In Mexico - which has replaced Colombia as the drug trafficking capital of the Americas - Simon travelled through the western state of Sinaloa, home to the most violent drug cartel. Simon visited the city of Culiacán - known as 'the decapitation capital' of the country - where he went on a raid with an elite police unit battlng drug barons and their heavily-armed killers. The gang murder rate in Culiacán is one of the highest in the world, and the nature of the violence is extreme - designed to shock and terrorise. Photograph © Pepe Cohen.
Simon meeting 72-year-old Chalo Hernandez, who runs an organic allotment, called an organaponico, in Havana. After the Soviet Union collapsed and Cuba was left without its main benefactor, Cubans were left without basic foods and supplies, and millions of people went hungry. In response, Cubans started growing their food in organaponicos. There are now thousands across Cuba, and in Havana they provide more than 90 per cent of the fruit and vegetables eaten in the city. Photograph © Simon Reeve. 
Simon travelled across North Africa to Algeria, visiting remote and spectacular areas of the country largely closed to tourists due to Algeria's devastating civil war. Photograph © Simon Reeve.
Simon travelled across North Africa to Libya, crossing several international borders that have been closed to foreigners for decades. Here Simon is in southern Libya, at Al Gabroun - one of the spectacular Ubari Lakes, some of which are drying-up. Scientists blame climate change and over-extraction of water by farmers in the region. Photograph © Simon Reeve. 
Village children in western Bangladesh. With a population of more than 150 million packed together at sea level, Bangladesh will suffer devastating consequences as the result of global climate change. Bangladeshis already have to contend with cyclones and arsenic-contaminated drinking water, but experts believe rising sea levels will inundate at least 20 per cent of Bangladeshi land, a catastrophe in the most densely-populated large country in the world. Photograph © Simon Reeve. 
Simon with Simu (right) and Jahangir (centre) who work in a sweltering glass factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, for 30 taka a day – not much, but enough to buy one kilo of rice. There are more than three million child labourers like Jahangir in Bangladesh, and international charities and NGOs are struggling to deal with the problem. More than 80 per cent of Bangladeshis live on less than $2 a day, and without the money children earn, families would go hungry. Photograph © Simon Reeve.
Here Simon wades across a river in Western Burma with local guides. Simon, director Andrew Carter, and cameraman Jonathan Young, crossed into Chin State in western Burma from a remote area of the Indian state of Mizoram. Their crossing was illegal and extremely risky, as the BBC is banned from Burma - a military dictatorship and one of the most repressive countries in the world. They are among just a handful of foreigners to visit this area of Chin State in recent decades. When they heard that a Burmese army patrol had arrived in the next village they had to flee back to the Indian-Burma border, walking through the night to reach safety. Photograph © Simon Reeve. 
Simon with a logging elephant in a village in northern Laos. Laos used to be known as 'the land of a million elephants', but due to deforestation there are now just a few hundred left in the wild, and a few hundred left working in the logging industry, hauling logs out of the forest. Photograph © Simon Reeve. 
Simon with conservationist Sam Gon in Hawaii, on a beach covered in small plastic debris. Simon was shocked to learn that Hawaii is the extinction capital of the world, with more species dying out on the islands than anywhere else on the planet, and that many of Hawaii's beaches are covered in plastic rubbish washed up from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch - a vast accumulation of the world's plastic debris floating in the Pacific Ocean. Photograph © Simon Reeve.
Last updated: 16 march, 2010 - 16:39 GMT
Tropic of Cancer
To play this content JavaScript must be turned on and the latest Flash player installed.
The writer and TV presenter Simon Reeve likes travelling around the world. He's already travelled along the Equator and the Tropic of Capricorn, and recently he completed a third epic trip in the Tropics - this time along the Tropic of Cancer.
The Tropic of Cancer marks the Northern border of the Tropics region - a region which takes in half the surface of the planet and almost two thirds of the world's population.
The Tropics are home to some of the world's most beautiful landscapes, but also to a huge array of human experience - from the positive through to conflict, poverty, and the effects of climate change.
Simon's trip took in 18 countries - from Mexico, across North Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and finally Hawaii. And his adventures have been turned into a six part BBC television series.
Simon joined Matthew in the Outlook studio to describe his experiences and the people and places he visited, including the female wrestlers of Mexico City.
Tropic of Cancer is on BBC2 at 8pm for six weeks from Sunday 14 March 2010
More from Outlook
~RS~a~RS~worldservice~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~02~RS~){kind=small}
BBC iD
BBC iDBBC navigation
BBC links
BBC © 2014The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.
This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.
