BBC: Tropic of Cancer

The Tropic of Cancer marks the northern border of the tropics,

the most beautiful, brilliant, and blighted region of the world.

I've already travelled around the equator

and the southern border of the tropics,

but following the Tropic of Cancer

will be my toughest journey yet.

This tropic cuts through central America,

the Caribbean, North Africa,

the kingdoms of Arabia, India, and on through Asia to finish in Hawaii.

It's 23,000 miles across deserts, rivers, and mountains.

Along the way I encounter extraordinary people,

simmering conflicts, and some of the most

stunning landscapes on our planet.

This first leg of my journey will take me from Mexico to Cuba

and on to the Bahamas.

It's 2,000 miles from Mexico's Pacific coast

to the coral paradise of the Caribbean.

I crossed the rugged heart of Mexico

and meet the men waging a war against the powerful drug cartels

that threaten the country's stability.

They're telling us to get down.

In the capital, I dabble in a famous local sport.

GROANING

Go with the flow, you know.

And when I reach the glorious Bahamas,

I go hunting for an alien invader.

Just here is where the Tropic of Cancer hits the coast of Mexico.

I'm starting another huge journey around the planet,

this time following the line that marks the northern border

of the tropics region.

This journey will be my biggest challenge yet.

Mexico's beautiful Baja California peninsula

is an 800 mile long strip of land extending south from the US.

Baja was a glorious place to launch my journey.

Sparsely populated,

it's a rugged wilderness of dry desert and empty beaches.

At first, I thought I'd discovered a remote paradise,

but an hour to the south it was clear a few other travellers

had got here before me.

Tens of thousands of Americans are now coming here

to Cabo San Lucas every year in search of the tropical sun.

It's a tourist playground right on the edge of the desert,

and soon they won't be alone.

The size of this!

The extraordinary thing for me about this marina is that the government

is planning to build another 17 marinas just like this on the same

grand scale, with all the same number of expensive yachts along

the coastline in this area, on the edge of the desert...

and all of it, all of the boats, all of the tourism here,

is entirely dependent on Americans and US dollars.

The new tourist developments here have already eaten up more

than 20 miles of pristine coastline, and Mexico is now promoting

this area as a luxury tropical destination.

So we dropped in to see one of the swanky resorts they're building,

called the One and Only Palmilla.

BBC expenses wouldn't run to staying here,

but Hollywood's jet set have become frequent visitors

since the resort opened with a monumental party for John Travolta.

- Hola! - God, I feel a bit out of place here, I'll tell you.

Something the cat brought in.

- Hello. - Hey, how are you?

Look at this.

Everybody touches their heart, it's quite moving.

Yes, it's our own One and Only salute at Palmilla, it's a...

- A One and Only salute? - It is a One and Only Palmilla salute and

it's a gesture of warm hospitality that comes from our heart to

our guests and also among each other, here, that we work at the hotel.

So they are actually still working on it, then?

We are, so maybe we should...

Are the gold taps already in?

So maybe we should probably...

- Stop here. - Stop here, go inside and make sure everything is in order

- and then continue with the filming. - What, you want to go and check that

- there's nobody, no builders' bums or anything like that? Go on. - Exactly.

The only people in this villa were workers from the Mexican mainland,

still completing the final touches.

So tell us, er, tell us about this place. Look at this.

This is Villa Cortes, it's our also new unit, four-bedroomed villa.

As you can see it has, I'll show you, the, the spa, the kinesis,

their own gym, the media room, and this is the entertainment area.

So how much does this cost per night?

It varies as well, but it goes from eight, starting price 8,000,

to 12,000 per night, plus tax and service charge.

- Per night? - Per night.

That's about £5,000, more than £5,000 per night, starting price.

Starting price. Correct. But look at this, look at all that we have.

- Oh, my God, look. - Look at this.

Your own infinity pool.

Yes, your own infinity pool.

Look, we even have little beds for the dogs

in case they bring their own pets.

We should check them out.

Yes!

Can we see a bedroom?

- Yes. Go in here. - Let's see the master bedroom.

Right, so as you can see, it has a king bed...

- Can we have a look in the bathroom? - Can we just look it from here?

- Here, here. - It's all right, they're still just finishing it off.

- We can look at it from this side. - Final detail, details.

Hola! It's all right, don't worry, don't worry.

I just wanted to see if it had gold-plated taps.

- I think I've pressed a button, it says massage. - Don't do it now,

- because there is no water. - OK. - Then you have the direct access outside.

- OK, we'll take it. Yeah. - OK, good. - I think we'll take it. - Sold.

The staff that you have here and the construction workers,

are they all from Baja, or are they Mexicans coming from the mainland?

- I mean, is it all... - No, basically the company that is building

and other local building companies,

they have their own people that work for them, they all live in the area,

in San Jose del Cabo or Cabo San Lucas, everybody has their own place.

The tourist industry provides jobs for thousands of Mexicans,

but they live mostly in areas like this, just a short distance

from the One and Only resort.

This whole shanty town is built on a dried-up river bed.

It often floods, and recently people here lost their homes

when storms swept away their plywood shacks.

Luis came here from the Mexican mainland five years ago

to look for work. He has a wife and four children.

This one room plywood structure is what he calls home.

What happens here when it rains?

We get scared because the wind shakes the house.

When there's a hurricane,

we have to go to the shelters, because this just falls over.

Does it feel strange to you that people are living in, in these,

in this situation when there's people living in luxury so nearby?

I'm not going to wish for a house like that,

because I know I'm never going to have one.

There are more than 20,000 people living in this shanty town,

and it's estimated there are 150,000 migrant Mexicans

working in this area alone.

Most have been happy just to have a job living off

the crumbs of the tourist trade.

But the recession in the US has hit them hard.

If it goes badly for them,

we're dependent on them for work.

So when they sink, we sink even further.

The next day I travelled around the coast to continue my journey

out of Baja California and on to mainland Mexico.

Passports, ID cards, I don't know. Hola, buenas tardes.

- OK. - OK? Gracias, gracias.

I feel a bit, I mean, I'm excited about going to the mainland,

but I apprehensive about it as well, because there's almost,

there's almost a civil war in Mexico at the moment,

and there's a conflict raging over drugs and this ferry's

going to take us really to the heart of it.

I had a night at sea to reflect on my journey.

I knew that following the Tropic of Cancer

would take me to stunning and troubled parts of the planet,

and already the line was leading me from beautiful Baja

on to the dangerous world of Mexico's drug war.

I was crossing the Sea of Cortes and heading for the city of Culiacan

in Sinaloa state, just to the north of the tropic.

In recent years, Culiacan has become a major centre

of one of Mexico's biggest growth industries...

the smuggling of narcotics into the United States.

Thousands of tonnes of South American drugs

pass through Mexico annually,

and Culiacan is the headquarters

of perhaps the biggest drug gang in the world, the Sinaloa Cartel.

Their battle with other cartels and the Mexican government

has turned Culiacan into one of the most dangerous cities on earth.

In the relative safety of daylight,

I met up with my guide in mainland Mexico, Pepe Cohen.

So welcome to Culiacan, er, Simon.

Thanks, mate.

The crown of drug trafficking.

SIMON LAUGHS

Is that really how it's known?

Only last night when you arrived, there was an assassination attempt

against one of the top cops of the city.

How does Mexico compare to Columbia?

At the moment, Mexico is worse than Colombia,

because the Colombian cartels decided to go low profile...

businessmen, no killings.

But in Culiacan there have been

countless gruesome murders on a daily basis.

We met up with local journalist, Javier Valdez,

who showed us around Culiacan's main cemetery.

Far from keeping a low profile,

the families of drug traffickers here go to extraordinary lengths

to celebrate their status as gangsters.

Javier, how many of the people who are buried here will be

graves for people who've died in connection with drugs in some way?

I would say around 90% of the people buried here

are linked to the drug trade.

Just as we were passing this one here, I had a glimpse in and,

and already you can see that most of the people

buried here are young men

of a distinctly suspicious looking nature.

- Si. - So this is, again, another young guy?

That kid on the side, he's typical of the drug culture.

- He's got a gun in his belt. - It does look almost like a real gun.

Er, I think it is. It's traditional for these kinds of families to pose

with automatic weapons and flak jackets, and with animal skin boots.

- Oh, look at this. Look, here. - Si, Hummer.

You can see the picture of a guy on the side here

and you can see his Hummer on the picture.

This is a guy who was killed just in August 2008,

and you can see he's posing, he's pictured here with assault rifles.

Definitely a gunman.