Simon Reeve’s South America: Episode 2 (S1EP2 Sunday 11 September 2022)

The largest nation on the continent, Brazil, is where Simon travels in this second episode. He begins with the Waiapi people, who are fighting to maintain their traditional way of life despite threats from logging and mining interests. This is one of the most remote areas of the Amazon. In addition to claiming that protecting the forest is essential for regulating the planet’s climate, the tribal leaders claim that the Amazon can be managed to yield profitable crops and life-saving medicines without harming the environment. They are collaborating with Brazilian scientists to make this claim.

Simon’s journey was cut short at this point, in the beginning of 2020, by the Covid pandemic. Two years later, he returns to see how Brazil ended up being one of the nations worst affected by the virus. He visits a neglected indigenous neighbourhood in Manaus, the city at the centre of the Amazon, and meets the nurse who served as the only source of medical care during the pandemic.

He captures bats with a veterinary scientist on the outskirts of Manaus, where the Amazon jungle and the city meet, in an effort to spot potential pandemics before they affect people. Simon concludes this leg of his journey in Rio de Janeiro, a famous city in Brazil’s west that is threatened by climate change and susceptible to flash floods and sweltering heat.

In order to keep an eye out for potential disasters, the government constructed a cutting-edge control room in the style of NASA. And in one favela, Simon meets the woman who built an urban forest to cool the area and provide many of the abandoned kids with fresh food.

Airdate: Sunday 11 September 2022 at 21:00 on 

Season 1 Episode 2

Adventurer Simon Reeve travels the length of South America as he completes the second part of his epic two-series journey down through the entire Americas. Filmed over five episodes, this is an astonishing adventure through some of the most beautiful, fascinating and remote places on earth.