Season 3 - In The Americas with David Yetman

301 – ABC Islands: The Dutch legacy in the Caribbean

The last vestiges of the once-mighty Dutch empire live on in the Caribbean in the ABC Islands–Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao. Islanders speak four languages, one of which is their very own, as they explain. We visit Curaçao, now independent, and wander the streets of Willemstad, its capital city. In its...

302 – Bahian Reconcavo of Brazil: Quilombos, Candomblé, and the Mata Atlântica

Across the All Saints’ Bay from Brazil’s huge city of Salvador in Bahia state, the region known as the Reconcavo supports a distinct culture and heritage. Over the centuries slaves escaped their owners and founded their own towns. They, along with other colonists, shaped the local society and exploited its...

303 – Colombia: Capital and Coffee

Bogotá, Colombia, is the nation’s capital and its social, cultural, and economic center. At 8,600 feet elevation, its air is thin and with eight million residents its air is dirty. To help decrease traffic congestion and air pollution Bogotans have created a dramatically effective mass transit system instituted Cyclovía: each...

304 – Sierra Nevada and the Making of California

The mighty Sierra Nevada is our most important mountain range. It influences much of California’s weather and produces most if its water. It was once the greatest barrier to transcontinental transportation and communication. It is a symbol of earthquakes, which created it. Tectonic geologist Eldridge Moores helps host David Yetman...

305 – Brazil’s Land of Sand

Long stretches of Brazil’s northeast coast are lined with sand dunes, some of them the size of small mountains, some of them so vast that they create their own climate. Their color, shape, and composition and their relationship with wind provide a striking variety of landscapes, each with its own...

306 – Lake Superior: Circling the Sweet Water Ocean

It’s the largest lake in the world, a body of fresh water so vast it creates its own climate and supports thousands of residents along its shores. Lake Superior straddles the U.S.-Canadian border, the two nations separated on the east side by a busy portage canal. The lake’s icy waters...

307 – Nicaragua- Land of the Shaking Earth Emerges

For two hundred years Nicaragua suffered from the double insult of shaking earth—earthquakes and volcanic eruptions—and military and political interventions from the north. Today a democratic Nicaragua is promoting its diversity of cultures, its Spanish colonial heritage, and its natural wonders. Misquito Indians from the Caribbean coast and descendants of...

308 – Pernambuco: Brazil’s Other Carnival

The Brazilian state of Pernambuco, about the size of Maine, is home to the megapolis of Recife, Brazil’s fifth largest city and home to more than 5 million Pernambucans. Recife’s carnival, along with celebrations in its colonial suburb Olinda and the in the cities of Bezerros and Nazarene da Mata,...

309 – Cuetzalan: The Celebration of San Francisco

Five hundred years ago Franciscan priests journeyed to the remote city of Cuetzalan in Puebla State. The region was fertile for evangelizing, an urban area of Aztecs and Totonacans who supported a vibrant culture. Although less remote now, the traditions and languages continue in a town that venerates its fiestas...

310 – Alaska: The Wilderness of the Volcanoes

Two of Alaska’s vast national parks, Lake Clark and Katmai, have endured a heritage of volcanic explosions. Lake Clark is a wilderness of endless forests, lakes, marshes, glaciers, and recently active volcanoes, while nearby Katmai, born of one of history’s most violent explosions, shows the aftermath of a cataclysmic eruption...