IN THE AMERICAS WITH DAVID YETMAN V


#501: "A Gaucho Gathering in Uruguay"
Each year several thousand gauchos—Uruguayan cowboys—gather in the interior town of Tacuarembó for a festival and parade. David travels to a ranch deep in the interior and follows the gaucho life and their preparations for the parade.

#502: "Trinidad and Tobago: Where East Meets West"
The island of Trinidad and its small companion, Tobago, form the most ethnically diverse nation in the Caribbean and are home to an extraordinary variety of wildlife species. David samples Trinidadian food with its strong East Indian roots, and is reminded of African traditions as he watches stilt walkers practicing and steel bands rehearsing. He hears the haunting calls of oilbirds and watches leatherback sea turtles excavating their massive beachside nests.

#503: "Mexico City's Markets: a Millennium of Trade"
The ancient Aztec capital city of Tenochtitlán was home to several great markets.
As David and his team travels through Mexico City, which sits on the foundations of the ancient Aztec home, they make a night stop in the historic flower market, brave their way through the controversial market of witches, and contemplates a bewildering array of merchandise at a flea market. Finally, they follow the route of ancient canals and board a boat for a ride through the market's historic source, the floating gardens of Xochimilco.

#504 "Brazil's Pernambuco: The forgotten Interior"
Unlike much of Brazil, the interior of the northeastern state of Pernambuco is an arid semi-desert. Away from the great Río San Francisco, the countryside is called the sertão, an often drought-stricken scrubland. The inhabitants have fashioned their own culture and history, and still commemorate their fabled bandit-hero, Lampião. Their great interior market recapitulates this history.

#505: "The Mata Atlantica: Brazil's Other Rainforest"
One of the world's most diverse forests, the Mata Atlantica once covered Brazil's southeastern coast for over a thousand miles and still blankets the steep hills of Río de Janeiro. Now less than 10% remains, much of it in protected parks. Within the Mata, runaway slaves established their villages, some of which persist and can only be reached by boat.

#506: "Blackfeet and Bison"
For well over a thousand years, the Blackfeet people of Montana have made their home where the Great Plains meet the Rocky Mountains in Glacier National Park.
For them, the bison (or American buffalo, as they call it) has been central to their survival, their culture, and their way of life. David joins them as they seek to expand their once-threatened tribal herds of bison, and ventures inside the park to find out why the Blackfeet viewed it as sacred ground.

#507: "Chesapeake Bay: Of Clams and Oysters"
It is the largest bay on the Atlantic coast of the Americas, pivotal in the history of prehistoric, historic, and contemporary United States. Its tributaries drain a gigantic portion of the eastern U.S., including the Potomac River, home to Washington, D.C. Its fisheries have been depleted; its oyster and clam industries much reduced, and rising seas threaten its shores. Still, hardy residents cherish the bay and their efforts are restoring some of its ancient productivity.

#508: "Colombia: Cartagena and a Hidden Palenque"
Colombia's Caribbean coast was once a source of the wealth of the Caribbean. The city of Cartagena was the most important city in the entire region. Now a home to monuments a half millennium old, the city and coast are home to a wide variety of cultures, including a Palenque, or village founded by escaped slaves. They continue to practice a self-sufficient way of life.

#509: "Peoples of Oaxaca and the arrival of Holy Week"
The state of Oaxaca is home to more than sixty different ethnic groups. David visits several of them. The Coastal Mixtecs, whose textiles and masks set them apart from other groups, invite him to join them during Holy Week, when they enact ceremonies that set them off from other peoples.

#510: "The Brazilian state of Ceará"
From dazzling beaches to verdant mountains to parched scrubland, Ceará exhibits many of the attractions and also the contradictory currents that Brazilians face. David visits the old sections of the capital city of Fortaleza, a once-isolated beach town, the sweltering inland semi-desert, and the lush mountain range that forms the state's garden basket.