In the Americas with David Yetman

Native Americans in pre-Conquest Mexico celebrated one day each year when their deceased ancestors would return to visit-El Día de los Muertos. This ancient tradition is the state of Oaxaca's most important celebration. Parades, home altars, and gaily-decorated graves welcome back the dead. The custom has spread beyond Mexico to Los Angeles and Tucson.

Belem, at the mouth of Brazil's Amazon, is a market for the great river basin, and now the açai berry. Ribeirinhos, reclusive boat people, harvest the berries and rush them to the port. There they trade for other goods and return to their tranquil lives at the edge of the world's greatest river. Host David Yetman shows us Belem and the homes of the river people.

Over two thousand years ago Mayas built Tikal, with its lofty temples, within the jungles of Guatemala's Petén. For a millennium, Tikal lords, scientists, engineers, and craftsmen ruled the region. Host David Yetman joins archaeologists as they reveal Tikal's treasures within the temples and joins a festival at the nearby home of Maya descendants.

The Georgia Straits of coastal British Columbia, Canada are dotted with hundreds of islands. This is lumber and fishing county nearly free of roads. One cargo ship delivers heavy equipment and supplies to remote camps, and takes on passengers to view the wild beauty of the straits and inlets, with towering peaks and glaciers overlooking the sea.

Far from the beaches of Brazil's Bahia, an escarpment juts up into the vast interior. Host David Yetman visits the Chapada Diamantina Range, once a source of diamonds, now a popular retreat. The sheer cliffs intercept clouds from the distant Atlantic, producing rainfall that flows into the arid sert"o and waters the swamps where runaway slaves hid from their owners.

Once a month a train sets out from the coastal city of Lima, Peru, bound for the highlands. Along the way it passes through tunnels and over trestles, crowning out at nearly 16,000 feet. Host David Yetman hops on the train to arrive at the indigenous city of Huancayo, high on the Altiplano of the Andes and as different from Lima as any two cities in the world.

The Hawaiian Islands owe their existence to a volcanic hotspot, whose spewings over millions of years have created the archipelago. Host David Yetman climbs over old and new lava flows to observe new lands emerging from the ocean. At night manta rays flock to the newly created seafloor of the Kona Coast.

Chiloé, in southern Chile, is the second largest island in South America. Chilotes, as the residents are known, consider themselves a people apart, a proud mixture of indigenous and Hispanic stock. Host David Yetman joins Chilotes as they show off their traditions of food, towns, and society that extend back before the arrival of Europeans.

Each September 16th, Mexicans flock to Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato, to celebrate the Grito, the call for independence from Spain. The grito's originator, the unconventional priest Miguel Hidalgo, issued the call in 1810 from the town's church. The fiesta involves the entire community but we receive a special tour led by one of Father Hidalgo's descendants.

Peru's Altiplano is Quechua country. Around Ayacucho, Huancavelica, and Huancayo they continue to farm and produce handicrafts as their ancestors did centuries ago. Now they use cell phones and the Internet, but their dress, language, and nearness to the soil maintain their identity. Host David Yetman meets Quechuas and learns about their past and present.