Michael Palin

Full Circle: Mexico/Western USA/Canada/Alaska (3x10)

Data di messa in onda: Nov 09, 1997

In Mexico City, Palin attends a lucha libre match and listens to a lively mariachi band. The next day, he observes the darker side of the city, as a graffiti protest is being led by a lucha libre wrestler named Super Barrio. On to a small village outside of Querétaro, he helps a lady make tortillas. He then catches a bus to the town of Tijuana, where after observing a house in the shape of a woman, he walks to the United States–Mexico border, a.k.a. the "Tortilla Curtain". Here he observes "Pollos" attempting to cross without any security noticing. Afterwards, Palin crosses the border legally into San Diego and gets a glimpse of the border from the American perspective. Venturing north to Los Angeles, he gets a bird's-eye view of the city from a local news helicopter reporter. He then becomes involved in a breaking story of a plane approaching Van Nuys Airport landing on the freeway. Driving along the California coast, he reaches San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge. He then takes a tour of the notorious Alcatraz prison and chats with two former inmates. Then he visits The Castro, well-known for its homosexual population. Palin's guide introduces him to a local gay policeman and then shows him the place where The NAMES Project originated in 1987. From San Francisco, he flies to Seattle, where he tests a flight simulator at Boeing headquarters. On to Canada, Palin manages to flag down a train near Vancouver, British Columbia. In the nearby town of Squamish, he is the guest of honor at a loggers sports festival, where he takes part in one of the races. Taking a train north through to Prince George, he realizes that the closer he gets to completing the circle, his transportation options dwindle. He reaches Wales Beach, the westernmost point on the North American mainland. However, Little Diomede is still 25 miles away. Then the Coast Guard comes to pick him up and put him on a boat that will attempt to get him there. Unfortunately, the weather does not cooperate, and the Coast Guard abandons the attempt. Even though Palin came up two miles short, he believes, in a way, he did close the circle.