Now on bbc news the travel show. Coming up on this weeks show we are gonna go into freefall. I can do this. Here we go. I cant believe this guy is actually trusting me to cut his hair. Grab the tail, oh and were away this is one of the craziest things ive done in my entire life. Hello and welcome to this weeks travel show, very firmly not going anywhere right now, but hoping we will be Back On The Road again sometime soon. Until then we are here to keep you inspired and hopefully entertained until we can all Start Making Plans again and take those trips we have all been missing so much. Well, for many of us, South America really is one of those once in a lifetime destinations. So rich in culture, scenery, wildlife, and sheer life force, its one of those places that once you visit, you never quite forget. So this week we are taking a look back at some of our favourite Travel Show Adventures in brazil, argentina, chile and peru. So why not stick around, and who knows, maybe get some inspiration for the next time we can all travel again. Lets kick off with a trip to chile that christa made back in 2017 when she met the surfers fighting to save their favourite stretch of coastline from developers, against a backdrop of some truly awesome pacific waves. Ive arrived in Punta De Lobos at a particularly good time, because word has gone around that this mornings swell will be unusually strong, with waves of up to 30 feet. These huge waves have been tracked all the way from antarctica, and have drawn out locals and people from across the world to watch them come in and crash against these rocks. If you look really carefully out there, what looks like little birds bobbing on the surface of the water, are surfers taking on these gargantuan waves at the risk of their lives. Its pretty incredible. Everyone keeps talking about how amazing these waves are, so ive got on my wetsuit, about to jump on a surfboard and try it out for myself. My teacher is chacha, a local who introduces novices to the art of surfing every day. I suspect, however, that hes used to rather more coordinated students. Looking. Laughter. It turns out surfing is definitely not as easy as it looks. I got whacked in the face with about ten waves in a row, so ive swallowed most of that water, i think. It was super fun, thank you. 0k. Gracias. But despite its idyllic appearance, this place is not all paradise. In fact, its been the site of a battle between local private interests and conservationists. Until recently, Punta De Lobos was relatively unknown, but over the past couple of decades, its popularity has soared as a surfing and a tourist destination. These days, 5,000 visitors arrive to the point daily during summertime. Perhaps not surprisingly, this has attracted developers, keen to capitalise on the areas newfound popularity. Much of the coast is in the hands of private owners, and plans were made for extensive building along the cliffs. Matias is a director of the Punta De Lobos foundation a Non Profit Organisation created among locals to fight the development plans. Along with other conservation bodies, such as save the waves, theyve worked to halt Shoreside Construction and to keep the cliffs open to the public. But that was only their first challenge. It was a mess here. If you put 1,000 or 1,500 cars here, you could take an hour, 1. 5 hours to just go a mile out back to the highway. And the second thing is that there were no bathrooms here, so people would do their needs in the cliffs, in wherever, and this would be very dirty. The foundation responded by regulating the traffic with a roundabout and installing eco bathroom facilities, along with a recycled fence along the cliff line to protect it from the erosion of visitors feet. Many involved in the efforts here see Punta De Lobos as a Landmark Conservation Case for chile one that could have a much broader impact than just protecting one favoured surfing spot. Christa in chile back in 2017. And i am pleased to say that the campaign to protect the Punta De Lobos is still going strong. While we will wait to find out if this years postponed olympics are still going ahead in tokyo, in the run up to the last olympics in brazil, we sent ayo to the high hills of rio to meet some of the locals and try his hand at giving some of them a haircut. Pretty random, eh . Here is the gate of heaven we got the place all right, here we go, off to heaven. This is unbelievable. Rocinha is a Sprawling Favela sitting high on the hills of rio, overlooking the city. I live in that building, 0k, close to that new building, i live in the left side. Since the financial downturn, favelas here have seen a spike in volatility. Tourists are recommended to go in organised groups like this. Thats is our electricity system, just believe me it works, i dont know how, but it works. 0urtour guide, edson, grew up in this favela. Usually favelas are not a tourist place. Of course there are many tourists interested, many foreigners interested to come, because it became so famous because of the movies, right . And of course, we want to show you the reality, it is not like the movies. But despite the challenges people face here, talents emerge. This is the battle of the barbers. This is a classic barbers competition. 20 minutes to do the best haircut. Pretty intense. The competition happens in two parts. One for the best cut, and the other for more artistic creations. I cant believe this guys actually trusting me to cut his hair. Here we go. All right. Like this . Like that. Leo, before you were a barber, what was your life like . Three, two, one, there we go clearly a natural, eh . Lea, thank you very much, obrigado. You have got to admit, ayo was pretty nifty with those clippers, but not sure i am ready to let him anywhere near my Gorgeous Tresses yet though. From brazil we are now heading to argentina, where back in 2019 mark got the chance to swim with some pretty unusual companions, real gaucho style. Here we go. Woo, 0k a different experience to having a saddle on, let me tell you that right now. Woo 0mar, theres a crocodile right there, should we be worried . Un cocodrilo, una caiman. No importa, eh . Dont worry about it. Dont worry about it, thats what we do. As the river deepens, and the horse cant reach the bottom, the trick is to slip off and hold on for the ride. Now . Ok, so, right hand, no, left hand here . Right hand behind, grab the tail. Oh, and were away laughs. This is one of the craziest things ive done in my entire life. The water doesnt taste very good. And theres miscellaneous things some slimy, some spiky rubbing against most of my body. Almost having my arm attached like a moving train horse nickers. Theyre strong animals, even in the water. Woo 0mar, we made it good job, tornado what a truly amazing experience well, unless you are afraid of crocodiles and water, i guess. Right, well, stay with us because coming up, theres more from mike in argentina, where he got up close with some of the local jaguars. When you make eye contact with a beast this size, your heartjust goes. Imitates Heart Thumping quickly. And carmen accepted our challenge to abseil down one of the largest waterfalls in the world in peru. The waterfall is so close this is amazing well, more from mike again now in this look back at some of our favourite Travel Show Adventures in South America. And here is the time that he came face to face with one of the most beautiful and the most dangerous animals on the continent during that visit to the Ibera Wetlands in argentina. Welcome to estancia, san alonso, The Island Home of Rewilding Argentina a project aiming to re introduce jaguars to the wild. Oh, my. Guys, this is. When you make eye contact with a beast this size, your heartjust goes. Imitates Heart Thumping quickly. Chuckles. Shes isa, shes a brazilian panther, orjaguar. Shes about six years old, yeah shes quite young. And how will the wetlands benefit from introducing this beautiful animal . Well, these animals were part of this ecosystem. They have been here for Hundreds And Thousands of years. They disappeared from the wetlands and now, this ecosystem is lacking from this top predator. And under the supervision of magali, the co ordinator, im allowed into the enclosure to prepare isas meal. 0k, weve got one hanging fish, weve got one piece of mystery meat. Ready to go . 0k. She looks a little bit a little annoyed. Normally, i dont think food arrives this late. Blows whistle. Wow 0k, look, here she comes. Entering into the feeding enclosure. Weve hung the fish up, lets see if she can find it. 0h. 0h thats a predator, ladies and gentlemen. Wow and breakfast is served talia, this jaguar is not going to be put back in the wild . No, she was donated to our project as a breeder. These animals that come from captivity, they cannot be released. As you saw, they relate humans with food, so if they lived free and saw a human, they would go directly to ask for food, and thats not what we want. Talia hopes Isa Will Breed with their other captive jaguar, a reclusive male called nahuel. Nearby, two cubs born to another female are being prepared for release. And im going to ask a question that im sure everyone at home, including myself, wants to know the answer to can we see a babyjaguar . No, im sorry to tell you we wont see one. But there are some here . Yes, they are just right behind us, but theyre in another special enclosure where you will see some black meshes, so they cant see people, they dont relate people with food, but we can see them with the cameras. This is a female and, well, shes in her swimming pool. Is this this is one right here . Yeah, its there, yeah. You can see you have a good eye thank you and when they are released, what do you hope will happen . Well, we are all very anxious to get to that moment. We expect them to stay close to this place, to the protected area, to find their food here and their home here. We expect them to reproduce and have more cubs, and we will be it will be successful if that happens. I think it will be the time to say that the Ibera Ecosystem is complete again, as it used to be in the past. Including the cubs, a total of five jaguars are set for release, signalling the return of the wetlands most iconic beast. And if you want to keep track of the progress, Rewilding Argentina posts regular updates on their social media pages. Mike there in argentina. Well, we were desperate to find out whether they managed to release those beautiful baby jaguars, despite such a difficult year, and im pleased to say its good news. So this year injanuary, we released the firstjaguars in ibera its a female, along with her two cubs. The release was a very exciting moment for the team. It has been a moment that we have been waiting for a lot of years. We could not imagine how the moment would be and it was even better than the way we would imagine it. And in the coming months, we would love to release another female with her two cubs. And also, we are expecting two other females to get pregnant, so to give birth and also to be released in the coming months with their cubs. We hopefully will have a few more to be released in a few years but so far, this kind of thing, of people knowing that they could eventually see jaguars in this place and we hope this will bring more tourists to the area as well. Well, to finish off this look back at some of our favourite adventures in South America, lets finish up in peru where, back in 2016, carmen literally took a step off a cliff into the unknown when she abseiled down the side of one of the tallest waterfalls in the world. And seriously, five years on, there are still parts of this film that ijust cannot watch. It looked absolutely terrifying so this is where it starts. Im going to rappel down here, down this little waterfall, about 10 or 12 metres into a pool, and then from there, we will abseil down the rest of the waterfall which is about a 70 metre drop. And im one of the first people to do this. Before we can start, the team must meticulously anchor a system of ropes into the rock face. Then it is my turn to prepare. Never that glamorous getting into a wetsuit but i will be glad of it this this water looks cold im attached to a harness and instructed on the Safety Apparatus that will allow me to control my descent. Your legs, carmen, 90 degrees. Hold it but lean backwards. Taking off is terrifying. I put my feet against the wall and slowly inch down to the pool. Its hard to stay up with the constant pressure of the water pushing me backwards and im told this is the easy part 0k we reach the tiny ledge overlooking the last 70 metres and prepare for our descent. What a view oh, my god its amazing woo ok, here we go the waterfall is so close this is amazing so far, so good. But halfway down, im in for a shock. Slightly unnerving that we are going to lose the rock now and we are going to go into freefall. Ah 0k. I can do this. Yep, this is good 0k. Without the rock face, im literally hanging. Tough work on my hand. Basically this rope is holding my body weight and im having to release the rope to get me down. This way of coming down is faster and scarier than before, but a lot more exciting. We reach the last part of the descent and im so relieved to finally get to the bottom. Wow i know its crazy, i didnt expect quite so much water that was amazing what a rush yeah high five. And once the cold and the terror disappear, i feel to be one of the few people to have experienced this wilderness while its still a bit of a secret from the outside world. Carmen enjoying those absolutely amazing views over the Peruvian Amazon back in 2016. Well, thats all weve got time for this week, but catch us next week when ade will be looking at Sustainable Travel and asking if lockdown has changed the way well want to travel in the future. Up until 2020, the trend towards increasing tourism had been remarkable. It was kind of like this, with that top figure being a record 1. 4 billion tourist arrivals in 2018. Join him for that if you can. And in the meantime, keep an eye out for us in all the usual places on social media. And heres to the time that we can all hopefully get Back On The Road again. Until then, keep planning and well see you next week. Goodbye. Hello. Although thursday was a little less cold for many, friday plunges us back into the arctic air. In fact, we will stay with the colder air again into the weekend for many. There is certainly a chance of those snow showers and possibly wet and windy weather in the south, we will come to that in a moment. This is the Weather Front ushering that Cold Air Southwards and that will push to most parts by the end of the day today. With it the brisk wind which through the night has reached severe gale force in the north, slowly easing away, but cold air means widespread frost first thing and a risk of ice because here the showers have been coming through notjust for scotland but for Northern Ireland, some northern fringes of england and wales as well. That Weather Front further south is a slow moving affair. Still windy, although they are easing off, the great risk of snow piling up is in Northern Scotland but the showers will come through thick and fast during the day. They could fall as rain, sleet, snow, hail, rumbles of thunder. Further south we will have a Weather Front becoming slow moving. Could be sleety on high ground with this Weather System as the cold air digs in but we will see crisp sunshine across the northern half of the uk through the day ahead and brightness and sunshine to the south of the Weather Front affording us perhaps 11 or 12 degrees but if you are stuck under the cloud all day, seven and eight is more likely. A transition day, one that feels wintry for many. The big question for the weekend is this area of cloud and rain, possible hill snow and a brisk north easterly wind during the course of saturday and into sunday. There is still quite a bit of uncertainty as to how far north that will come but as i say it could be a spell of wet weather. A brisk north east wind makes it feel cold and that could turn to snow over the hills. Further north again the crisp sunshine continues but even with the sunshine it will be cold with the risk of sleet and snow showers just about anywhere because we are into the arctic air. The same is true through Saturday Night and sunday that slowly works out of the way but then we have arctic air right across the uk and perhaps something more organised coming into the north west later on sunday. Plenty of detail to fill in and if you have plans stay tuned to the forecast. As ever, the forecast and the warnings are online. Welcome to bbc news. Im Lewis Vaughan jones. Our top stories President Biden outlines gun control measures as a First Step Towards curbing Mass Shootings in the united states. Gun violence in this country is an epidemic. Let me say it again gun violence in this country is an epidemic, and its an international embarrassment. Explosion. Violence flares again in Northern Ireland for a sixth consecutive night. A medical witness says george floyd died from a lack of oxygen after being pinned down by the former policeman Derek Chauvin not drugs, as the defence claims. 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