Nick Knowles in South America

Nick opens the series clinging by his fingernails 100 feet up on a rock. This is the ‘baby slopes' of the magnificent Andes Mountains, providing an exhilarating start to his South American adventure.

Crossing the Strait of Magellan (named after the Portuguese explorer, Ferdinand) to tiny, barren Magdalena Island, Nick comes face to face with 40,000 breeding pairs of Magellan penguins.

Southern Patagonia has long been a magnet for explorers. As well as Magellan, whose voyage was the first to circumnavigate the world. Three hundred years later Charles Darwin came here on the HMS Beagle, changing the way we viewed the world. Nick visits full-sized replicas of both (surprisingly small) ships.

The Kaweskas are an indigenous people known for their profound connection to the ocean. Nick learns their style of weaving as they explain how their forebears lived extraordinary seafaring lifestyles.

Chile is one of the windiest places in the world, and Nick is blown away by a factory producing near carbon-neutral hydrogen-based fuel, using wind energy. It's the first of its kind in the world, and Nick is the first person to have his car filled with the e-fuel it produces.

A humbling encounter with a courageous French cyclist encourages Nick to take stock. Dimitri Poffé cycled 11,000 miles from Mexico to the tip of South America, through the grueling Andes mountains to raise awareness for incurable Huntington's disease, which he lives with, but which is also rife in this part of South America.

In the heart of this stunning landscape, Nick finds the world's first geodesic dome eco-hotel. Powered by renewable energy, plastic is banned on site and even the sewage is treated sustainably, and Nick gets stuck in, digging in dung for worms.

Finally, on the icy and ominous Grey Lake, Nick kayaks out to get a closer look at the awe-inspiring Grey Glacier but with the risk of it carving at any moment, Nick soon learns it's wise to keep a safe distance.
It's a suitably impressive end to the first part of Nick's South American adventure.

The second part of Nick Knowle's exhilarating South American adventure is set in the beautiful Chilean lake district. Chile is a land of volcanoes and in the shadow of the mighty mount Osorno, Nick takes to the icy blue waters to try out the relatively new sport of hydrospeeding, essentially bodyboarding on a fast-flowing river. Nick launches with infectious enthusiasm.

At a seaweed processing plant Nick discovers how in Chile, the longest country in the world, people are finding ingenious ways to harness the sea's bounty in the fight against climate change. Seaweed makes biodegradable plastic, nutrient-rich food supplements and even cattle fodder which reduces methane emissions. All this, and fast-growing, low impact, and readily available. What's not to love?

In coastal Puerto Montt, Nick heads to a rustic bar to discover Cueca, a traditional type of music and dance that is being reclaimed by the Chilean people after it was tainted by the notorious dictator, General Pinochet in the 1980s.

On the mystical island of Chiloe Nick delights in ginormous mussels, his contribution to a special meal. Curanto is the oldest form of cooking in Chile in which seafood is sizzled over hot stones in the ground and layered with aromatic leaves, leaving the meat and potatoes perfectly steamed in the salty haze.

At one of the island's UNESCO-protected wooden churches, Nick meets a white witch who shares some of the local superstitions with him. He moves to take part in La Minga, a local tradition in which the community pulls together to complete tasks too big for one alone. Nick is given the terrifying job of man handling two huge bulls to get them to shift a shed across the farm.

Finally, he visits the local library that is on a boat. He meets the woman responsible for bringing a love of reading to children all over the islands with her floating library. He leaves Chiloe with a rejuvenated sense of community and a deep respect for the people who call Chile their home.

In the final episode Nick reaches Argentina, the land of gauchos, Evita, passion, and, surprisingly, Welsh people. Nick first attempts to master Argentina's most beloved sport, polo. Here the highly skilled horseback game is not just the preserve of royalty but is the obsession of the entire nation. It's a white-knuckle ride, but Nick gives it his best shot.

On the banks of the vast Parana River Nick meets Maria, a woman on a mission to empower other women to pierce the heavily male dominated fishing industry. She created a cooperative employing fisherwomen, increased the price of fish locally, and she doesn't hold back on her critique of Nick's fish filleting skills.

Nick drives through sparse, open grasslands known as the pampas to a cattle ranch which is home to a jaw dropping 3.75 million dollars' worth of beef. He relishes the opportunity to jump on a quad bike and join the gauchos moving the cattle to fresh pasture.

In rural Argentinian Patagonia, Nick finds a Welsh enclave. He meets a descendent of one of the 153 migrants who moved to Argentina in 1865 to set up a Welsh community away from the oppression of the English Government. Wales and Argentina both share a passion for rugby, and Nick is invited to join a training session with Argentina's first mixed ability (disabled and non-disabled) rugby team. Each player is treated equally and as Nick soon discovers - they take no prisoners!

In the capital, Buenos Aires, Nick meets writer Claudio Soria who sheds some light on Argentina's most divisive celebrity, Eva Peron. They meet at the cemetery where Evita's grave is marked, and Nick is staggered to learn that her body was abducted by the military and hidden for nearly 20 years before eventually being laid to rest here.

Finally, Nick enjoys a mouth-watering experience at one of the best steak restaurants in the entire world, Argentine beef at its finest. And he embraces the passion of Argentina, when he's taught the Argentine tango, the fiery and iconic dance that came from humble beginnings – and was originally danced by pairs of men.

South America has been a thrilling, jaw-droppingly beautiful adventure and Nick is sad to say goodbye.