Crossing the Mexican Border The Travel Show

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Now on BBC News, The Travel Show.

This week on the show... On the run

in central Mexico. This experience

is one of the craziest things I've

done. Wild and rugged Scottish

holidays. And painting a picture of

Denmark.

It has special colours and

a special light.

We are starting this week right in

the middle of Mexico in a state just

two hours north of Mexico City. The

landscape is exactly what you might

expect. The sheer cliffs and prickly

captors are so abundant it's almost

cartoonish. Wow. This particular

area is gorgeous. Central Mexico is

incredibly beautiful and it's hard

to imagine why anybody would want to

leave. But they did. This is now a

bustling friendly place to pick up

some large. But just a couple of

decades ago people say it looked

like a ghost town. They were leaving

for the United States in sizeable

numbers, as they were for many towns

and villages across Mexico. In the

crook of this ravine at group of

recently returned illegal immigrants

decided they wanted to solve a

problem on their own. Years before

any talk of a border wall. They

wanted to convince their children

and grandchildren that they would

have a better life in Mexico and to

warn them about the dangers of

crossing.

The notorious crowning glory of the

park was the brutal night walk,

which allows tourists to experience

what it's like to illegally crossed

the US border, albeit a fake one.

Their hope, that it would be a

deterrent.

We are told to meet inside the main

gate. This is the real deal. Even

though these guys are planning

apart, they really mean business.

The guy yelling at the top is a

clear key, what you call someone who

brings you across the border --

coyote. He is taking his character

extremely seriously. He is yelling

out orders to our group. Already my

heart is beating so fast. They are

trying to make this as realistic as

possible. Listen to them. Breaking

into the USA. I'm going to have to

stop going. Firstly, we are all

jumping on the back of a pickup

truck. I have no idea where we are

going. He's not giving us any tips.

She is saying this is the second

time doing the border crossing. She

is not very scared, however this guy

right here, it is first time, I'm

pretty scared.

We are going to all cross, or

attempt to cross the border they've

created for us tonight. I have to

watch my step. There are gunshots,

Sirens, this bridge is totally not

stable and there's people crawling

on the ground. I don't even know

what's going on, but the group is...

You OK? Yeah. Unsure footing I can

kind of deal with. But things get

much scarier when you are forced to

these ground -- to the ground by

this very authentic looking armed

bandits.

Unnaturally afraid to make too much

noise. I do want him to come back.

Normally you would welcome the

arrival of the police with open

arms, but Elle three tells us to

run. -- our coyote.

Do you think people coming here and

experiencing this works and make

them want to stay in

the whole point of this park is to

show people the hardships and the

work that goes into a border

crossing and tonight has been a

perfect example of that so far.

Look

at this. I have a cactus stuck in

the bottom of my shoe. Look at that.

It went all the way through the side

of my shoe. This is the moment, this

is the moment. When we can hopefully

cross the border. Our coyote is

stressing out. We are waiting for

the next truck and as soon as it

comes with a jump on the back. The

Sirens are off in the distance. The

number of illegal migrants being

arrested at the border is coming

down significantly. US border patrol

said it stopped 44% fewer last year

than in 2016, of the journey still

kills hundreds annually. Here at

Parque EcoAlberto they are hoping it

will end up saving many of those

lives. It has certainly given the

guest tonight pause for thought.

That was seriously one of the most

difficult things I've ever done in

my life, however, if you are

planning to come to this area here

is a guide to some of the things you

can do and see around Mexico City.

Top of our list would be the street

food. You will see tacos,

quesadillas and all sorts of things.

It is cheap and delicious but make

sure whatever you are reading is

made in front of you. And if you are

feeling really brave, head to the

market and try a handful of crunchy

scorpions or grasshoppers. The food

at the museum is in a pretty suburb

and it is where the artist was born

and lived a long side her husband.

Inside you will find collections of

work from both of them. Some of the

rooms have been left in the same

state there were in when house

became a museum in the 1950s. Our

tip is to get there early to beat

the long queues. This is an

incredibly popular attraction. The

same advice goes for this castle

which gets crowded in the high

season but is well worth a look. The

beautiful 18th-century building

started life as a retreat for Aztec

rulers and sits in the world's

largest urban park. While you are

there check out this American

ceremony in which four or five men

perform suspended from the top of a

30 metre pole. And this is the

UNESCO listed canal district a short

distance outside the city. Read

colourful boat and take in the

gardens and wildlife. On Saturday

the place comes alive and becomes

kind of a floating party district.

It's quite a sight. One weird

highlight is the island of the

dolls, a creepy diversion.

Still to come on The Travel Show,

our global guru is he with

recommendations for Scotland in the

summertime. And the artistic secrets

behind Denmark's biggest fishing

port.

It's a beautiful place because

you can see all around and there's

inspiration.

The Travel Show, your essential

guide wherever you're heading.

Welcome to

the show that gets the best out of

your travel. An island escape in

Scotland, and the pyramidal problem

of tipping, who and how much? This

time on a river cruise. High-speed

rail should be arriving shortly in

South -- South -- Saudi Arabia. The

link between Mecca and Medina across

the Arabian desert should be opening

in March. Spanish built trains will

be covering the 270 miles between

the two holy cities in about two

hours. Helen is looking forward to

Christmas, a place, not the day.

Christmas Island, a beautiful coral

atoll in the heart of the world's

biggest ocean, is the only island in

the Republic of Kiribati who has a

international air links. It is a

stop on the way between Honolulu and

Fiji. There are many ways to reach

Honolulu from the mainland at US

airports, but you will need to make

sure you are there at noon on

Tuesday when the only flight of the

week takes off for the three hour

flight south to Christmas Island.

The Hebrides, the islands of the

West Coast of Scotland complies raw,

elemental landscapes with a dramatic

seashore punctuated by ports and

superb beaches. The weather is not

always clamoured and the

Mediterranean is rather more warm

than the North Atlantic, when the

sun shines the Western Isles have

few rivals for sheer beauty. While

the Outer Hebrides have a

compelling, growth family, the one

island that is likely to be just

right is the inner Hebrides island

of Malta. -- Mull. It is easy to

reach from the seaside town of open.

You get a wider choice of

accommodation and fewer crowds. --

Oban.

A river cruise is a superb way to

experience the cities and landscapes

of Central Europe, and it is my

favourite waterway. -- the Danube.

Tipping on river cruises is

different from Ocean cruising, there

is no intense pressure and you could

have nothing at the end of the

cruise, but the crews of a

recommendation and they tend to be

quite similar. 12 euros per person

per day for the ships staff and for

the cruise director, wear and I am

paying a handsome amount for the

Danube cruise I would probably tip

the staff but leave the cruise

director to negotiate their own

fees. Whether you are contemplating

a trip to the nation next door or

the nation next door or the ends of

the earth, I am here to help. So

e-mail your questions to me and I

will do my very best to find you an

answer. From me, the global guru,

wife now, see you next time.

Finally, we are off to Skagen, the

most northerly town in Denmark. It

is possibly best known for hosting a

colony of artists known as the

Skagen painters who were cared in

the 19th century known as the Skagen

painters. And today there legacy

lives on.

One of my favourite

paintings is this one, a Midsummer

painting of the bonfire at St John's

night, and it is bringing together a

lot of the things that these Skagen

painters and the colony was all

about, because it shows us the

artist and the local fishermen

together in this same painting.

Actually we still today celebrate St

John's night in the same ways as we

see on the painting. Back in the

1870s and 1880s, the Skagen painters

started coming here. They were from

Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Great

Britain, and at this time travelling

was part of the education of

becoming an artist. They found a

fishermen 's village at the top of

Denmark, where these two oceans meet

each other. This touch that the

artists made this town is very

important to Skagen today.

This is going to be a sketch for a

quick painting in my studio. That is

the idea. It's a beautiful place

because you can see all around, you

have both seaside and you have the

houses of Skagen which are quite

important, with the colours, the

yellow, the red, the white.

Most of our paintings are from the

period, 1870- 1920, 25 full, 30.

That is when the artist colony was

really alive. They would come back

nearly every summer, the artist is

met at the hotel, mainly, and there

is this social connection between

the people, the locals and the

artists was very important.

I

usually say it all began here at

Bondums hotel. It is a very special

place, we want to keep that

atmosphere because it is what the

people want to see when they come

here. The her -- the owner of a

hotel at the time said to the

artists they didn't have to pay

anything for staying here, they

could just give them the pictures.

It was here that all the artists

were having beginners, playing

cards, have a lot of discussions

about paintings and so on.

This is

my drug, you know, I have to paint.

I need it everyday to live my life,

I cannot live without painting. It

gives me the speed of being alive.

We have a lot of paintings focusing

on the fishermen, and that was like

a core motif for most of the Skagen

painters, because that was what they

mess, these hard-working local

fishermen, living and dying for the

sea.

More than 100 years back this town

was more or less a very small town,

where the fishermen landed their

catches on the beach, beating the

smaller boats. I can't help feeling

a lot of respect for the fishermen

and the circumstances they had to

work under. In 1907 the construction

of the port was finished which meant

a whole new opportunity. The past 13

years or 14 years we have been the

largest fishing port in Denmark. It

is working out well within the port

area and for the businesses of the

port, it is working out very well

for the town of Skagen as well.

I like very much to paint a big and

heavy. Being a painter in Skagen

today is not as was of course, but

it is still the same energy and

still the same colour, attitude that

I use, because Skagen has special

colours and has a special light.

You

can actually come into the museum,

look at these paintings, and you can

go outside and you can find these

different motifs that you see on the

canvas. I think the fact that there

was an artist colony here plays a

very important role in putting

Skagen on the map.

The people of

Skagen in Denmark, bringing this

week 's show to an end. Coming up

next week: we will be on-board

Africa's Freedom Railway, a vital

artery connecting Zambia to the

Tanzanian coast are over 40 years.

Seven Lions chasing a zebra, it was

like a movie! But it was real!

Finding Web the future holds. For

this now creaking train line. And in

the meantime if you would like to

join our adventures on the road and

follow us on social media, but for

now from myself and the rest of the

Travel Show team in Mexico, it is

adios.