Original subtitles

Right across our planet, there is an incredible variety of astonishing

landscapes.

But perhaps the most extraordinary anywhere in the world is the Amazon.

The Amazon River stretches across the South American continent for 4 ,000

By volume, it's greater than any other river in the world.

We are right in front of the meeting of the water, one of these great natural

phenomena that happen in the Amazon.

It's the largest rainforest on the planet, spanning nine countries, the

48 American states.

It contains the greatest variety of plant and animal species on Earth.

We have 27 species of parrots. There are parakeets, parrots, and macaws. These

animals are very interesting.

And it has an incredible human history.

During my childhood, I lived in a house that was built over the Temple of the

Sun in Cusco.

And I always asked me, how Incas built this?

We are going to take you on a journey through the Amazon, from its source...

all the way to the Atlantic Ocean to admire its wonders and discover

its secrets.

The Amazon is not just a river.

It's an intricate labyrinth of over 1 ,100 tributaries.

And the precise source of the Amazon has been debated for decades.

We do know it lies in the Andes, the great mountain range on the west coast

South America.

The Andes are the second highest mountain range on the planet.

Its greatest peaks rising over 20 ,000 feet.

The range stretching over 5 ,000 miles.

The mountain range was formed in a tectonic shift.

that began tens of millions of years ago, as the oceanic Nazca plate

collided with the continental South American plate.

A process that is still continuing to the present day.

have pinpointed a small area in the high Andes as the Amazon's most distant

source, Mount Mizmi.

Mount Mizmi is a volcanic mountain in southern Peru, just 100 miles from the

Pacific coast.

From an altitude of 18 ,300 feet, Meltwater from Mount Mismis Ridge flows

to form the Apuramac River.

The Apuramac's waters flow uninterrupted all the way to the main body of the

Amazon, even in dry season.

The Apuramac River flows northwestward through the Andes in narrow gorges.

with depths of 10 ,000 feet, twice as deep as North America's Grand Canyon.

Rope bridges, regularly renewed today as for hundreds of years, reach right

across the canyon.

At the top of these steep cliffs, one of Peru's most famous birds has made his

home.

the Andean condor who nest in impossibly high gradients to prevent predators

from snatching their young.

As the Apurimac River winds northwards, we are heading to a spot of color just

visible from space,

the Vinicunca, or Rainbow Mountain.

The seven colors of the mountain are due to its mineral composition.

The pink is from red clay deposits, while the green is from chloride.

Between Vinicunca and the Apuramac runs another river, which had a vital role

for a great kingdom that once ruled this region.

The Urabamba is another major tributary of the Amazon.

The Urabamba supplied the water for the Incas, who ruled an empire from the

capital, Cusco.

And the methods the Incas found to marshal this great water resource were

their great civilization.

The Urabamba Valley was to the Incas the sacred valley.

Guide Kerry Cherinos grew up here and has developed a fascination with her

forebears.

Mesiza is a mix of Vlad, Inca, and Spanish, and I feel very proud of my

ancestors.

Kerry has researched the role the landscape played in the growth of the

civilization.

The Sacred Valley is located in the middle of the highlands and lowlands,

this allows to have products from different areas, from the jungle and

highlands.

The river was called by the Incas Sacred River because they considered that this

river was the copy of the Milky Way.

The Incas identified the shapes of star constellations, including the Llama,

which they saw reflected in the curve of the river at certain times of the year.

They saw the Llama, the Alpha and Beta Centaurus stars.

During August, The llama seems like it's drinking water from the river, and for

farmers means that is the beginning of the new year, the beginning of a new

cycle. And that is the time when farmers start to plant here.

Inca engineers built irrigation canals that snaked around the mountains.

They cut terraces into the hillside to plant crops.

The ghost of the Incas' farming achievements still shadows the Andes

today.

And the Incas had other ways to make use of the resources of this fertile

valley.

of the Urubamba River salt pans have been used to extract this vital mineral

since ancient times.

The Sacred Valley follows the Urubamba River for 62 miles.

Deep in the Sacred Valley is the site of a great Inca fortress, Ollente Tambo.

much of which miraculously is preserved.

Ollantaytambo was built on the end of the sacred valley as a way to control

movement of the people coming from the jungle side towards Cusco.

During my childhood, I lived in a house that was built over the Temple of the

Sun in Cusco.

In my bedroom, I have a beautiful wall of the Incas, and I always ask me

how Incas built this.

When I went to my school, I remember touching the walls and imagine how in

Inca time the people worked.

It's such a very hard job building these constructions.

That's the time when I start my curiosity about the Incas' history.

The Incas' approach to construction was to respect the unique mountain

topography and use it to their advantage.

We are at the bottom of the Temple of the Sun.

The natural rock formation here is serpentine, which is a greenish rock.

The Incas, they wanted a special rock for their temple.

So they decided to broke the rocks from the mountain, which is located on the

upper part of the mountain.

They chose this special pink granite.

And to bring these rocks to the upper part of the mountain, Incas, they built

ramps. They used ropes to tie the boulders and thousands of people pushed

boulders.

And just 20 miles beyond Ollantaytambo is

perhaps the pinnacle of Inca civilization.

The 15th century fortified palace of Machu Picchu.

The extraordinary remains of Machu Picchu were hardly known until 1909,

they were rediscovered during an expedition along the Urabamba River by

American explorer.

Machu Picchu sits within a bend in the river and is invisible from the Urabamba

Valley below.

Machu Picchu was heavily protected by a secret mountain path with a 1

,900 -foot drop.

It had a 20 -foot gap to keep out unwanted visitors which could be bridged

two tree trunks.

Its temples are constructed to worship the sun across its different annual

phases.

Our journey through the Amazon is taking us from the ancient citadel of Machu

Picchu along the Urabamba River as it twists its way towards northern Peru.

Only partially navigable, this Peruvian Amazon headwater becomes powerfully

turbulent.

making it very popular for water rafting.

And not far from the rough waters

of the Urabamba, we are about to enter an astonishingly varied landscape.

The great forest of Manu National Park.

Manu is a cloud forest, the cloud often descending to the level of the tree

canopy.

It marks the spot where the Amazon rainforest, the largest on the planet,

begins.

is a biologist who studies the wonders of the Manu National Park.

I have worked as a biologist for some years, and I have participated in

different research projects in the Amazon.

Ajanaco is the entrance of the Manu National Park, and it's right at the

the Amazon basin down below here.

And here, this other side is the top of the Andes.

It has been for millions of years ago.

Mano National Park has successive tiers of vegetation, rising from 150 to 4

,200 metres above sea level.

Every ecological level has different conditions.

Then there are different species you can find in each one.

In the cloud forest, there is much more diversity.

So why so much life here?

That's the question.

The plants, they create their own nutrients.

If you see the ground, it's covered with leaves, with branches, everything

there. So it's decomposing there and it's creating a new compost for the

So the trees, they don't go deep to get the nutrients because the nutrients are

on the surface.

That's why the big trees they have developed these batteries roots to be

stable Imagine when you are a stand in one feet is very easy to fall But you

open your legs then will be so stable

And

it's estimated this huge park is home to a thousand bird species

Scientists believe Manu's bird life may have gone through a period of

independent evolution, cut off during the last ice age.

The Amazon's birds exhibit a riot of colour.

And one who has learnt some tricks on how to survive on low rations here is

parrot.

27 species of parrots.

There are parakeets, parrots, and macaws.

These animals, they are very interesting because they feed in fruits

mainly and also feeding seeds.

The seeds, they have some poison.

So these parrots eat clay that has minerals that helps them to digest these

toxins.

The minerals they are looking for is sodium, potassium and calcium and they

on the river banks and some of them they will find the minerals they are looking

for and eat the clay.

This clay leeks is not only a place to eat, also they go there to socialize

and you have even the chance In these places, sometimes to see some big

predators for them, like eagles.

Manu is home to one of the largest and most powerful eagles in the world, the

devastating harpy eagle.

Strong enough to prey on sizable mammals, like cloth.

They can even prey on monkeys.

And there's an extraordinary variety of monkey species here in Manu.

In Manu, I've been working with the squirrel monkeys, the behavior of them.

But in this research we have done, it was very interesting to see also

the behavior with other monkeys.

The squirrel monkeys, they walk in big groups. It could be from 50 of them to

more than 100, 150 monkeys together in a group.

And we were researching the mother. We're painting them with some ink to

recognize. You will say it's the mother with the baby, but it's not like that.

A babysitter helps the mother to carry the baby.

Because there is too much weight for the mother to carry, so it's a young female

that helps the mother carrying the baby.

Sharing the canopy of the rainforest with the squirrel monkeys are the howler

monkeys.

So these monkeys, they have a big throat and they call.

like a growling call.

The Machiguenga tribe, they have a nice, beautiful legend about

the howler monkeys.

And the spider monkey, the spider monkey is the only monkey that has four

fingers.

The howler monkey was walking there and suddenly saw that the spider monkey was

coming.

And then the howler monkey hiding the thumbs.

He says, hello, spider monkey. Hello, friend.

What happened with your hands? You don't have your thumbs.

Oh, yeah, I cut it off, he said.

Are you crazy?

The spider monkey said.

No, no, I am not. You know, you should do the same because this is the best way

to walk by the branches on the vines, to walk in the forest. It's so easy, just

with four fingers.

And the spider monkey said, well, okay, you have done, I will.

So the spider monkey cut it off its thumbs.

That's why the spider monkey now has only four fingers.

The spider monkey realized that the howler monkey was still eating the

there with the thumbs and the spider monkey with only four fingers.

He got so angry that then was thinking revenge.

The holly monkey comes and says, wow, friend, how can you sing so nice? That's

beautiful voice.

How is it possible?

Well, just you go to the river and pick a stone and then put in your throat.

So the holly monkey went to the river, picked a stone, put in his throat, and

then wanted to sing, and then it's coming with that voice now.

That's why they have that voice now, because the stone is inside.

It's a very loud call you can hear from kilometres away, very scary.

Our journey will now leave Manu National Park behind as we follow the Amazon's

tributaries to northern Peru.

where huge rivers from hundreds of miles around join forces as the river builds

its strength.

Into its course flows the Maranion River, 879 miles in length,

and the Ucayali, which is 910 miles long.

Then, just past the water city of Akitos, Another enormous river, the

which has flowed from the mountains of Ecuador.

By the time the Amazon leaves Peru, it has become an immense force of nature.

We will now follow its great journey to western Brazil, where the river has

gathered hundreds of tributaries in its wake.

and it's beginning to press towards the ocean.

As the Amazon turns east towards the Atlantic, it has become one of the great

phenomena of the natural world.

Many miles wide, discharging 200 ,000 cubic meters of water per

second.

And its sheer scale means it catches the eye from space.

Astronauts observing our planet from the International Space Station have

captured the moment when the Great River catches the angle of the Sun,

reflecting its great curves back up to space.

The banks of the river and its tributaries have been home to many

indigenous tribes for thousands of years.

Hunter -gatherer communities often lived near the water to hunt fish, turtles,

even crocodiles.

Yet many of the Amazon's tribes suffered persecution and were even enslaved in

the 19th century to produce rubber for the European market.

Many of those who avoided capture withdrew into the jungle for self

-preservation.

There are thought to be many small tribes who have remained uncontacted in

Brazil's Amazon rainforest, even to this day.

The Amazon's waterways are the lifeblood of the rainforest.

Slanking the Amazon and its tributaries are a series of oxbow lakes,

which from space show up as U -shaped expanses of

water.

These distinctive lakes form when a wide meander of a river is cut off, creating

a freestanding body of water, and a

unique habitat for plants.

and wildlife.

Many birds exploit the calm Oxbow waters to raise their young.

Like the Huatzin, or stinkbird, a prehistoric -looking turkey -like bird

nests on flimsy stick platforms or bushes above these waters.

They feed exclusively on leaves which ferment in their throats, creating their

distinctive smell.

Among the spectacular flora of these lakes is the royal water lily, Victoria

amazonica.

Its giant lily pads can hold the weight of a monitor lizard.

At dusk, as the water lily's flower opens, the scarab beetle seeks refuge

whilst pollen is being released inside the flower.

The next day, the beetle will carry this dusting of pollen to the next flower, a

symbiotic arrangement ensuring the future of both the beetle and the lily

And lurking in these waters is another jungle creature, one of the largest

snakes in the world.

The anaconda.

A semi -aquatic snake who can reach 14 feet in length and is a very skilled

swimmer.

Even the jaguar, the largest mammal in the Amazon rainforest, has been known to

succumb to the anaconda's strength, perishing through

asphyxiation.

The anaconda has been a subject of indigenous legends for centuries,

those of the Hunnaquin tribe.

In their legend, a man fell in love with an anaconda woman and joined her to

live in the water, where he discovered an hallucinogenic potion with healing

powers, ayahuasca.

When he returned to his tribe, he brought knowledge of the ayahuasca back

The knowledge spread, so the legend goes, and the ayahuasca ceremonies

key part of indigenous religions.

The Amazon travels over western Brazil for hundreds of miles.

Eventually, it will be joined by another great river, the Rio Negro, or Black

River, which will add another 14 % to its enormous volume.

Our journey will take us up the Rio Negro to one of the wonders of the river

system,

the Anavelanas National Park.

This is one of the largest river archipelagos on the planet, a World

Site.

It's made up of 400 islands formed from the build -up of river sediment from the

slow erosion of the Guiana Hills.

It's the largest protected area of the whole Amazon rainforest, covering over

350 ,000 hectares.

Ala Bellana provides a sanctuary for the giant river otter.

The largest member of the weasel family, bigger than its European cousin, it can

reach six feet in length.

They feed mainly on river fish.

And they have a lot to choose from.

The archipelago housing 1 ,000 different fish species.

Eurus Didier's family are from the Mangaruku tribe and live on these

I was born along the Amazon River.

My heritage from natives.

I work in the jungle all the time, every day.

So talk about the natives, about what you do there in jungle for survival.

The river is very important for us because...

You can eat fish.

The knowledge of potential dangers that's been passed down the generations

important too.

You have electric eel in the Amazon.

They give you 500 volts of shock.

If you touch one, it can kill you.

One breed of fish who has cleverly adapted to this vast area of forest

is the tambaqui or paku fish.

Tambaqui is another amazing fish.

The fish, they look like us.

And they have a very strong jaw because in the jungle they only sit and they're

not. They're from palm, from rubber, see? They're falling down the water and

coming and crack.

The jaw is amazing. It is strong.

Piranhas are another amazing fish.

It's the most carnivorous fish in the Amazon.

Piranhas are a dangerous species, but they don't have it all their own way, as

they are food for larger river predators like the pink river dolphin.

Intelligent animals with a brain 40 % larger than humans.

When they're excited or surprised, they will flush pinker.

rather like blushing human beings.

Unlike ocean dolphins, they can bend their necks, shrug their shoulders, and

paddle backwards.

Adaptations that help them navigate the flooded forest vegetation of the Rio

Negro.

The dolphin is amazing animal.

But before, including me, I was afraid.

Because you grew up in the jungle, and everybody say, don't play with the

dolphins.

When the water is high, they can go inside the jungle.

I never lose the passion for the jungle, the love for the jungle, for everything

inside.

I like to spend a day only in the jungle to listen to the wind, the animals, the

birds.

Every day something is new for us.

New birds, new trees, new view of jungle.

Our Amazon journey is another thousand miles before we reach the sea.

And there are many wonders of water and forest.

still to encounter.

The sheer width of the river can produce an extraordinary effect that's visible

from space.

The Amazon is broad enough to create a break in the clouds for thousands of

miles along its course.

Halfway along the Amazon's course through Brazil is the jungle city of

Built along the banks of the Amazon, Manaus is constructed on a terrace

overlooking the river.

The city is in the centre of the world's largest rainforest.

and even houses its own football stadium, as well as a theatre.

Just beyond Manaus, a stark change of colour marks the spot where the Amazon

meets the Rio Negro.

The significance of these contrasting colors is linked to the geology and

history of the Amazon's landscape.

Rafael Estrella worked at the National Institute of Amazon Research, where he

developed a deep understanding of the flora and fauna of the Amazon and its

rivers.

I'm originally from Manaus.

I started to develop this kind of work around the Amazon.

I started not only to watch, but to see the Amazon in a different way.

There are three types of rivers in the Amazon basin, known as white, black, and

clear.

The Amazon is a white river flowing at a rapid six miles an hour.

The sediments stay near the surface.

But the Rio Negro is a dark, inky color.

Right now, we are in a place that it is a transition between the Negro River and

the Amazon River.

The Negro River is considered older than the Amazon River formation.

It means that the Negro already...

did the same process that the Amazon is doing right now.

The Rio Negro is slow flowing.

No more than one and a half miles per hour.

So the sediments drop to the bottom of the river.

The water becomes more acid.

Three different acids are found in here, tannic, fulc, and humic. Not even

mosquitoes can reproduce well in this place here.

The confluence of these great rivers is also close to the center of Brazil's

vast Amazon rainforest, with over a million square miles

of tree cover.

All our lives depend on the Amazon rainforest and its 16 ,000 tree species.

captures billions of tons of harmful carbon dioxide.

The tallest trees here rise close to 300 feet.

One of the most common Amazon giants is the great kapok tree.

Believed by indigenous groups to be the father of all animals.

Another great giant of the forest is the Brazil nut tree.

And the Brazil nut is a tough nut for wildlife and humans to crack, except for

the agouti.

a large rodent who uses his teeth to break the outer shell of the nut.

He can't eat them all at once, so will bury them, sometimes large distances.

And this is where the agouti's forgetful memory gives nature a hand, with

dispersing the trees as the nuts he's forgotten to collect will grow into 90

-foot -tall Brazil nut trees.

Below the skyscraper canopy are several species of palm tree, including

the acai plant, known for its medicinal properties.

A single seed of the acai can grow a plant providing up to 25 shoots growing

individually.

And on the forest floor, leaf Cutter ants march in seemingly endless lines,

with each ant carrying a section of leaf much larger than its own body.

They are the primary consumers of vegetation in the Amazon, taking the

they can feed off its fungus rather than the leaf itself.

And for orchid hunters, the Brazilian rainforest holds untold treasures.

Some species live up to 100 years.

Everything here is big. We are biggest in biomass, biodiversity around the

Earth. Everything can be found in the Amazon.

One, three.

can send to the atmosphere more than 1 ,000 liters of water per day.

All together, we are talking about 20 billion tons of water going back

to the atmosphere.

But the forest is under threat.

For decades, Brazil's Amazon rainforest has gradually lost land.

with trees cleared often through burning to make way for cattle grazing and

other commercial uses.

NASA satellite imaging has detected an alarming increase in fires in recent

years.

Nearly a fifth of vital Amazon rainforest has already been lost.

Now, a further 1 % is disappearing every three years.

Our long journey through the Amazon has taken us almost within reach of where

the great river finally meets, the Atlantic.

Our next destination is a mere 400 miles from the ocean, near the Tapajos River.

Here, the banks of this tributary take on an entirely new guide.

with long stretches of sandy beach in the area of Santarém.

Because of the crystalline waters of the Tapajós River, Santarém has more than

60 miles of natural beach.

The village of Alta Dacau is known as the Caribbean of Brazil.

Renowned for its Isla del Amor, or Island of Love, surrounded by white

it's considered to be one of the most beautiful freshwater beaches in the

And as the great force of the river begins to approach the great force of

ocean,

Nature produces an unusual phenomenon.

During new and full moons, when the Atlantic Ocean tide is highest, water

into the Amazon from the Atlantic, rather than the other way round,

its flow.

A water bulge speeds upstream, often with great force, forming a tidal

bore.

Legendary with surfers who want to experience the ultimate river ride.

Moving east, the Amazon then completes its great 4 ,000 -mile journey as it

touches the Atlantic.

Freshwater billows out for miles into the salty ocean, river,

and rainforest.

The Amazon is without doubt one of the world's most beautiful landscapes.