'and the FARC, tens of thousands have died

'and millions have been forced to leave their homes.'

We travelled deeper into south-east Colombia,

finally joining the Putumayo river, and heading towards the Equator,

now just a few kilometres ahead.

This is beautiful!

'Entering La Paya National Park,

'we hitched a ride with head gamekeeper Carlos.

'Hundreds of bird species thrive here at the western edge

'of the Amazon Basin.'

The Equatorial line cuts right through your park,

but we're in southern Colombia,

which doesn't really attract many tourists.

Do you get many visitors, many foreigners or tourists coming here?

TRANSLATION: In Colombia, as in the rest of the world, when people hear

the name Putumayo, they reject it.

They are scared of coming here.

But the conflict is not as bad here as it is elsewhere in the region.

14, 11, eight, five, two, one - we've just crossed the Equator.

We've just crossed! Congratulations!

This is the centre of the world.

Amazing!

I think we should try and land and set up camp.

-Looks like there's no food.

-What?

Looks like there's no food.

'It seems we'd inadvertently omitted

'to bring some rather essential items of our jungle inventory.'

We really haven't got any food.

'Namely, our dinner.

'Apart from a bit of rice, which wouldn't feed us all.'

Everybody on our team is now going to pitch in

to try and find us some food,

because otherwise our stomachs are going to be rumbling all night.

'Like all good cameramen, ours had come well prepared.'

What's that you've got?

Rum. It's good.

BOAT CLANKS

Yes.

Ah, jinks!

OK, OK.

What is that?

A tarantula!

Ahhhh... Let's get serious, though. Don't get so close to it!

It's not going to jump to your face.

That's a small one, but there must be mummy round here.

Did Simon come back?

These are desperate times. Every man for himself.

Tsk, tsk.

You shouldn't make any noise, there's an alligator there.

I'm starting to find the Colombian jungle

a slightly dangerous place to be.

We have to be quiet because there's an alligator in front of us.

THUMP ON BOAT

MORE THUMPS

Life on the Equator, who would have thought it could be such fun(?)

There's only one way to deal with this situation.

It's the only option.

'It was looking as if we'd have to resort to a liquid diet,

'when we got lucky with a catch.

'Well, our Colombian fisherman friend did.'

There is a fish. The man has a fish.

Look at the teeth on it.

That is not going to feed eight people.

Can you go out and catch another 20 of them?

Oh, wow, is this for us?

'Carlos cooked us a jungle feast with our rice, and the few fish.

'We weren't to know this would be our last hot meal for a few days,

'as the next morning we were going in search of a remote tribe

'who we'd been told had a sacred monument to the centre of the world.

'All I had to do now was negotiate my hammock.'

Oh, please hold.

Ah.

Aaah!

Goodnight, everybody.

I'll have breakfast at nine, please.

'We chartered a small plane from a nearby jungle airstrip,

'and headed to one of the remotest parts of the Colombian Amazon.'

Just crossed the Equator,

we're now going to head east directly along it.

Beneath us now is an awful lot of jungle but not many villages.

But there is one at a place called Pacoa which we're heading to now

where they have a monument signifying that they're at

the centre of the world.

That was perfect!

'The tribe at Piedra Ni live 15 days by boat from the nearest town.

'And hadn't had a foreign visitor for more than 20 years.'

Hola. Buenos.

I'm not sure they see many foreign film crews here,

or if they see any foreigners at all.

Look at this.

'We stumbled into the main hall, clearly the heart of the community.

'The children certainly seemed pleased to see us.'

What is this? Show the camera this.

'But the village shaman wasn't very happy about our arrival.'

We were told to stop filming. You need to get permission first

from the village elders who are just behind me,

so we've just had a very long meeting and, quite frankly, very

tense negotiations and discussions

with really most of the village.

Everybody's had a say, it's been democracy in action, really.

But ultimately they've agreed that we can film.

We're going to go through some sort of initiation ceremony,

and then we'll be allowed hopefully to visit their sacred memorial

to the centre of the world.

PANPIPE IS PLAYED

This really is an extraordinary sight.

LAUGHTER

What is the purpose of the ceremony?

TRANSLATION: It is performed on very special occasions, seasons of the year.

Because of the rain, the weather,

because of these things, we perform the ceremony.

What I really love is how inclusive it is.

That's how they try and keep their culture alive.

By getting the young and the teenagers involved now.

They'll know these dances hopefully for the rest of their lives.

Early next morning, some of the elders from this 160-strong tribe

took us to their sacred place.

TRANSLATION: It's just over there.

We'll soon be looking at it.

So we're nearly there?

TRANSLATION: All these places here are sacred.

It's hard to know what to expect,

because obviously for us it's been built up into something huge

and hugely significant and imbued with huge meaning.

And certainly for the people who live here it does seem

to be the real focus of their lives.

After we've travelled such a long way,

it's very exciting to finally see it.

To the people around here, this is absolutely the very essence

of what it means to live here and to be part of their tribe.

TRANSLATION: He is saying that the first figure represents the God.

It is the sun that is illuminating us now.

Because it is the one that holds the life of all the indigenous people.

It's extraordinary to think

that tribes around here have worshipped this and venerated it

as being the centre of the world for many decades,

and now modern science is able to confirm for them

that it really does lie at the actual centre of the planet.

How long it's going to take?

They want to know, because they don't want to spend too much time.

For some reason, the villagers were unhappy about the amount of time

we were spending looking at the monument.

Why don't you like looking at the monument?

TRANSLATION: This is the sun, and that is why we cannot look up.

Just as we can't look directly at the sun, we can't look directly at that,

as we'll lose our sight.

I don't know quite how their monument to the centre of the world

came to be on the Equator, but it had been a privilege

to have spent time with the tribe and witnessed their ceremonies.

Ciao.

We crossed into Brazil through the back door, on the Uaupes River,

just north of the Equator.

There's a Brazilian military checkpoint over there

that we need to stop at. They're not pleased at the fact that

we're crossing the river at this point,

because there's no immigration point here.

So whether they're going to let us go, we're not entirely sure.

Fingers crossed again.

Our somewhat cavalier attitude to border controls

was making our Brazilian guide Augusto a little uneasy.

Can you stop filming now?

-Why?

-Military.

Cos what?

Military.

We've landed in Brazil.

So this is the commander coming down now to see us.

-Passport number?

-No, your father name.

I think we're doing OK.

They're going to let us go and I think we're going to be all right.

They're not cross or angry.

"You're crossing here? Nobody crosses here!"

Can we stop now?

Very slow, very slow.

Stop, stop.

Equator! Zero, zero, we've just crossed from one to the other.

We're crossing an imaginary line but it's still quite exciting in a way.

We're going from one side of the planet to the other.

Oh!

Hey, Simon - come on.

Many piranha, alligator, anaconda...

..big monster.

What sort of big monsters?

The only big monster there is you!

-Come on, Simon, swim.

-Hold on, he's got some valuables.

I've got my passport in my pocket, for crying out loud!

It does feel quite special, swimming on the Equator,

even though something did just brush my ankle,

and I've already been warned about snakes and piranhas.

We're swimming on the Equator,

along the Equator.

East is this way.

Come on!

The Uaupes River runs directly along the Equator for 200km,

before joining the River Negro, deep in the Amazon rainforest.

35,000 Indians from 23 different tribes populate the riverbanks

along the Uaupes and Negro rivers,

and they could do with some serious help to protect and preserve

their fast-disappearing way of life.

This is the first community of people we've seen actually living

on the Equator. It's now 12.17.

Feel a bit cheeky just turning up in their village.

The community here is very quiet.

I wonder if there's anybody in.

Unfortunately for us, there doesn't seem to be anybody here.

'Finally, a young woman appeared from one of the houses.

'She seemed to have been left behind.

'Thankfully, she didn't mind a few prying questions.'

Sorry to be so cheeky but can I ask, are you married?

Do you have children?

HE TRANSLATES

She has one son and she gave birth one week ago.

One week ago!

Ah, congratulations!

That's incredible!

So she's 17 years old.

So she's not married.

Do you think it will be hard for you to live as a single mother out here?

TRANSLATION: I think it is difficult,

because he doesn't have his father here, he's in Sao Gabriel.

It is difficult as a mother -

you don't have the means to support your child.

Are many of the adults in the village working in Sao Gabriel?

TRANSLATION: From here there are nine.

Nearly half of the village's men

had been drawn up the river to the jungle town of Sao Gabriel,

in search of work.

And this looks like Sao Gabriel.

-The bars are open and going strong.

-Yeah.

10.30am.

'Along the Uaupes and Negro rivers,

'and throughout the indigenous communities,

'alcohol is banned by federal law,

'but visitors to Sao Gabriel can enjoy all the usual benefits

'of 24-hour drinking.'

Here's to travelling.

'After several days travelling down river through the rainforest,

a cold beer was a welcome sight.

'And I wasn't the only person who thought so.'

Are you waiting for a boat?

TRANSLATION: My boat is about to leave, but I don't want to go yet.

I want another drink.

Are they waiting for you?

I'm already drunk.

-You're already drunk?

-Yeah.

You're even more of a lightweight than me!

You've had about that much.

-I couldn't have one, actually.

-You're falling off the table.

Yes, I'm a bit "oooh"!

'Before the advent of 24-hour drinking,

'indigenous communities drank heavily, but only once or twice

'a year at special ceremonies.

'I met Domingo, the president of FOIRN,

'which campaigns for the indigenous community.

'He fears this constant availability of alcohol has spelt disaster

'for the indigenous tribes.'

TRANSLATION: Their biggest dream is to be in this city, with a job,

and a good standard of living. But when they arrive here they don't

find the dream that they had when they were in their communities.

That doesn't exist.

So the indigenous people end up destroying themselves.

So many indigenous families are destroying themselves with alcohol.

Little by little, the culture is forgotten.

Life here in Sao Gabriel has no dignity.

When you encourage the indigenous people to leave

their ancestral homes

where they've lived for generations, and come to a town like this...

HE SLURS HIS WORDS

..and when you promise them or offer them jobs and education and health

care and then when they come here

and they find that there's very few jobs... You OK?

-Ah?

-..Very little health care and the education is quite expensive,

it's hardly a wonder they get depressed.

Although, he's not very depressed, he's quite happily drunk.

And then you throw 24-hour drinking into the mix,

they're going to turn to the bottle.

As you have, haven't you? You've turned to the bottle.

Nao falo Portuguese.

I don't speak Portuguese at all.

Leaving Sao Gabriel, we flew east across the Amazon rainforest.

On the Equator, the forest remains largely untouched,

due to its remoteness,

but farmers and loggers are slowly encroaching from the south.

Finally, we approached Brazil's east coast,

where the many tributaries of the mighty Amazon

lead to the Atlantic Ocean.

'The final leg of my Equatorial adventure took me towards

'the mouth of the Araguari river.'

On this river, when the moon and tides are aligned,

a natural phenomenon occurs pushing a massive wave back up the river.

The Pororoca is the longest wave in the world.

A wave which will be attempted to be surfed, by the daring,

the foolhardy...

and me.

I'm very interested and excited about this landing

because I've never surfed.

Why is the Pororoca here on the Amazon Basin,

on the Equator, so special?

TRANSLATION: Surfers come from all over the world.

On the sea, a wave will last a maximum of 15 seconds.

With the Pororoca wave, you can surf for about 30 minutes.

That's why it's considered the longest wave in the world.

So there are risks involved in surfing the Pororoca, then?

The risks are that the boat could roll over or the surfer

could hit something with the board.

There is the chance of all kinds of animals coming along.

The biggest danger would be the arraias.

Their poison is so powerful that it gives you many hours of pain,

and can even make your whole leg paralysed.

'It was more than a little unnerving watching an experienced surfer

'like Ejiman prepare for the worst.'

Ejiman, are you excited about surfing the wave?

Hold tight.

There's quite enough waves already!

He says that it's possible to see on the horizon...

..a volume of water coming.

Well, I can't see it.

I think I can.

There was a slight change on the horizon.

OK, maybe now it's not quite so slight.

Bloody hell!

This has to be the most incredible natural phenomenon I've ever seen,

this boiling, seething mass of water.

It really feels like we're being chased by wild horses,

clawing their way down the river or up the river.

You're not going to get us!

OK, it's going to kick now.

I'm clinging on for dear life.

But this is what we're going to have to do.

He seems to have vanished into the wave.

I'm sure he's OK because he's one of those lunatics who always survives.

Stand, mate! Go on, stand up.

He's up, he's up!

He's done it!

What a dude.

Oh, now he's off, he's off, argh!

-I'm going to rescue him over there.

-We've got to rescue both of them.

I'm about to jump in the wave

to try and rescue Stanley.

Aggh!

Aaaah!

That was absolutely amazing.

Stanley!

You lunatic!

Well done! Now it's our turn.

-Personally I haven't got a clue what to do.

-Hold tight.

What's the Brazilian for "man overboard" and "drowning"?

We didn't do very well.

In fact, we were pretty hopeless, weren't we?

We felt its force.

'My journey around the entire planet was finally at an end.

'25,000 miles, eight countries, wars, floods, and killer diseases.

'Quite frankly, I was exhausted.

'But the Equator had one final, unexpected thrill

'left in store for us.'

We forgot the Pororoca happens twice a day!

And it's happening now in the night-time. Whoa!

Stanley's gone overboard.

Stanley's mattress. His mattress has gone overboard.

Aagh! Just stood on some glass.

-What did he say?

-I don't know. Do you speak Portuguese?

The chef was in the shower.

LAUGHTER

Didn't anybody think to tell us?!

Next time, tell us as well!