Chile to Brazil Tropic of Capricorn

'Imagine a line more than 22,000 miles long, that cuts through

'some of the most remote regions of the southern hemisphere.'

Look what's ahead of us. Look at this! Look at this sight!

'The Tropic of Capricorn marks the southern edge of the Earth's tropical zone.

'It runs through Southern Africa, Australia and South America.

'On the final leg of my Capricorn journey, I'm travelling from Chile to the coast of Brazil.

'It's more than 2,000 miles across the driest desert in the world and over the longest mountain range.

'Along the way I meet some of the last forest people.'

I think I prefer the honey to the bee larva!

'I witness environmental devastation.'

Just ripping it down. Look at this!

'And I visit the biggest city in the southern hemisphere

'where I'll be trying to keep out of trouble.'

Argh! Bloody hell!

What a sight!

I'm here on the coast of Chile beginning another leg of my journey around the Tropic of Capricorn.

On this bit of the trip, I'll be travelling all the way across South America.

Just a few miles south of Capricorn is the city of Antofagasta

where I met up with my Chilean guide and translator, Constanza Mujica.

What awaits us across Chile?

Basically the driest desert in the whole world, er...

and that's an extremely awesome experience.

How the world would be if everything ended - that's the desert.

TRAIN HOOTS

Ahead of us lay the vast Atacama desert. Constanza had arranged

for us to hitch a ride on a giant freight train -

the start of my journey zig-zagging along Capricorn.

-So this is the landscape we are going to be heading into.

-Yep.

It's barren, isn't it? Barren as hell.

Kilometres and kilometres of straight lines.

That's it.

This train hauls thousands of tons of copper and supplies to and from Chile's biggest mine.

It's half a mile long and pulled by three locomotives.

How important is copper to this part of Chile?

It's important for the whole of Chile, not just to this part.

We actually usually say that copper is Chile's salary.

We all eat from what comes in copper.

38% of everything we export is copper.

-38%?!

-Yup.

Chile is the world's biggest exporter of copper.

Rising demand from China has pushed international prices for the metal

through the roof creating a boom in Chile many hope will continue.

There's a sense of excitement that great things are going to happen,

that we will be able to sell each Chinese guy one of our apples

or one kilo of our copper and become automatic millionaires.

There's a great sense of expectation of what is going to happen

with the Chinese demand for our products.

All the way along the Tropic of Capricorn,

China has a presence.

It's buying up natural resources and minerals or it's investing.

It's there basically and it's here in Chile.

If you pay the right price, you got it!

HE LAUGHS

It's so bright out here.

I think this is about as bright a light as we've seen while we've been travelling around Capricorn.

And the heat, as well, is really starting to pick up.

The Atacama is millions of years old and covers 70,000 square miles.

It's much more arid even than the Sahara and parts have had no rainfall for hundreds of years.

But mining companies that work out here need water to extract copper

and their attempts to find supplies have brought them into conflict with some of the local indigenous people.

We eventually arrived in the small town of San Pedro de Atacama

built around an oasis by Spanish Conquistadores in the 16th century.

Little survives in the desert but the Atacameno people have lived here

for more than 11,000 years with their herds of llamas.

Many of the Atacameno are now unhappy with the mining firms

that provide so much of the country's wealth.

-Hola, good morning.

-Rosa, hello, Simon.

'In San Pedro we met up with community leader and guide Rosa Ramos.'

-Is this our picnic?

-Yes, yes.

Fantastic! We've got bananas...

'Rosa has been one of the most vocal opponents of the mining companies' plans.'

Where are we off to today?

The idea is visit the two lakes in the altiplano, over 4,000 metres.

4,000?!

To a couple of lakes.

Leaving the desert, Rosa took us up into the altiplano, the high plains of the Andes,

to show us an unprotected lakeland area she believes is under threat.

Half way up we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn.

-We've arrived again on the Tropic of Capricorn.

-Yes!

-This is a sort of Capricorn monument, is it?

-Yes, yes.

And my modern GPS tells us

that we are now 2,505 metres above sea level.

Two and half kilometres up. Are we going to get ill?

Am I going to get ill?

No, please, you need to feel OK.

I don't want to get ill but I have suffered from altitude sickness in the past.

You've got something else.

I'd like to give you some coca leaves because don't feel bad there.

You put it into your mouth to chew?

Yes, you put it in your mouth, a little bit. Coca leaves.

So how much should I take?

5...4.

'Coca leaves can be used to make cocaine

'but in their raw form the leaves are widely used as a traditional remedy for altitude sickness.'

Will I become really overconfident and start talking crap?

And I stuff them into my cheek pouch.

Excuse me! Messy eater.

And then now relax.

And after we can walk in the mountains.

Fortified by Rosa's herbal remedy,

we drove even higher into the Andes.

We're now at...just over 4,000 metres

so we're nearly...

nearly the equivalent of half way up Everest.

We've just come round the corner to see this amazing lake out here on the plain in front of us.

This is just nature showing off!

Look at this. This is like a Caribbean...

a Caribbean sea, a tropical sea.

Four kilometres above sea level, we're up in the High Andes

and there's a tropical sea!

It's amazing!

It actually brings a lump to my throat, it's...

just so beautiful.

We're going to try and get to the edge of this beautiful lake over here.

We also have to go quite slowly because of the altitude we're at.

There's not much oxygen in the air.

What a sight!

The birds that we saw from a distance are actually flamingos!

I'm absolutely staggered by this.

What does this lake mean to you and the indigenous people of the area?

Does it hold a special place in your beliefs?

SHE SPEAKS SPANISH

TRANSLATION: For us the Andes are the gods who gave us the water in the desert so we could survive.

Our people have lived here for thousands of years.

We've always respected the environment...

..but now people are destroying it

and killing our animals and plants

and we are very sad.

The mining companies want to drain water from these high Andean lakes.

Rosa fears the consequences.

SHE SPEAKS SPANISH

TRANSLATION: Firstly, even us indigenous people

understand that mining is important for the country's economy.

We know this, but we don't think it's necessary to sacrifice

such a fragile ecosystem for an economic gain

that could be achieved just as well by bringing water from the sea.

The lake is unprotected and its future is uncertain.

On our way back, Rosa took us to a local village

where they are using their meagre water supplies in a sustainable way.

Until recently, Talabre had only intermittent electricity.

But the villagers decided to build their own micro-hydroelectric plant

to harness water that trickles down from the Andes mountains.

So on this street here, look, they've got electric street lights

that have been installed quite recently.

And that makes a huge difference in a community like this because it means life can go on after dark.

'Rosa took us to meet a friend in the village.

'The new generator has dramatically improved the lives of Antonia Mondaca and her family.'

So, look and this is where you see the effect. You see the electric lights, look at this.

How has the electricity helped and changed lives here?

TRANSLATION: We only used to have three hours of electricity

between 6 and 9 at night.

It's changed everything - the whole atmosphere.

And it's great for the kids - now they can watch educational programmes on TV.

Let's ask the kids a very important question.

What is your favourite TV programme?

ROSA TRANSLATES

The Simpsons!

That evening, Rosa invited us to join her and some friends

for a barbeque in a remote and beautiful part of the desert

known as the Valley of the Moon.

There was only main one dish on the menu - barbequed llama.

Rosa, look what you have organised!

Fantastic.

This is the ultimate Andean sandwich!

We've got it here. Llama meat.

Thank you very much.

So here we go.

This is the first time...

I've eaten llama.

Let's just try it like this.

Never mind the bun.

It's tough but it's good.

SHE LAUGHS

-It's good, yeah?

-It's good, yeah.

'Rosa is part of a new generation of politically active

'indigenous people in South America who are fighting for their rights.'

-In your lifetime, do you think indigenous people are getting more power?

-Yes, it's changed.

Today we think we wake up,

with reaction. And we say, "stop".

Our government...

..prefers here the people

that have powers.

Politics no is clean, no is clear.

I think it happen everywhere but...

HE LAUGHS

Well, Rosa, I want to say thank you for showing us

some of the most amazing places around San Pedro and the Atacama.

It's an extraordinary place.

So thank you, and thank you for my llama!

The next morning we headed even higher into the Andes

towards the border with Argentina.

It was a 100-mile climb through a landscape so barren

it's used by NASA to simulate conditions on Mars.

Running down the length of the continent like a jagged spine,

the Andes is the longest mountain range in the world.

We're now really high up in the mountains.

Wow! We're at 4,600 metres now.

We're still going to be climbing up even higher.

This is the highest we've been on Capricorn on our journey.

I'm really feeling it.

It's harder to breathe.

And you feel it when you do take a breath, you're not getting enough oxygen into your lungs.

We climbed to nearly 5,000 metres above sea level

and crossed the border into Argentina.

As we descended on the other side, the whole landscape changed.

After the crossing the driest desert on earth,

a spot of rain was a welcome sight.

The Argentinean foothills are lush and fertile.

We were heading to a valley right on the Tropic of Capricorn.

I can see a sign, look, just ahead...

"Vicunas."

'I had come in search of a bizarre and secretive creature native to the Andes.'

They look quite shy and delicate.

'The Vicuna is a smaller cousin of the llama.

'Its wool is so valuable it was once hunted almost to extinction.'

-Hola. Buenos dias, Hugo. Buenos dias.

-Benvieniedo.

'Hugo Robles owns this ranch

'and I arrived just in time for a vicuna roundup.'

It's beautiful here.

A government programme is encouraging ranchers like Hugo to farm vicunas sustainably.

The population has now recovered from a low of less than 10,000 to around a quarter of a million.

Today they're going to be catching them, or trying to catch them and vaccinating them.

Which, given the fact these are very shy, nervous creatures

that run away when you're within half a mile of them,

is going to be a bit of a challenge.

TRANSLATION:

Oh, yes, yes, look, there they are!

The vicunas!

Look, they're already running away.

Am I coming with you, Hugo, am I your new farmhand?

So I just climb over?

I'm not sure I'm too heavy for this!

No.

The vicunas have just legged it in this direction.

What they're trying to do is drive the vicunas down into this corral

that snakes downs like a tunnel, really.

And then they can catch them.

Hugo, they're like cheetahs. Look at them!

How on earth are we going to catch them?

Hugo's off to chase them.

What the hell are we doing?!

-Ooh, we are going to get them!

-HUGO SHOUTS

THEY CHIVVIE THEM ON

Can you please stand still?!

Oh, dear! No wonder their fibres are worth so much because nobody can catch them.

So they've caught two in the funnel.

No! They're going to escape!

Oh, bloody hell! Shut the gate!

Here we go.

Look, they're in...the corral.

Success! Look at them!

These are the vicunas...

..and their fibres are finer than cashmere.

The finest fibre in the world comes from these creatures

and for that you pay a hefty price.

A suit made from the fibre from one of these creatures can cost

about £15,000.

So they just need to calm down,

calm down. It's OK, it's OK.

'With the vicunas finally safe in their corral, it was time for them to have their jabs.'

Look how cute this creature is.

So soft, isn't it?

-Muy suave, no?

-Si, si, suave.

It's like a woolly Bambi.

Very soft.

Oh, look, there's a bit coming off. How much is that worth?

That's probably worth about £100!

Hugo, so we put this on the...

over the head?

It's all right.

Poor thing. It's OK.

They're we are.

It's OK. Aww.

There we go. Blindfold comes off.

There we are.

It wasn't too bad, was it?

Run free!

There goes a very expensive woolly jumper!

The next morning we set off, travelling east

across this remote region in the far north of Argentina.

It had been raining all night and landslides had strewn mud and rocks over the mountain roads.

There seems to be one person clearing rocks from the road.

Great(!)

He should have the road cleared by about the middle of next year.

It looked like we would make it through to our next stop on Capricorn

but heavy lorries were completely stuck in the mud.

We were heading for a small indigenous settlement

just north of the line on the edge of a remote forest.

Traditionally hunter-gatherers,

the Wichi people have lived in this region for thousands of years.

But like indigenous communities across South America,

their way of life is under threat

as their land is taken over for farming cattle and crops like soy.

John Palmer is an Oxford-educated anthropologist who has studied and lived among the Wichi for decades.

Hello, John. Simon.

John's witnessed the destruction of this forest at first hand.

He's married to Tojweya and they have two children.

How serious is deforestation in this area?

What could be the best word? It's...

..catastrophic. It's...

very severe.

What effect is it having on peoples' lives?

Well, in the immediate sense there's a lot of ill health.

They've got no chance to be independent economically.

It's like having your supermarket shut.

Where do you go for your food?

'One of the few remaining foods the Wichi can harvest from the forest is honey.

'Roque Miranda, the leader of this Wichi community, invited us on their daily honey hunt.'

I'm a bit worried about being stung

by angry South American bees.

That's where the bees are?

Just in here?

I don't really want to antagonise the bees.

So a little fire is being lit and smoke will be used, well, really to dull the bees,

to make them a little bit dozy and discourage them from attacking us.

Roque's getting ready.

That looks very serious.

Roque's putting on layer after layer as a protection against the bees,

which makes me feel a little bit exposed with bare arms.

I did bring a jacket

and this bag

can be used to cover the head.

So he's wafting some smoke into the hive.

I'm going to put my head net on.

And here come the bees.

BEES BUZZ

I don't think this smoke is working guys.

Bloody hell! I've just been stung once.

It's going!

They're not going to like that, are they?!

There, he's opening it up and there it is, there's the honey!

Look at it, glistening. It looks incredible.

Proper wild honey, straight from the forest.

The bees aren't happy to lose it.

Ay!

I've just been bitten again.

If everyone was to hold one of these then we'd put up more smoke around us.

Let's try some pure honey.

Oh, fantastic.

That's amazing.

Perfecto.

What is this? This is honey and what else is that there?

So this is the larvae of the bees, ooh.

And you eat the larvae as well?

I'm choking on the smoke.

I think I prefer the honey to the bee larva.

'But as the forest is cut down, the 50,000 Wichi

'in northern Argentina are losing their natural food supply.

'Although the Wichi are the legal owners of much of this forest,

'this is a remote part of Argentina.

'They cannot stop the deforestation happening around them.

'The bulldozers just keep getting closer.

'A few hundred metres from the village I witnessed the devastation at fisrt hand.'

So here we've got a really new area of deforestation.

It's really shocking to suddenly come across this.

Look at this!

This is being torn out.

This is forest the Wichi depend on, the rest of the world depends on.

These are lungs for our earth.

Look at this round here.

This is what they use.

This is what they use to destroy the forest here.

They put these huge chains between two bulldozers,

stretch it out,

and then just run it across the trees, ripping the trees up.

I can barely lift...

just this.

Can you imagine the devastation this causes?

'Just 5 days before our visit, Roque and some of the other villagers

'had confronted the bulldozer drivers and begged them to stop.

'But later that same night they heard them felling again.'

HE SPEAKS SPANISH

TRANSLATION: When we came back at about 11 o'clock

they had moved to this part of the forest and were cutting it down.

They must have known we would come back to stop them, so they were in a hurry.

Finally they left the area and headed off over there.

The land is being cleared for farming cattle and crops like soy.

The bulldozers have stopped for now

but the Wichi know they will return.

You can imagine the scene here the other night when these villagers

come out of their community and they come to these bulldozers and they say,

"You are taking away our absolute livelihoods, our absolute being.

"We can't survive without this."

INSECTS CHIRP

'There's no electricity in the village

'and that night John and I joined Roque around the communal fire.'

Roque, do you think that Wichi culture can survive the destruction that you're seeing around you?

TRANSLATION: Well, I reckon that when our forest has gone,

we'll have nothing to live on.

As the leader, I'm aware that the Wichi are in dire straits

because they don't know what's coming to them.

None of us know what to make of it because it's all so new, this deforestation.

How can any of us make sense of it?

I wonder what will become of my children when I'm gone.

So, quite a depressing day, today.

Seeing all the destruction of the forest.

You know, it's the sort of thing you hear about at a distance,

but then when you see it close up, it really is...

It really is desperate.

You can only feel a great sense of sadness for the Wichi,

I think, because they are a very gentle people

and gentle people tend to get walked over.

'The next morning we set off towards Paraguay.

'It's a 500-mile drive along a relentlessly straight road.

'In order to cross the border,

'we had to head south of Capricorn towards the capital, Asuncion.'

TRADITIONAL MUSIC PLAYS

'We arrived in Paraguay on one of the biggest days of the year -

'the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.'

There's loads of stalls selling all sorts of stuff.

Some of it's even religious!

'My guide in Paraguay was journalist Andrea Machain.'

Balloons, sunglasses, flowers,

there's a collection of ceramic frogs here.

Look, we've got statues here...

Baby Jesus with gold pants on.

So it's not just a religious festival or pilgrimage?

No, no. It's a gathering where people come from all over.

It's like a national party.

For the whole of Paraguay?

Yes. Even more important than Christmas, I would say.

More important than Christmas?!

-Yes.

-Surely not!

'Religion has always been a powerful force in Catholic Paraguay.'

These people are broadcasting live, the mass. And it's on national TV.

'Today, Paraguay's a democracy,

'but from the 1950s until 1989, the country was ruled

'by Alfredo Stroessner, a brutal dictator,

'even by South American standards.

'Paraguay was so isolated from the outside world that it became

'a haven for notorious Nazi war criminals like Josef Mengele.

'The next morning, Andrea took me to a cafe in the capital, Asuncion,

'which was a clandestine meeting place

'for those brave enough to oppose Stroessner.'

What was happening to people who spoke out or expressed an opinion against the regime?

Nothing good.

The Stroessner dictatorship didn't go against you personally

if you said something against it,

but against your whole family even your children.

So even the bravest people would take the danger

and the risk for themselves,

but couldn't cope taking the risk for the people they loved.

We're here at the museum of... Well, it says memories, really,

but it's a museum of torture almost.

Here with Dr Filartiga,

who we will ease out of his car.

'Andrea introduced me to one of the most prominent victims

of the 'Stroessner regime, Dr Joel Filartiga.

'We met at a museum which documents some of the worst excesses

'of Stroessner's secret police.'

Just on the way here,

the doctor was saying that he was tortured four times by the regime.

That's part of the reason

he needs a little bit of assistance now

from his grandson.

So the history of state terrorism

in three languages.

So here, this is the man himself.

This is Stroessner.

-What did he say?

-The tyrant.

-The tyrant.

Can we see any specific case here? This looks like a child...

TRANSLATION: 'She's little girl who was tortured and raped.

'She was about 12 or 13 years old.'

Can you see the picture here?

This is a regime that would torture children.

'These records were discovered by chance in a suburban police station.

'They document the fate of 400,000 people who were imprisoned and 50,000 who were murdered.'

It's an extraordinary place.

It can't be easy for people to come back here and see what happened.

This is a mock-up,

but even as a mock-up, it's really quite unsettling.

This is what happened here, Doctor.

TRANSLATION: The dead were wrapped in barbed wire when they were finished with.

They were packaged up and thrown away from a helicopter,

dumped in a river or buried.

'Dr Filartiga's crime was to run a free clinic treating political dissidents.

'He was tortured in a bath with electric shocks

'in this very cell, but he survived.

'But what haunts him most is that the regime then went after his son.'

It must be incredibly painful

for you to think back to that time, but can you tell us

a little bit about what happened to your son, how he was killed?

TRANSLATION: They hung him from his ankles.

They tortured him with electrical equipment, with shocks.

Stroessner himself was listening on the radio to my son's answers.

He dictated the questions.

I lived in fear of it.

I told my son not to go out.

I had an idea it might happen.

Every day I suffer.

I can't sleep at night.

'Stroessner was overthrown in 1989 and died in exile.

'Today, Paraguay is free from tyranny.'

You've lost as much as anyone has in getting rid of the old regime.

Are you happy with the Paraguay of today?

TRANSLATION: I am satisfied, but sadly,

another form of oppression has appeared.

There's a new demon now.

93% of our country is deforested.

There is a culture of death which prefers money to life.

'We flew north, back towards the Tropic

'to investigate the deforestation that so angered Dr Filartiga.

'In the last 50 years,

'nearly all of Paraguay's forest has been destroyed.

'We were heading towards the Mbaracayu Reserve,

'one of the last pockets of forest in Paraguay.'

'The once mighty Atlantic forest used to cover almost all of eastern Paraguay.

'In its place now are endless fields of cash crops, especially soy.'

Aargh!

There was a sheep on the runway. We just missed it. It was close.

He was a quick runner!

Lucky for us.

-HE GROANS

-Like a cork from a bottle!

-So this is almost the entrance then to the forest?

-Yes.

'I met up with Rene Palacios,

'the head ranger at the Mbaracayu Reserve,

'who showed me this unique habitat.'

So here we are, we're entering the forest...

-The Atlantic Forest.

-The Atlantic Forest.

It used to extend over an area much larger than Paraguay, didn't it?

Oh, yes. It came all the way from the Brazilian coast,

the Atlantic coast, down to Paraguay and North Argentina.

Tell us what the Atlantic Forest actually is.

Because not many people have heard of it.

Well, we have many, many species of plants, more than 2,000.

A lot of birds. You can find here the big mammals, like...

Have you heard about jaguars?

-I have heard about jaguars. Do you have them here?

-Yeah.

What other animals have you got?

-We have pumas too.

-Pumas?

-Yeah.

And do you know about the tapirs?

It's almost a bit like a pig.

Yeah, but big. 300 kilos of mammal.

-A giant pig!

-Aw, yeah.

'Back at his headquarters, Rene explained

'that the forest has been cut down to make way for crops like soy.'

We've had a huge deforestation in Paraguay, in the Atlantic Forest.

And most of the deforestation was made for agriculture.

The land in Paraguay is a very low price, so many people came, especially from Brazil.

They bought land and plant soy because the soil here is very good.

They have very good production.

The productivity is very high.

'Soy now accounts for nearly half of Paraguay's exports.

'In one of the poorest countries in South America,

'many people see this cash crop as Paraguay's economic salvation.

'But there's a growing campaign against soy.'

It really is just a sea of soya.

'Activist Diego Segovia took me to the soy fields

'on the edge of the reserve.'

When you see these huge fields of soy

where there used to be great forests, what do you feel?

I mean the forests have been lost in your lifetime, haven't they?

TRANSLATION: We say they've become a green desert

because there is no other form of life that isn't soy,

nothing but soy and the herbicides they use

kill everything else. They kill the soil,

they kill the water, they kill the rural communities.

'Soy is high in protein

'and most of Paraguay's harvest goes to China and Europe

'to feed our pigs and cattle. But it's also now being used to make biofuel,

'a replacement for fossil fuels like petrol.'

But surely, biofuel, it's seen as something that might save us from climate change.

Isn't it good a thing?

TRANSLATION: We think this is a myth, it's a lie,

because to produce biofuels you need to cut down the forest.

You have to get rid of the trees

and the trees are the living things that absorb the most carbon.

I think it's madness, converting our fields

into fuel for cars.

'Just a few decades ago,

'the Paraguayan forest was home to dozens of indigenous communities,

'like the Wichi we met in Argentina.

'But most of them have now been displaced.'

'We were heading south to the border crossing with Brazil.

'All we could see on the drive were endless fields of soy,

'much of it destined for Europe

'to fatten livestock and put meat on our tables.'

Our world is so globalised now, it's extraordinary that we have

such little connection now in Europe with the food that we eat.

We just don't realise

where the different elements that make up our plate are coming from.

When you come out here and see the damage that soya is doing

to the forest and the people who live in the forest,

it really does make you think more than twice about it.

'Just as the sun was setting,

'we finally reached Ciudad Del Este right on the border with Brazil.'

'A city of more than a quarter of a million people,

'Ciudad Del Este is a giant, crowded claustrophobic cash-and-carry.

'Deep in the heart of South America,

'this is the third largest tax-free zone in the world

'after Miami and Hong Kong.'

'Shoppers flock here from across the region, keen to pick up a bargain.

'There's only one way to travel in Ciudad del Este - motorbike taxi.'

VAN HORN BLOWS

Ooh, we're about to get smashed up...

'The turnover in all manner of tax-free goods in the city

'is a major contributor to Paraguay's national economy.'

It's quite weird to come from rural Paraguay

and come here and see all this going on.

Look, you've got inflatable beach stuff,

tents, even though we're maybe 1,000 kilometres from the sea.

Shops here sell clothes, umbrellas, pirate CDs,

medicines, power tools and car parts.

It's a dirty, dusty shopping centre but with an edge.

Look, a huge, inflatable Father Christmas.

There's a man there with an AK47 guarding a shop selling children's rucksacks.

The lawless atmosphere and tax-free status

has made the city a hotbed of counterfeiting and smuggling.

It's a crazy, duty-free, anything goes, cash town.

Eehh!

Gracias, gracias, gracias.

So now we need to head to Brazil.

So here we go. We're crossing now the Rio Parana.

The Parana River from Paraguay on that side, to Brazil on this.

You get the feeling there is a greater degree of order here and look, we've come to a very smart,

huge immigration, customs point.

'The border was packed with Brazilians

'returning from Ciudad Del Este with their duty-free shopping.'

-Keep this paper, OK?

-OK. Fantastic. Thank you.

'But not everyone was bringing in goods legitimately.

'We'd only been at the border a few moments

'when the police stopped a man smuggling packages from Paraguay.'

So this is the bag the guy had.

Just cutting it open.

Ooh, look at that.

Inside you've got 20, 25 bullets.

And this is one of the great problems

for Brazilian police and customs in this area

because just across the border, you've got a completely lawless city

that we've just come from

and people are able to buy things like this fairly openly.

'On the other side of the border is the Brazilian city of Foz do Iguacu.

'Brazilian photographer Fernando Cavalcanti

'was to be my guide through the last country on my Capricorn journey.'

You could say that this city was built on smuggling money.

Well, all this illicit stuff.

But now it's changed, you know,

it's likely swinging towards tourism

and the waterfalls and stuff like that.

Now we're here, we've got to go and see the waterfall.

'We headed for the breathtaking Iguacu Falls.'

In front of us we can see what looks to me

as though it's smoke rising from the forest.

But in fact, it's water vapour coming off a huge waterfall.

We're approaching one of the most extraordinary natural sights on Earth.

Look at this! Look at this sight!

Oh, my God!

We're just flying into the vapour now.

But below us, it's as if there's a giant tear in the earth.

'Brazil has nearly 20% of the world's fresh water.

'It's one of the country's greatest natural resources.

'At its peak flow, 6.5 million litres of water per second

'cascade over these falls.'

I think it was Eleanor Roosevelt when she first saw

these waterfalls, she just looked at it and said, "Poor Niagara".

I've never seen a sight like this.

This, for me, is one of the most extraordinary natural sights

on this planet.

'It was time for the last stage of my journey.

'We flew to Sao Paolo, back on the Tropic of Capricorn.

'With a population of at least 20 million,

'it's the biggest city in the southern hemisphere.'

Here we are. So we're just crossing the Tropic of Capricorn now.

-Well done!

-Thank you. Well done to you.

THEY LAUGH

-And we're heading into Sao Paulo.

-Yes.

Man, it's huge. I'm sure you're going to be impressed.

It's the biggest city in the country.

It's where the money is.

'Sao Paulo is the commercial centre

'of Brazil's rapidly developing economy.

'It's home to a new class of the super rich.'

This is quite a wealthy area.

Quite wealthy?! It looks ferociously wealthy to me.

Luxury, huge mansions, almost.

It looks like Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Look at it.

BMW to the left, Mercedes in front of you...

On the right here, you could see some Porsches.

Look at this.

Brazil is a developing country but you wouldn't know it around here.

'The rich in Sao Paulo

'are going to extraordinary lengths to protect their wealth.'

See...

Electric fences on top of every wall.

This one has infra-red as well.

Bloody hell, it has as well.

You have to hide your wealth behind the walls. That's not much fun.

'Living just minutes away from the wealthy in their gated mansions

'are Brazil's urban poor.

'The huge gulf between the haves and the have-nots

'has helped create a frightening rate of violent crime.

'Last year, there were 3,000 murders

'and 70 kidnappings in Sao Paulo alone.'

'Perhaps not surprisingly,

'the city has more private security guards than any other in the world.'

'Fernando took me to a company that is making a fortune supplying bodyguards to wealthy Brazilians.'

'Jose Neto is the vice-president of the firm.'

Jose, so how's business going?

TRANSLATION: We're the biggest security company in Brazil

with over 14,000 employees, 500 of whom are close protection bodyguards.

The demand for our services is very high

because the problem of crime is very severe in Brazil.

OK, let's see what your men do.

-Come on!

-OK.

'Jose suggested I play the role of a VIP

'in one of the training exercises.'

This is my cue.

OK, so I'm walking to the shops.

GUNFIRE

Oh, bloody hell!

I've no idea what happened to the kidnappers, but I've got away.

One minute I was walking towards

three plates on the wall and the next,

I was being picked up, chucked in the back of the car and we were off.

Very dramatic.

Oh!

We're leaving the wealthy part of Sao Paulo now and we're heading

towards the suburbs and then, into what in other countries

would be called the shantytowns.

Here, they call them the favelas.

And we're heading to one favela in particular, which used to have

the reputation of being the most dangerous place on the planet.

'Just a few years ago, the murder rate in Jardim Angela was the highest of any

'neighbourhood in the world with drug massacres almost every week.'

'Community worker Osni Santos offered to take us on a tour of the favela.'

'He insisted that it wasn't safe to take our shiny new hire car

'so we've travelled in his van.'

Quite a squeak on the brakes there.

Has this car had its MOT recently?!

THEY LAUGH

-Not sure!

-There's no MOT here!

I can see, clearly.

THEY LAUGH

Why is it called the Quiet Hill?

'As in developing cities across the planet,

'many people here have been moved off rural areas

'to make way for huge industrial farms,

'so they come here in search of work.'

I mean, do most people have jobs?

-60% are unemployed?!

-60%.

'Life in Jardim Angela IS starting to improve

'and with leadership from the Catholic Church,

'the community is taking back streets from drug dealers and gangs.'

'We visited a church community project where youngsters are now taught skills

'like cooking and hairdressing,

'to keep them on the straight and narrow.'

Is that all right? Is that OK?

I'm ready to make pizzas!

'My cookery teacher is teenager, Luis Fernando.'

I'm really bad at all forms of cooking and I burn toast.

So I'm very keen to learn how to make a pizza, particularly the Brazilian way.

What do we start with?

Is that all right?

More or less.

-More or less!

-Very good.

'Luis is only 17, but he's already had a chequered past.'

-TRANSLATION:

-I was in the wrong life.I did lots stuff I shouldn't.

My dad got very worried.

I thought there was something there for me,

because I wanted to fill that emptiness I felt inside.

And what age did you get involved with drugs?

-TRANSLATION:

-14 years old.

First, it was weed, and then, the flour.

But not this flour...the other one.

-Cocaine?

-Yeah.

-TRANSLATION:

-Bit by bit

I got out of drugs, and now I don't take anything any more.

I'm here, steady, strong, learning with them.

'With little formal education in the favela,

'the teenagers are now learning skills that will improve their chances of finding a job.'

I don't understand what I'm doing wrong, apart from everything.

Look at the state of mine compared to his.

-Why is mine like that?

-THEY LAUGH

What's going on? What have I done wrong?

-Unbelievable.

-Because you're crap.

Because you're crap.

THEY LAUGH

It's like that, is it? I see!

Joking apart, the sense that I really have here,

I don't know whether you feel this, but there's just...

These kids have got incredible potential.

There's so much potential in a place like this and for so long it's just gone to waste.

They've been neglected for too long.

'It was time for us to leave Sao Paulo

'on the very last leg of the journey.'

We're coming to the coast now

and we're heading to a town called Ubatuba, which is right on Capricorn,

right at the point where Capricorn leaves South America

and heads out across the Atlantic Ocean.

'The Tropic of Capricorn is the most southerly point on the planet

'where the sun can appear to be directly overhead.

'We were arriving at the coast on the day when this happens - the solstice.'

What are the chances that we're going to see the sun,

on the solstice on Capricorn?

-I would say very slim.

-Oh, really?

-Yes.

Ubatuba has a reputation of being a very rainy place.

We actually joke that Ubatuba should be called Ubashuva -

shuva meaning rain - because it rains a lot down here.

Look at this.

Mmm, I smell fish.

'Ubatuba was once just a small fishing village, but today,

'it's a busy holiday resort for Brazil's burgeoning middle-classes.'

It's supposed to be somewhere around here, huh?

We think we're coming up to Capricorn.

Well, that's the airport

and I heard the monument was just by the airport...

Oh, maybe it's that. Look!

That's the monument, I think.

-Well, that's a skate park and that looks like a globe.

-Yes!

I think we got to Capricorn. Finally!

Amazing!

We're at the Capricorn monument on the coast of Brazil.

This is it. This is really the end!

This is where we started our journey

months and months ago on the coast of Africa in Namibia.

We went across Africa, across Madagascar, which they seem to have forgotten on this globe!

Across the middle of Australia, that's Australia there.

Round here, round the world.

And then we hit the coast of South America in Chile.

We've gone across South America...

Look, Brazil is outlined here.

We've come across Brazil and look, there we are now.

A little hole's been drilled for Ubatuba.

I feel a bit odd about this, actually.

I mean, I didn't think I'd feel

quite as, almost emotional as I do, but honestly,

it's been such a long journey and this is it.

Here we are.

The sun's come out just at this final second. Look at that!

On the solstice at midday.

The sun is overhead, the shadow falls underneath.

We're at the southern point, the southern border of the tropics.

We've travelled all the way round.

We've seen so much on the way from the rise of China in Africa, to deforestation in South America.

It has been an amazing journey. I've got a huge lump in my throat now.

We've made it!

Come on. Let's have a drink.

-Yeah, you're right.

-We deserve one.

-We do.

-One for Capricorn!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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