Through beautiful photography and the extraordinary stories of the animals and people that live there, this series celebrates Latin America’s most iconic and dramatic locations.

It’s taken millions of years for animals to adapt to places as different as the high Andes and the sweltering Amazon; the windblown Patagonian steppe and the swamps of Venezuela. The result is an incredible diversity of species – from army ants to armadillos, jaguars to giant otters. Each has developed a unique way to stay alive; yet each must fit in to a complex jigsaw of life. We reveal the extraordinary behaviours and adaptations that are key to survival and success.

People have had far less time to carve out a living, yet with ingenuity and determination, they too have found ways to make the most of what the continent has to offer. Incredible lifestyles continue to this day. We follow individual hunters and fishermen as they demonstrate the skills of their people. And we unveil the strange, sometimes painful rituals that determine the identity of Latin America’s diverse people.

Each program ties together the latest revelations about life in this continent of extremes. These stories combine to give a fascinating, exciting and in-depth understanding of Latin America’s most spectacular places.

PATAGONIA: The Ends of the Earth
Covering 800,000 square kilometres of Argentina and Chile, Patagonia is the southernmost part of South America. It’s a place of extremes – of vast ice fields and snow-capped mountains; of windswept deserts and violent oceans. Survival here means being tough enough to cope with brutal winters, and canny enough to exploit brief seasons of plenty.

AMAZON: One Forest, Many Worlds
The Amazon is the largest rainforest in the world, and the richest ecosystem on earth. Spanning nine countries it covers eight million square kilometres of South America. It’s so huge, that if it were a country it would be the seventh largest in the world.

VENEZUELA: The Treasures of El Dorado
Venezuela is famous for its “Lost Worlds” – foreboding mountains, huge swamps, and impenetrable jungles – all seemingly cut off in space and time. Yet each is linked, by the waters of a mighty river: The Orinoco, the rumoured route to El Dorado – the legendary city of gold.

THE PANTANAL: Brazil’s Wild Heart
In the centre of South America, a vast, wild expanse; the world’s largest wetland. But this is no ordinary swamp. Every year it’s drowned by immense floods, then parched by severe drought. Yet while people struggle to cope, the Pantanal hosts some of the greatest gatherings of animals on the planet, rivalling Africa’s spec­tacular wildlife.

**ANDES: World in the Clouds **
The longest chain of mountains in the world at 7200km, the Andes run the length of western South America and dictate the climate for the whole continent. From the northern coasts of Venezuela to the tip of Tierra del Fuego in Chile, they include some of the highest peaks outside the Himalayas. Live volcanoes punctuate the range, and form part of the Pacific Rim of Fire. This film explores how life has managed to exist in this high altitude world of extremes.