In Northwestern Peru, where the Amazon rainforest crashes into the Andes Mountains, there

is one of the world's tallest waterfalls.

But until a couple of decades ago, the only people who really looked at this waterfall,

or for the most part, even knew what was there, were the locals who lived in a town a few

miles away.

But even they really only saw it at a distance.

Before 2005, everyone watched the waterfall, but no one went there.

They were fearful.

They would say, kids, no, it's dangerous to go there.

You will die.

You get enchanted and you will stay there.

So no one, even the generations that followed, children, grandchildren,

great, great grandchildren, no one would go to the waterfall.

And then in 2005, something happened that permanently changed the local's

relationship with the waterfall.

And not necessarily in the ways you might think.

I'm Dylan Therese, and this is Alusum Skira.

Today, I take you to a place that is very near and dear to my heart.

Got to waterfall in Peru.

That is after this.

In 2005, a German researcher named Stefan Ziemendorf

was out hiking in the Amazon region of Peru.

...