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You often think you know how you're going to feel when you see something and then you see it and it's better than you imagine. There's one very special experience that the hotel tries to offer its guests. Something Monica and I have always wanted to do. So guys, here we have the backpacks. So we need one of these, one hot chocolate and one tea inside. So before our time here comes to an end, we have one more job to help with. Taking guests out with staff member Ciro to try and experience the northern lights.
Hi, good evening. Welcome to the northern lights trip. Hi, yeah, these are for you. What are your names? Ashley. Levi. And Levi. Where are you from? Uh Jacksonville, Florida. Oh, you've come a long way. So follow me. I have here the perfect spot. So very good job, Rob. Thank you so much. Nice. If anyone needs the toilets, the ladies is the rock behind you. The guys is the rock over there. All right, should we have some drinks out, do you think?
Yeah. Yeah? With the group settled in an open space where the light pollution is lowest, all that's left now is to wait and watch the night sky. So like anything good, it starts quietly. There is green mist beginning to emerge. Looks like something off a sci-fi film, isn't it? You often think you know how you're going to when you see something and then you see it and it's better than you imagined. It's nature's firework display. It looks like green fire. It's the easiest way to explain it. I waited a long time to see these lights.
It's pretty special. Looks like my mom has just spread her wings and flew above me. It's her birthday today. It's pretty beautiful. To think that everyone in Nusfjord from Vikings to fishermen would have seen these lights is truly incredible. Day two and after a restless night's sleep, I head out to the plane with my two instructors and the cameraman who'll jump with us. All righty. Time to face my fears. We've been through the whole procedure so there's nothing really I can do now. I think I'm most apprehensive about what it's going to be like actually making that leap. But I don't really have much choice cuz I've
I've got to say up, down, jump. I think if I didn't have words to go through, I might go ready, oh no, I keep putting it off. The jump plane will take us up to 12,000 ft. A climb that will take 25 nerve-racking minutes. As we climb, I try to concentrate on the job in hand. 10,000 ft. Preparations complete. Nothing to do now but wait. Then let the training do its work. AFTER 10 SECONDS, I REACH TERMINAL VELOCITY, 120 mph.
I check my parachute release. Okay. I'm struggling to hold my free fall position. It's under control, and I start my deployment countdown. I'm falling at almost 200 ft per second. Time to deploy, but for a heart-stopping second, I can't find the release. The Indian Ocean is stretched out below, but my delayed release means there's no time to enjoy the view. I'm immediately setting a course for a safe corner of the airfield. I'm fast approaching the ground for my first ever landing. Time to remember the drill.
I'm on target, but I'm coming in too fast. Unbelievable. Well, it wasn't the most elegant landing, was it? A slight landing on my knee, but I tell you that was a rush. You do the protocol, up, down, and you just let yourself go, and you just tumble through the air. And then I was just floating in the air. Everything goes very quiet, and that, if I'm to be honest, is where the real buzz happens, because I flew myself. I got down. I'm fine. I'm in one piece and I had an unbelievable experience. Ozzy Congratulations. Thank you very much. I tell you that I mean that was a buzz. That was just unbelievable.
I've survived my Australian skydive. A terrifying but exhilarating experience. The railway here ferries hundreds of thousands of tourists a year. My train was running a couple of hours late but they know how to keep the passengers happy. I've got so many masks on I have no idea if you can hear me but it just got weirder. The sackers are humanized parodies of the devil according to the mystical belief. The word sacker comes from the Quechua language and means naughty and MC cheerful and joker. Um but we all loved it and it was definitely one way of stopping us passengers from grumbling even as our much delayed train crawled along the tracks long into the
night. It was time to head off the tourist trail into some of the more forgotten corners of the Andes region. But first, a bed for the night. It's very late. And Alex has brought us to stay somewhere which seems to involve getting dressed up in a harness and wearing a helmet. Can you see the cable? Yes, I see the cable. All right, so this called carabiners, right? Yes. You have a question? Yeah. Where the hell are we going?
Don't worry about it. You will love where things where I bring you into you. Believe me. You I want you just believe me. Whose idea was this? God. Completely bloody bananas. Amazing. Okay. I'll go on with Alex. He's just going to show me where I'm staying. And uh hopefully I'll get some sleep tonight. And in the morning we might have a clearer idea of where on earth we are. Good night. Oh my goodness. I've pulled the curtains back. And it's completely bonkers. I'm halfway up a mountain tethered to the side of the cliff by pieces of steel string.
This is Star Lodge. A series of cozy aluminum cabins, more like mini submarines, which Alex, my guide and expert climber, actually helped haul up here. They certainly offer stunning views of this valley at every stage of your stay. Peru is a vast country, and travelers here tend to stick to a few of the safer and wealthier areas, which make a good income from tourism. But many regions of Peru struggle with ingrained poverty and lawlessness. I feel like I'm hallucinating. It's like the largest, most perfect ice skating rink you can possibly imagine.
This is the Salar de Uyuni. 4,000 square miles of salt flats. I was in southern Bolivia starting this leg of my South American journey in one of the most remarkable landscapes on Earth. It's the rainy season at the moment, but when it's dry these salt flats are so white and so huge it's said you can see them from the moon. Here in the tropics, the rainy season is roughly November to April. There's just a few inches of salty water but that creates what looks like a vast mirror.
This salty wilderness is one of the harshest environments imaginable. Hostile to almost all forms of life. Yet I've been told even here there are people who found a way to make a living. That has to be them. And we're heading towards where we think some of the last remaining traditional salt miners might be working. You can see for miles in every direction. They're the only people working out here, that's for sure. Eric? Two. hola. Como estas? Muy bien. Oh. Y tu, como estas? Bien? It looks like you've got the whole family working.
I know. Eric Chambi's family have been mining salt here for three generations. That's an epic bit of work, isn't it? Look at that weight. And Eric, what are they used for? Is a table salt or what? And how many will you mine or harvest in a day then? Is it a good business? Do you make a decent income from this? It's more than 100 pounds a day, but that's to provide for the entire family. This looks like bloody hard work.
See? He's tied the wires together. There's nowhere else quite like this on planet Earth.
