Mankind TVPUK
«The Last Nomads» features the greatest traditional journeys left on Earth as seen through the eyes of the people who still travel on them. From the Zagros Mountains of Iran to the frozen wastelands of northern Siberia, the Sahara to the Himalaya, these beautifully filmed documentaries give a unique insight into the very last human journeys still being travelled as they have been for thousands of years.
La Paz looks like an intricate mass of buildings within a bottleneck. It is mainly inhabited by Quechua and Aymara Indios, and features the most traditional craftsmanship, highly coloured markets and a daily guile to survive.
The journey heads towards the Salar de Uyuni, the largest salt desert in the world. We are surprised to enter a hotel made entirely of salt, including beds, chairs and tables.
To reach Potosì, a snow-capped pass at an altitude of more than 5000 metres stands in our way.
The journey continues in the Amazon area of Bolivia. With the help of the authorities we enter the coca plantations: in Bolivia the chewing of coca leaves is legal, and is very different from the refined and illegal version, cocaine.
Leaving from the border of Desaguadero between Bolivia and Peru we reach Puno after a few bureaucratic issues, to meet the Uros, on their floating islands on Lake Titicaca
Our objective of reaching the Rìo Manu National Park is obstructed by landslides, flooded roads and and a huge rise in the level of a tributary of the River.
The journey continues in surprisingly fascinating landscapes through to the ruins of Quillarumiyoc, one of the last archaeological and historic discoveries in Peru.
The expedition continues through the incredible and extremely dangerous Canyon del Pato.
We’ll be getting lost in the alleyways and lanes of Tbilisi, an ancient city and the current capital of Georgia, to admire the beautiful traditional buildings and the many historical and religious monuments.
We will fly over the plains in the legendary Colchis, where the Golden Fleece that was sought after by Jason and the Argonauts was meant to have been conserved.
One of the Countries that most clearly highlights the contrast between Asia and Europe: Azerbaijan, which is crossed by the ancient Silk Road, has always been an important trading crossroads between the West and East.
We leave the Talish Mountains to reach the bucolic city of Lankaran, which is famous for the massive tower where a young Stalin was imprisoned for a period after taking part in the prime uprisings.
Under the sever gaze of the statue of Mother Armenia, the capital Yerevan flaunts museums, libraries, art galleries and theatres.
Accompanies by archaeologists we will have the privilege to enter the “oldest cellar in the world” which is 7,000 years old and take part in a series of excavations in search of the Armenia’s most ancient past.
The conflicts and the bureaucratic difficulties associated with permit for transit complicate our journey.
We have to cross Ingushetia along a corridor that is guarded by the army to reach Chechnya: the signs of the bloody wars have been almost entirely erased and Grozny is full of skyscrapers still under construction and even the most remote towns have been rebuilt from the rubble of the war; but we are able to document the tragic story nonetheless.
