1. Mexico

The author, actor and comedian embarks on a journey through the entire Central American isthmus to the Panamanian border with South America, beginning in Mexico. Stephen tours the country in his yellow American school bus, takes part in a soap opera in Mexico City and heads for the Pacific coast, where he is entranced by the magical migration of the Monarch butterfly and the courage of cliff divers in Acapulco.

2. Belize to Guatemala

Stephen travels through Belize, the only former British colony in Central America, bottle-feeding injured manatees, hearing the music of the Garifuna people and meeting a reformed drug addict living 40 miles off the mainland on the Turneffe Flats. On arrival in Guatemala, he learns to weave with the Mayan people and teams up with an ex-Miss Guatemala on the banks of Lake Atitlan, before a night patrol with a volunteer heart surgeon.

4. Costa Rica to Panama

Stephen's travels continue in Costa Rica, where he encounters poison-dart frogs and falls in love with a baby sloth at a biological research station. But he soon finds there is more to the country than conservation and eco-tourism as he ascends volcanoes, descends white-water rivers and experiences the passion of a football derby in the capital of San Jose. He then crosses over into Panama for the final leg of his trip, witnessing giant leatherback turtles coming ashore to lay their eggs and learning how to dredge the canal in Panama City.