Full.Circle.With.Michael.Palin.09.Peru+Colombia
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00:30then I'm going to play a little bit of this song, and then I'm going to play a little bit
00:48into the hot and humid rainforest of the Amazon Basin.
00:55There is no other way through the forest except by boat,
00:58and we have nearly a week of river travel ahead of us.
01:04Our guide, Barry Walker, can barely take the binoculars from his eyes.
01:08If you're a bird spotter like Barry,
01:10then Peru, with 2,000 species, is a land of opportunity.
01:19But the forest is attracting attention for more than its natural beauty,
01:23as I'm soon to find out.
01:25So, here we are on the Camaseo, Michael.
01:28It's the Camaseo River.
01:30And, er...
01:32See over here, here's one of the old oil exploration centres.
01:37Abandoned now, of course, but...
01:39First piece of modern equipment I've seen on this stretch of the river for a long while.
01:43Looks like a painted palm tree.
01:45Yeah, badly painted palm tree.
01:47What is the significance of that, then?
01:50Was the drilling abandoned here?
01:52Well, they've done the exploration.
01:54They've got some capped wells in here.
01:57So, for the last few years, everything's been abandoned around here,
02:01but very soon the crews are going to come in
02:05and actually start getting the gas out.
02:08Has the exploration damaged the environment much yet,
02:10or is that going to happen in the future?
02:13We'll find out. Just around the corner here, there's a settlement,
02:16which I think we'll call in at, and that'll give us a real idea
02:19of how much influence the exploration people have had.
02:22I'm sure that when they start getting it out,
02:25it remains to be seen whether we're negative or not.
02:32We pull in at a Machigenga Indian village.
02:37There is a definite protocol for visiting.
02:40We must first find the headman and ask his permission.
02:46The village is being swept for the feast of St John the Baptist.
02:49Missionaries must have come through here, as well as oil men.
02:54Has he encountered many foreigners like this,
02:56just coming out of the blue up the river?
02:59Well, no, he's quite surprised to see us,
03:01and initially I think he thought we were the advance party
03:04of the petrol people who donated, when they left,
03:07these sheets of corrugated iron.
03:10He was saying that it's much better using that than it is making the thatch.
03:14You see the old thatch building here, and it's a lot of work to put it together.
03:17Yeah.
03:30The headman has another role today,
03:32as referee in an inter-village soccer match.
03:36The whole of South America is mad about football,
03:39and the Amazon jungle is no exception.
03:42The match is one of the feast-day attractions.
03:47Oh! Nice try.
03:52The man with no boots on.
03:57The football boots seem rather unevenly distributed,
04:00but it makes for some interesting games.
04:03In the next match, between the local women,
04:05there's not a football boot to be seen,
04:07and the game's a lot more exciting.
04:33Children here grow up hoping that one day they'll be as good as their mothers.
04:41Half-time refreshment is a bowl of masato,
04:43a festive tipple made from the fermented juice of the yucca plant.
04:49It's a bit like giving Manchester United martinis.
04:54I decide a drugs test is in order.
04:57Yeah, and how's it made, to ferment it?
05:00Well, it depends.
05:02I'm not quite sure how they're making it here,
05:04but in many communities, it's the job of the women to chew it
05:08and spit it into a pot,
05:10and the enzymes from their saliva start the fermentation process.
05:13But in more contact places, where they have access to sugar,
05:17they prefer to use sugar these days.
05:19Do they have sugar here? I'm not sure.
05:23Doesn't look like it.
05:25Well, cheers. I'm game for anything.
05:28It looks lovely, doesn't it?
05:36A hint of dry, sort of slight raspberry-ish taste.
05:40Sort of like mildly alcoholic raspberry yoghurt or something.
05:44I think that's sort of 96 saliva.
05:49At the festive meal, the families gather round
05:52Grace is spoken, and they tuck into the day's delicacy,
05:55tapir meat wrapped in banana leaves.
06:13The presence of plastic bowls, containers and T-shirts
06:17show the village is modernising.
06:19The old ways are looking increasingly out of place.
06:29It's time for us to leave the party,
06:31get back to the river and find a camp for the night.
06:42The morning dip looks idyllic, but could be dangerous.
06:46If you pee in the river, there's apparently a small fish
06:49with barbed teeth which latches onto the urine stream
06:52and swims up your penis.
06:54Give me a piranha any day.
07:04The tropical rainforest is one of the richest natural environments
07:07in the world.
07:09But, as I find out, it doesn't take kindly to intruders.
07:12I've got the machete. Do you want the traditional machete?
07:15I don't think so. I think we can get through.
07:17It's just over to where the trail widens out down here.
07:20People still use machetes, or is it just in movies?
07:23People do when they're cutting trail,
07:25but when you're in known territory, they're not really necessary.
07:29Although it might be on this little bit.
07:31Here, lend it me a second.
07:34Thanks.
07:43Whoa!
07:45You've knocked yourself out.
07:47Here we go. The trail widens here.
07:49Ah, right. Here we go.
07:51Barry is a man with a purpose.
07:53He's here to find roots in the rainforest,
07:55and he's going to look for them.
07:57He's going to look for them.
07:59He's going to look for them.
08:01He's a man with a purpose.
08:03He's here to find rare and exotic birds.
08:05I think I'm a bit of an embarrassment.
08:07Looks like, uh...
08:09I made a mistake.
08:11What?
08:13I just put the rest of my hand on a tree,
08:15and there must be an ant trail going up,
08:17so I have to be a little fast.
08:25I like it more like it.
08:27Yeah, this is a good primary forest here.
08:29This is very good indeed.
08:31What can you hear?
08:33What's that one making here?
08:35Oh, that's the plain-winged ant shrike.
08:37That lives in the sub-canopy.
08:39It's quite vocal at dawn and dusk.
08:41Yeah.
08:49White-bred ant birds.
08:51There's a few other callers,
08:53but they're not...
08:55I think we should...
08:57try further down the trail.
08:59Don't touch any tree.
09:03All right, let's see if we can get through here.
09:07The trouble with such a rich and fertile environment
09:09is that you can't actually see anything.
09:13The birds, I presume, have the same problem.
09:15They stay way above us
09:17where they can fly around
09:19without banging into trees all the time.
09:27After a while,
09:29one day becomes much like any other.
09:31The forest seems endless.
09:33The climate degenerates hot and uncomfortable.
09:57It's six days
09:59before we reach a settlement.
10:01Is this it?
10:03This is it.
10:05Sir Power.
10:07Sir Power.
10:09Civilisation.
10:11Civilisation. Lots of boats.
10:13I'm sure about it.
10:15I bet you can get beer here.
10:17Cold beer, maybe.
10:19Maybe.
10:21Civilisation.
10:23Civilisation. Lots of boats.
10:25Cold beer, maybe.
10:2790 degree beers we've been drinking.
10:29The biggest place we've seen for a while.
10:31Yeah.
10:33Hotel, or are we under canvas again?
10:35Under canvas, I think.
10:43Sir Power fits the description
10:45by the Amazon explorer, Colonel Fawcett,
10:47of somewhere that looks a dump on the way in
10:49and a metropolis on the way out.
10:55It's a place of convivial
10:57and infectious idleness.
10:59But it does have an airstrip
11:01and there are no queues
11:03at the terminal.
11:09A Russian-built cargo plane
11:11puts down here every now and then
11:13with military and civilian supplies
11:15for this jungle outpost.
11:17It is a place of peace
11:19and tranquillity.
11:21As refuelling begins,
11:23we look around for an airline official
11:25to talk to.
11:31Barry finds the co-pilot
11:33who bears a passing badge
11:35on his uniform.
11:37He's the co-pilot.
11:39He's the co-pilot.
11:41He's the co-pilot.
11:43He's the co-pilot.
11:45He's the co-pilot.
11:47He's the co-pilot.
11:49Barry finds the co-pilot
11:51who bears a passing resemblance
11:53to a certain film star.
11:55He seems to have a grip on things.
11:59He promises to squeeze everyone in
12:01so long as we don't mind
12:03sitting on the cargo.
12:05After a week on the river,
12:07we'll sit on anything.
12:13Barry, time to go.
12:15Thanks ever so much.
12:17We're going to spend a few days
12:19from Cusco onwards
12:21and from London come to my location.
12:27Have a great trip.
12:29Have a great trip.
12:43We fly north over a vast
12:45and thus largely unbroken
12:47swathe of forest.
12:49It's a 600-mile journey
12:51that would have taken
12:53ten days by boat.
12:55Our destination is Iquitos,
12:57capital of the Peruvian jungle.
13:01By now, the Urubamba
13:03has become the Amazon.
13:05It's the dry season
13:07and the world's greatest river is low,
13:09scarcely reaching the bank
13:11on which the city is built.
13:13For a place entirely surrounded
13:15by jungle and with no road
13:17communication with the rest of Peru,
13:19Iquitos is surprisingly stylish.
13:25It owes most of its
13:27faded charm to the rubber boom
13:29of the 1880s.
13:35The new houses of the rubber barons
13:37showed old-world taste.
13:44Iquitos is two towns in one.
13:48The Europeans live up on the hill
13:50and the Indians down by the river
13:52in a shanty town called Belen,
13:54short for Bethlehem.
13:59It's a great street-vending city in the world.
14:01Oh, definitely. We have a good market here, you know.
14:03And that's rather nice, isn't it?
14:05Well, this is a bandstand
14:07that was brought from France
14:09in the early 1900s.
14:13My companion, Jorge,
14:15comes from uptown Iquitos
14:17but clearly loves the bustle of Belen.
14:19It doesn't always look like this.
14:22When it floods,
14:24how much of this is going to be underwater?
14:26Where we're walking now?
14:28About two metres, yeah, about here.
14:30And the big boats,
14:32the colectivos, also come directly
14:34over to the plaza.
14:36This is what we call the Peruvian Venice.
14:40You see the canoes here and there
14:42all the time.
14:44Plenty of things for sale here in the shops.
14:46All the stores are full.
14:48What about the services here?
14:50Does the town provide sanitation
14:52or electricity?
14:54Oh, yes.
14:56The city provides electricity, as you can see here,
14:58the wiring.
15:00They also have potable water
15:02but there's no sewage system here yet.
15:04Everything is right down onto the floor
15:06as you can see on the other side too.
15:08You see all the little houses there.
15:10Rubbish just standing.
15:12It must be bad for disease.
15:14Oh, we have here a very high percent of infant mortality.
15:16You know, somewhere like
15:18anywhere like 18 to 20 percent
15:20infant mortality in the first five years
15:22caused mostly by parasites.
15:28This is one of the ways
15:30they make the conditions tolerable.
15:32A do-it-yourself distillery
15:34makes aguardiente, sugar cane spirit.
15:40The city council wants to move people out of here
15:42but the locals refuse to go.
15:44They like their shops
15:46and their market
15:48and I have to admit, there are things here
15:50you'd never find in Safeway.
15:52This is when the river lowers.
15:54You see catfishes here,
15:56piranhas, vicious piranhas here.
15:58That's a piranha.
16:00These teeth here are sharp as a razor blade.
16:02The Indians in the Amazon
16:04they use the jaws of the piranha fish
16:06for sharpening their darts
16:08to shoot the animals with a blowgun.
16:12A lady called Julia
16:14is a one-woman cigarette factory.
16:16She rolls about 3,000 pieces
16:18of this tobacco here.
16:203,000 pieces a day?
16:22A day.
16:24And each roll has 100 pieces
16:26and it costs about 4 soles.
16:28Can you buy these elsewhere
16:30in the city or do you have to come here?
16:32No, you have to come here
16:34also to the other place in the market.
16:36These are very strong.
16:38You want to try?
16:40I don't smoke.
16:42I'll probably blow my head off.
16:44You can try.
16:46You'll like it.
16:48You get to smoke a little.
16:50Yeah.
16:52The future shaman of the Amazon.
16:54Wow.
16:56It's very, very strong.
16:58The closest comparison
17:00would be with the
17:02jetans from France.
17:04Bless you all.
17:08You have to walk quite a way in the dry season
17:10to get to find the river.
17:12It's almost about a kilometre and a half
17:14before we get here.
17:16This is the tributary of the Amazon
17:18called Itaya.
17:20Now it's very low
17:22but yet it gets much lower too.
17:24It gets lower than this?
17:26Yes, but this is one of the main entrances to the city.
17:28River transport
17:30remains basic.
17:32People are carried on backs
17:34and passengers squeeze on and off public ferries
17:36called colectivas.
17:38Though you can splash out on a water taxi.
17:42The rise and fall of the river
17:44each season does not encourage
17:46an air of permanence.
17:52Ten years ago
17:54Frenchman Didier Lacasse
17:56came to the rainforest to research
17:58the healing properties of jungle plants.
18:03He stayed,
18:05set up a medicinal garden
18:07and has become a shaman,
18:09a traditional healer.
18:13He uses the leaves of many plants
18:15but the most effective
18:17of all his potions
18:19is the root of the ayahuasca
18:21which is pounded into a paste.
18:23It's then boiled up
18:25into a powerful brew.
18:27Is it important for the healing
18:29that there is a hallucinogenic
18:31experience?
18:33Yes, it's very important.
18:35It gives a vision, it helps you to see
18:37and when you see
18:39you have the power to heal
18:41and basically the seeing is
18:43a basis for healing.
18:45Didier's herbal surgery
18:47has many elements of religious ritual.
18:49He is the high priest.
18:51The ayahuasca is the sacrament.
19:01Despite the intensity of the experience
19:03Didier has allowed us to film
19:05what goes on.
19:07Now he's drunk the ayahuasca.
19:09I ask him how long he'll feel able
19:11to answer my questions.
19:15Five minutes, ten minutes.
19:17You will be hallucinating
19:19so presumably you will be
19:21seeing things that we can't see.
19:23Yes.
19:25Can you control that?
19:27You have them in their place
19:29and you're aware of
19:31the situation here at the same time.
19:33There is a certain amount of control
19:35obviously.
19:37It's
19:39the skill of the shaman
19:41to be able to control
19:43this flow of energy
19:45of hallucination
19:47that would turn
19:49someone else crazy probably.
19:51So we learn how to control
19:53that craziness.
19:55Didier's style may be unfamiliar
19:57but the powerful properties
19:59of the plants he's using are not in dispute.
20:01The rainforest is alive
20:03with drug companies looking for the secrets.
20:05But Didier prefers to treat
20:07and cure local people.
20:15Eventually it's time for each patient
20:17to come forward for a consultation.
20:19The consultation
20:21is like a séance
20:23in which the shaman uses
20:25his newfound insight
20:27to sense what is wrong
20:29with the person before him.
20:39The consultation
20:41is like a séance
20:43in which the shaman
20:45uses his newfound insight
20:47to sense what is wrong
20:49with the person before him.
21:13Then he asks for me
21:15to come forward.
21:35The chanting sets up a pleasant aura
21:37of spiritual relaxation.
21:39I feel comfortably
21:41out of place
21:43as an Amazon Indian knight
21:45at choral evensong.
22:07Didier administers a blessing
22:09wishing me good luck on my journey
22:11and I hope that when I meet people
22:13they will always be good friends.
22:19This seems the right note on which to leave.
22:29The El Arca, a British-built riverboat
22:31first sailed the Amazon in 1882.
22:35Today she's taking us out of Iquitos.
22:41She makes a weekly trip downriver
22:43and will drop us off at the Colombian border,
22:45now only 300 miles away.
22:51It's hot, it's cramped,
22:53but a childhood dream has come true.
22:55I'm on the Amazon.
23:11The people from a local village
23:13come out to meet us.
23:15One of them carries something
23:17I've rarely seen in the Amazon,
23:19a wild animal.
23:23What is this?
23:25This is an ocelot.
23:27An ocelot?
23:29Yes, an ocelot.
23:31It's a wild animal.
23:33It's a wild animal.
23:35It's a wild animal.
23:37It's a wild animal.
23:39This is an ocelot.
23:41An ocelot?
23:43They don't grow too big,
23:45just this size, like this.
23:47This is like
23:49two or three months old.
23:51Can I hold him?
23:53Yes, directly.
23:55Oh, yes.
23:57There we are.
23:59That's the best, isn't it?
24:01Poor thing, just very, very sleepy.
24:03Oh, yes, I know.
24:05This species is in danger now.
24:07They are always chasing away
24:09because people are killing them,
24:11so they are always hiding.
24:13You know, people from Iquitos
24:15are coming down here
24:17looking for this skin,
24:19so they pay cheap.
24:21So they're hard to find now.
24:23Really, if you want to find,
24:25you have to go way into the jungle,
24:27walk hours, days together.
24:29Oh, yes.
24:31What do you think happened
24:33to its parents?
24:35I think they already killed its parents.
24:37Yes. What do you think will happen?
24:39You have to sell it.
24:41$200.
24:43$100.
24:45Want an ocelot? I can't take it.
24:47I've got to go to Alaska.
24:49It's cold there, isn't it?
24:51Near the village is a lagoon
24:53which seems as close to a Garden of Eden
24:55as you're likely to get.
24:57Everything from giant lily pads
24:59to giant spiders
25:01seems to flourish here in extraordinary profusion.
25:03And for once, you can actually see the birds.
25:27I'd like the Amazon to stay like this
25:29just as I'd imagined it.
25:31But it's changing.
25:41Deforestation has reduced rainfall here
25:43by 120% in a generation.
25:45And if there's oil and gas to be found,
25:47more trees will have to go.
25:57The unceasing heat of the days
25:59and the hothouse stickiness of the nights
26:01saps the energy.
26:11Before the river lulls us into total lethargy,
26:13it's time to move on.
26:15Well, after three weeks
26:17on the Peruvian river system,
26:19we've now reached a crossroads.
26:21We have... The Amazon here
26:23has brought us to Peru on this side,
26:25Brazil over there and Colombia over there.
26:27We can't really carry on with the Amazon.
26:29It goes on 2,000 miles into the Atlantic.
26:31So we're going to head north through Colombia
26:33and back up towards the Pacific,
26:35wherever that is.
26:39There are only two ways
26:41out of the Colombian frontier town of Leticia,
26:43by river or by air.
26:45A river journey back to the Andes
26:47will take at least two weeks.
26:49A flight will take two hours.
26:51We board a plane
26:53to take us across the equator
26:55to Bogotá.
27:03We could be said to have swapped
27:05one jungle for another.
27:07Colombia's capital is the biggest city
27:09we've seen since Sydney.
27:11It has a reputation for being
27:13one of the most violent places on Earth.
27:15To try and find out why,
27:17I go to see Tim Ross,
27:19a British journalist living and working here.
27:21Hi.
27:23How do you do?
27:25This is the car we always use for the streets.
27:27It's the most unobtrusive.
27:29I'm told you do a great city tour.
27:31Well, the city is great.
27:33I think it's fun, but it's not a city
27:35exactly with tourism.
27:37That has ended here because of the problems
27:39and dangers.
27:41The city with one of the world's highest
27:43per capita homicide rates,
27:45like 100 murders per 100,000 population here,
27:47like 50 times the British murder rate.
27:49So it is not exaggerated?
27:51It's not exaggerated.
27:53This really is a dangerous city.
27:55Not just for murder and obvious major violence,
27:57but the petty things, the pickpocket,
27:59the snatch artist, the man who grabs a wristwatch,
28:01grabs your glasses off your face.
28:03Some people try to grab them off you.
28:05Anything they can sell for drugs, particularly.
28:07It's a city with a major, major drug problem,
28:09and that's what's crippling it.
28:11You've worked here a long time.
28:13You know the streets.
28:15I work the streets particularly,
28:17usually on foot when it's a matter of filming.
28:19It's great.
28:27The troubled streets to which Tim takes us
28:29are only six blocks from the presidential palace
28:32in the heart of downtown Bogota.
28:41His advice to us generally is to stay in the car.
28:44But this corner, he says, is safe enough.
28:49What's going on here?
28:53Tim is well-known round here.
28:55He's reported on these streets for 20 years.
28:58The death squads work this area consistently.
29:00They come around at night killing people.
29:02This next street ahead here, they've actually put posters up.
29:05Who are the death squads? Who do they compose them?
29:07And what justice are they dealing out?
29:09I mean, justice, bullets in the head.
29:11But it's shopkeepers, off-duty policemen,
29:14private security guards.
29:16Sometimes simply people who've been mugged and are fed up with it
29:19go back with a gun and kill street people.
29:21Vigilante.
29:22Vigilante squads, yeah.
29:23And do they kill people?
29:25They do, regularly.
29:27Sometimes three, four, five, six cases a week.
29:29Two or three people a night killed.
29:35Armed police patrol neighbourhoods
29:37reduced by the drug trade to war zones.
29:40Tim knows many of the casualties.
29:43It was a knife stab.
29:46They had to open it up to stitch him up inside.
29:53It touched the heart.
29:55Who did that and why?
30:01Up on 7th Main Street, just to rob him.
30:03He's a street person, a drug abuser.
30:06There's the stains of drug use, man.
30:10There's the stains of drug use,
30:12marijuana and bazooka, that bright orange.
30:14You're lucky to survive that.
30:18Look at the scars.
30:21That's typical of the transvestite male prostitutes,
30:25the self-mutilation.
30:27He has AIDS.
30:29He has to go back to the Foundation, which deals with AIDS patients.
30:32Would he accept that? Would he do it?
30:34He wants to persuade his friend.
30:37He doesn't want to leave him.
30:47I've got a small bill.
30:51You've got a small bill? That's all I have.
31:02Bye-bye.
31:07Back in the car, we head for the most notorious street of all,
31:11Cai Cartouchet, Bullitt Street.
31:14This is the area where they start recycling.
31:16You see all the recyclers here,
31:18grubby and grimy-crusted people all over these streets.
31:20One of the main activities is consuming drugs
31:23and obtaining the money with which to consume drugs.
31:26That is what their lives revolve around.
31:28It's the syndrome of getting high, coming down,
31:31finding a way to get high all over again, right?
31:34Finding a way to get high all over again.
31:36Around the clock, they sleep for only the time necessary
31:39to recover enough to get on with another day
31:42of obtaining scrap and garbage,
31:44selling it, getting their drugs.
31:47I mean, the sort of people you're seeing around...
31:49See over there, this guy smoking there, right there in the cap?
31:52And the people sitting next to him, they're all bazooka addicts.
31:55Keep... Siga, siga, siga, siga.
31:58Left-hand side here is stronger, but we can't really...
32:01If you can shoot across Herman's shoulder,
32:03you'll see these people there.
32:17Man on the left just warning us,
32:19be careful around there or they'll rob you blind,
32:21they'll rob you of everything.
32:23If they see someone like this going through,
32:25do they see it as a target, something to rob,
32:28or a possibility of making a victim?
32:30They were already yelling insults at us.
32:32Now they're throwing rocks.
32:37They've already started getting hostile, which is normal.
32:40They assume we're either death squad or police or something.
32:43Stabbings are frequent.
32:46They use broken bottles on each other's faces.
32:48A squabble can start for nothing.
32:50A squabble over, I don't know, 50 cents' worth of marijuana.
32:54Why are they so particularly bad in Colombia?
32:59It's a producing country. They produce drugs here.
33:02Wherever you get drug production, you get drug consumption.
33:04The United States is always blamed,
33:06the United States and Europe are blamed for the drug trafficking problem
33:09because of the demand there.
33:10What the Colombian government ignores generally or tries to downplay
33:13is the desperate level of substance abuse, drugs and alcohol.
33:16You've got a million alcoholics in a country of 36 million population.
33:19You've got an estimated 900,000 solvent abusers.
33:22That means sniffing gasoline, sniffing petrol, sniffing glue,
33:25all these legal things.
33:27It's a vast problem.
33:29Bazooka, cocaine base, nobody's done any proper survey work.
33:34The desolation is matched by political inertia.
33:37There is money, but those who have it are not prepared to share.
33:41Tim, I'm off to, or I've been recommended a rather eccentric restaurant
33:47called Margarita del Ocho. Do you want to come along?
33:51No, I'm not going there, I'm afraid.
33:53That's owned by the Ochoa family,
33:55who are renowned for their involvement in the Medellin cartel, drug traffickers.
34:00I was warned against them some while ago
34:02when there was an attempt to kill me for another documentary I had done.
34:05I'm sorry, I was only going to buy you lunch.
34:08Thanks, but that's somewhere...
34:10It's a serious drug connections act.
34:13Serious drug connection. One member of that family.
34:15It's run by old Fabio Ochoa, the fat man, as he's known.
34:18One of his sons has just got out of prison
34:20after getting a five-and-a-half-year sentence
34:22to the great distaste of the United States
34:24for, like, a double-life sentence.
34:26He's known as one of the biggest drug traffickers in the world.
34:33The sign says restaurant,
34:35but once inside, Don Fabio's priorities are clearly elsewhere.
34:39It's easier to get a horse than a waiter.
34:44The Spanish legacy seems to have created an obsession with horses.
34:49There are 700 on the premises.
34:51Children learn to ride before they can walk.
34:53Don Fabio's daughter sets an example.
34:59Then comes the moment I'm not sure I've been waiting for.
35:04Don Fabio has granted us a rare interview.
35:07I keep the questions friendly, partly for my own safety
35:10and partly because I'm overawed,
35:12as would anyone be interviewing Marlon Brando for the first time.
35:22The place, he says, symbolises a tradition,
35:25100 years of tradition for the Ochoa family.
35:28From it have come some of the finest horses in the world.
35:36I ask him if a demonstration of horsemanship is on the cards.
35:40He seems delighted to be asked,
35:42though it throws his bodyguards into something of a spin.
35:47They appear from all sides and rush to help him up,
35:50at least two to each limb.
36:11The raising of Don Fabio is not an elegant sight,
36:14but once he's in the saddle, he's a changed man.
36:21APPLAUSE
36:40Lucky diners can sit back and watch the Pasofino
36:43performed by a magnificently trained horse,
36:46whilst enjoying bits of other animals that were not so fortunate.
36:50MUSIC PLAYS
37:04This is a family business run by the family.
37:07Don Fabio's new wife flashes the sweet smile of success.
37:12MUSIC CONTINUES
37:19They're opening similar establishments up and down the country.
37:22It's clearly big business, and it's legitimate.
37:34It's not recommended to drive through the mountains west of Bogotá.
37:38There are currently believed to be a dozen armed guerrilla groups
37:41operating there, each seeking to control its own area of influence.
37:46One of the bitterest battles
37:48was fought for control of this mountain, Cosques.
37:523,500 people lost their lives in the fighting,
37:56but then the stakes were high.
37:59This is the Colombian Wild West,
38:02the largest, richest, most dangerous emerald mine in the world.
38:09Cosques Mountain is being slowly and painstakingly ripped apart
38:13in the search for emeralds.
38:18They call this Black Land,
38:20and a lot of hard work goes into finding very little.
38:23We're here at exactly the right moment.
38:28Unlike diamonds, which have to be fashioned,
38:31an emerald comes out of the ground bright green and fully formed.
38:38That's what it looks like, yeah?
38:40Yeah?
38:42That's good.
38:44This, I'm told, is a good piece worth around $10,000.
38:58Down at the bottom of the mountain, beyond the company fences,
39:02a stream runs out of the mine.
39:04This is where the guajeros, the scavengers,
39:07are allowed to sift through the crumbs from the rich man's table.
39:166,000 people live on the mountain.
39:19Only a third of them work for the mining company.
39:29In conditions of almost intolerable heat and discomfort,
39:32men, women and even children scour the black silt
39:36for a glimpse of something that might change their lives.
39:45Crowds cluster round the head of the stream
39:47like rescuers at the scene of a disaster.
40:07The guajeros search largely in vain, but always in hope.
40:21Surprisingly, I see no fights or arguments amongst them.
40:27Though these people may be desperately poor,
40:29they help each other out.
40:31Or maybe it just came on a good day.
40:40At the top of the mountain, the guajeros have their own shanty community
40:44with shops, bars, kitchens, cafes, brothels and banks.
40:49It's up here that the most important part of the whole process takes place,
40:53the buying and selling.
40:55Hundreds of emerald dealers in four-wheel drives
40:58grind up the mountain each morning.
41:01The guajeros are the only ones who can afford to buy
41:04and sell the most expensive goods.
41:07The guajeros are the only ones who can afford to buy
41:10and sell the most expensive goods.
41:13The guajeros are the only ones who can afford to buy
41:16and grind up the mountain each morning.
41:22Those who've struck lucky bargain with the hard men from Bogota.
41:40Experts.
41:42I'm trying to find out what to look for.
41:45It's just...
41:47Is this a good one?
41:49Is it good? Is it...?
41:51Serious money is changing hands here.
41:54It's worth remembering that 50% of all the emeralds
41:58bought from scavengers on this remote mountaintop
42:01will be sold abroad as the last word in luxury.
42:06It's special, isn't it?
42:09The colour.
42:10The colour, yeah?
42:12Right.
42:20I feel the pressure building up.
42:22Now they're asking me to put my money where my mouth is.
42:25$1,000.
42:26$10,000.
42:27$1,000?
42:28$10,000.
42:29$10,000.
42:30$10,000.
42:33$10,000.
42:37American Express?
42:43I think it means that won't do nicely.
42:56Not all Colombia is a battle zone.
42:59The guerrillas and drug barons don't seem so interested
43:02in what Colombians call the zona cafetera, coffee country.
43:12I hitch a ride in one of the American army jeeps
43:15they call willies.
43:17They use them to carry coffee beans
43:19from the plantations down to the markets
43:21and occasionally to help travellers down from the mountains
43:24to the sea.
43:27The coffee country around Armenia
43:29lies about 3,000 feet above sea level.
43:32It's lower and warmer than Bogota,
43:34but positively chilly compared to the thick tropical heat
43:38of our next destination, Cartagena.
43:44Cartagena de Indias is one of the best-preserved
43:47colonial cities on the continent.
43:50The Spanish treasure fleets used to load up here
43:53on their way to Europe.
43:55These mighty walls were built to protect their cargo.
43:59Cathedrals and churches were built to give thanks
44:02to the Almighty for being on Spain's side.
44:06With wealth came a desire to run their own affairs,
44:09and the first South American state independent of Spain
44:12was set up here by Simón BolÃvar, the Liberator,
44:16in 1811.
44:24Protected by its great seawalls,
44:26the houses of the old town haven't changed much in 300 years.
44:42It's quite a shock to find out
44:44that it's like this because of neglect,
44:46because the developers could make more money
44:48out of building a new town nearby
44:50than out of messing about with the old.
44:59Much of the hard work of preservation
45:01has been done by enlightened individuals.
45:08Jackie Bazille is from an old Cartagena family.
45:11She and her husband decided to eschew
45:13the comforts of a modern apartment
45:15and move back into the heart of the city.
45:32Why do you think they remained?
45:34I mean, most cities have changed a lot
45:36and modern buildings have gone up.
45:38Did somebody deliberately stop Cartagena from changing?
46:09Nobody had looked at it before.
46:11As someone who's just passing through here for a few days,
46:14what would you recommend for me to do
46:16to get the sort of feel of Cartagena?
46:18Well, to start warming up, maybe a Chiva tour.
46:24A Chiva tour, what's that?
46:26Which is a bus, a typical bus that we have in all Colombia.
46:29They run from south to the north,
46:31and here they've become a place with music,
46:35drinks, where people from all over meet.
46:39So it'd be probably quite a good thing for inhabited Englishmen.
46:42No, for everyone.
46:44Colombians get together and afterwards they know what to do.
47:05How many do they have, just one bus or lots of buses?
47:09A lot, like ten.
47:11Ten buses?
47:12Yes.
47:13Do they get full?
47:14Yes.
47:15I mean, you can have one night, you can have ten of these incredibly noisy...
47:18Going around the city.
47:19...drunken parties going around the city.
47:21So at the very end of the evening, what do they do?
47:23They dump you all on the side of the...
47:25By one o'clock, you start having fun.
47:27What's the time?
47:28Half past one.
47:29Half past one.
47:30Half past one.
47:31Half past one.
47:32Half past one.
47:34What's the time?
47:35It's ten.
47:36Ten!
47:37Three hours.
47:38Three hours to go.
47:39Before I start to have fun, right.
47:41I'll just stay rather quiet.
47:42Anyone got a book today?
47:43No.
47:58Nine weeks and a day since setting foot on Cape Horn,
48:01we've reached the other end of South America.
48:07The last lap of my journey is in sight.
48:10That is, provided I survive tonight.