02x02 - Amazon

[bunniefuu]

I watched him for a while.

He watched me.

I yelled.

I, uh, used my whistle.

And, uh, unfortunately, he didn't even
flinch.

This time on Survivorman, I'm being sent
to where I've always dreamed of going.

Stories of these dark,
wet jungles, misty valleys,

and snaking rivers have
haunted my imagination.

I'm heading deep into the Amazon jungle.

The Amazon begins on the
eastern flanks of the Ecuadorian

Andes and stretches to the
east, unbroken for 3,000 miles.

There are no roads through this dense
jungle, so I'm taken in by light plain.

Down into the Sea of
Green, the search is for the

small grass airstrip where
my challenge will start.

From here, I'll be taken in and dropped
off alone into the jungle to survive.

The Amazon jungle is an intense place.

You've got no business coming here if
you're claustrophobic.

There are more dangers in the darkness
than just snakes.

And as I head upriver by
dugout canoe, the mysteries and

unknowns of the Amazon jungle
begin to present themselves.

There are 70 confirmed
uncontacted tribes in the

Amazon basin, and all of
them are considered hostile.

Anyone who's ever attempted to go in has
never made it out alive.

And I'm on the edge of the territory of
one of those tribes.

The camera crew may be with me now,
but once we're deep enough into the

jungle, they'll leave me on the side of
this river completely alone.

For the next seven days, I'll
have to survive in this jungle,

make my way back to the
village, and film it all myself.

After a long day of poling upriver,
a small sandbar is chosen.

This body painting is their cultural way
of wishing me good luck.

Now that the send-off painting is done,
it's time for them to leave me alone.

See you in seven days.

Somehow, before nightfall, I'll need to go
up from the river and into the dark,

wet jungle to build a shelter.

Almost immediately into my jungle shelter
exploration, I have run across one of the

tiny, yet potent dangers of this jungle,
what the Warani natives call the Manyi.

I'm wondering if maybe there's a nest
close by.

Now, they only nest in numbers of 60 to


Five or six stings from a Manyi ant will
put a full-grown man to the ground.

You know what?

I was gonna club him.

There's no point.

He'll probably laugh it off.

I gotta go get the machete.

He's still around.

Try chopping them in half.

That sort of stops them.

I've chopped him in half, and he's still
trying hard to bite me.

I've got his bum over
on a leaf there, and it

inflicts one of the most
painful stings in the jungle.

It's been described as taking a pair of
red-hot pliers, jamming them into your

skin, squeezing hard, twisting,
and holding for five hours.

And I took one step into the jungle,
and there he was.

This, apparently, is one of my gravest
dangers to watch out for.

Night falls fast in the jungle.

One moment it's light, and in the blink of
an eye it's pitch black dark.

So I'll have little time to build a
shelter.

The Warani natives
left me with a dug-out

canoe for safety, and
tonight it'll have to do.

If I can make a cover of bent
branches, it would shed any

rain, but everything I've tried
so far just snaps in my hands.

Hmm.

That's not working out so well.

Completely exposed, lying in
a dug-out canoe in the middle

of the Amazon jungle is not
a good way to start the week.

Here we go again.

Any rain upstream will make
the river rise dramatically,

as much as ten or more
feet in just a few hours.

So I'll have to remain vigilant in my
watch of the water level, or my canoe

could easily be swamped in the middle of
the night.

But something tells me I won't have much
trouble staying awake tonight.

It's not dark yet, but it's getting there.

And I'm in the middle of the Amazon
jungle.

My concerns tonight
are going to be the rising

of the river, if there's
rains further upstream.

And also a Jaguar.

There's four big cats out here.

The ocelot and the margay cat aren't any
concern of mine.

There's also the puma, also known as the
cougar or mountain lion.

And the Jaguar.

I'll feel better sleeping in the canoe on
the water, but without a fire.

It's got me pretty nervous.

I'm in the middle of the jungle.

Oh, here we go.

Night number one in the jungle.

Oh, this was my night.

I felt very exposed all night long.

At least I wasn't too cold.

I'm not sure what was worse, the moths
trying to land on me.

All night long, moths were trying to land
on my face.

Or something I forgot to mention.

Vampire bats.

There are bats here that they land on you
at night.

And you can't even feel them.

Their teeth are so sharp and their saliva
numbs you so that they can suck your blood.

And people get bitten in the nose and on
the toes and places like that.

And they were checking me out last night.

So I gotta get to...

I gotta set myself up today.

And try and be less exposed.

Keeping high-tech equipment
like video cameras running

in this heat and humidity is
becoming quite a challenge.

One camera is already shut down due to the
condensation.

The danger of chopping
a tree down like this is

that up top there could
be snakes on top of it.

A wasp nest.

It could take down some other tree.

You gotta be really
careful by checking to make

sure that nothing's
gonna fall on top of you.

If you don't want to.

Some of these palm trees and plants are
hard enough to use as an axe themselves.

Others are quite soft.

And the machete makes
short work of gathering

the supplies I need to
make a good shelter.

It's time to get busy.

I'm told that there are some
caterpillars that if they're

smooth, probably like this one,
that I might be able to eat them.

But I'm also told that
there are caterpillars here

that can pretty much k*ll
you if you touch them once.

I don't think I'm gonna take the chance.

I can use the same
knowledge here that comes from

thousands of miles away
to split these branches.

It's the method used in North America by
the Ojibwe to split spruce roots.

The edges of these are
razor sharp, so you've

gotta be really careful
when you split them.

I'm just gonna put all of these palm
leaves on here, just like shingles.

This is home.

A shelter will help keep
the rain off, but it's the

humidity that threatens
to shut down my cameras.

Different, different, different,
different.

Survival training tells
me it's time to assess my

situation and take an
inventory of my supplies.

So, let's go through what I've got.

A blow g*n.

We'll just see what kind of luck I have
with it.

They gave me an actual spear.

But the real reason they gave this to me
was to protect myself from the Minyi,

the Jaguar.

I've got simply a little bit of damp
tissue paper.

About three feet of tangled up fishing
line.

Can of pop.

And I like to go into the stores and grab
those last minute survival items.

You know, it just says general survival
aisle.

And, uh, just to test them out.

So I grabbed some stuff that is some kind
of, well, they call it fire dust.

We'll see what that's like.

To go with it, I've got, for
seven days, in the jungle,

where it pours rain almost
every single day, non-stop.

One match.

Which means, if I do get a fire going,
I've got to keep it going.

Lastly, of course, a trusty multi-tool.

And my harmonica, which goes with me
everywhere.

Oh.

It's midway through day two.

In the middle of the Ecuadorian Amazon
jungle.

Far up the Amazon
River tributary, I've got my

jungle shelter built of
cane and palm leaves.

It may help to keep
off the rain, but sleeping

on the ground is a
last option out here.

There are more poisonous creatures than I
can count or mention.

But a short list is scorpions,
stinging ants, and snakes, including palm

vipers, bush masters, and the deadly
Fertilance.

So I've got a tough judgment call to make.

Getting a fire going, or getting myself
off the ground for the night.

Looks like I made
the right decision as far

as platform versus
trying to get a fire going.

Here comes the rain again.

Another night in the jungle.

I'm probably about 80 feet or so from the
edge of the river.

It's good that I didn't have to go too far
to find a flat area to make the shelter.

I don't have to worry about vampire bats
tonight.

But I do have to... what the heck?

Oh, just a big c*ck.

He's okay.

But I do have to worry about spiders.

Very much so snakes.

Scorpions.

Biting stinging ants.

And a possible horde of army ants.

So this platform...

Well, there's no guarantee.

But at least it's going to help.

Of course, it kind of has me laid out on a
platter for any Jaguar that might come by.

I'm going to sleep with my boots on
tonight.

It's not great.

The bats are coming under the shelter.

Middle of the night.

And it's raining again.

Just pouring down.

Morning of day three in the Amazon jungle.



But the biggest problem is the ceaseless
rain.

Guess that's why they call this the
rainforest.

The condensation is wreaking havoc on my
cameras.

And they are shutting down.

Constantly.

There's an abandoned Walroni hut halfway
between me and the village.

I don't know what's there.

There's probably no supplies.

But even if there's
just a little bit of

leftover dry firewood,
that would be helpful.

One by one, my cameras are succumbing to
the humidity.

I think I'm going to make an executive
decision.

Maybe move on.

See if I can make it down to that...

the abandoned hut.

It'll be bigger.

Give me more room.

Chance to dry out the cameras.

I'm down to one camera now.

The other three are...

are useless now from condensation.

So if I stay out here much longer,
I don't even have a film to make.

What's the point of that?

Day three.

And I've decided to move downriver
essentially on my way back to the village.

But for now, to simply find the abandoned
hut I was told about.

Drying out there may be
the only answer to saving my

cameras and making it
possible to even sh**t this film.

Knowing I'll need the energy boost,
it's time to drink down the one can of pop

and give myself the sugar rush needed for
the journey.

That should be it.

I'm told the caiman, a creature a lot like
the crocodile, has not much to worry about.

Instead, they said, fear the giant river
otters, extremely aggressive and

territorial, and weighing up to 100
pounds.

While maneuvering this big hunk of
mahogany downstream, it takes all my

concentration to remember
to look up and watch out for

the deadly poisonous snakes
in the overhanging trees.

With miles of river to
travel, I've got to pay close

attention to the twists
and bends of the river bank.

I could easily blink and miss
the trail to the abandoned

hut, or worse, go too far and
miss the village altogether.

After that, the river winds deeper into
the jungle and hostile native territory,

where few people have come out alive.

Wow.

A whole column of bats.

This looks like the spot.

Climbing up steep river
banks is one of the most

dangerous maneuvers
you can do in the jungle.

You're face to face with prime snake
habitat.

The hut is somewhere a few
hundred yards off the river,

and paying attention to
where I am walking is critical.

Getting completely lost in the jungle
could be a death sentence.

Here we are.

Heck of all these guys are everywhere.

Apart from the hordes of army ants,
it's certainly big enough.

Heard of snakes on the plane, this is ants
on the camera.

Of course, as it turns out, I ended up
getting a sunny day after all.

Never can tell.

Well, that's fine.

Gives me a chance to get set up here.

See if I can scrounge up some firewood.

There's a few leftover pieces here.

That's gonna help so much.

Today I'm starting to feel the energy loss
of having not eaten now for three days.

So I guess the deal now is I'll try to get
my camera gear organized.

See if I can dry that out.

And see if I can get a fire going.

This is where I'm gonna take my wood from.

Just some of the posts and Poles that are
holding up this rickety old shelter.

I'm keeping my boots off to try and
protect from foot fungus.

Having them wet all day.

And this heat is not a good thing.

Gotta dry them out whenever you can.

That's my magic fire song.

Well, I'm gonna give this a shot.

The survival shelves in stores are full of
fire starting gimmicks.

Some work, some don't.

Most of the tinders will have
a chemical or two that should

take a flame quick and
keep it going just like a candle.

Okay, the other thing I'm gonna do is I
took some of that damp tissue paper that I

had and just in case this dust fails on
me.

If it seems like it'll be easy with a
match, it's not.

Remember, I have only this one and it
along with everything else is damp.

There's little to no dry tinder available
to take this flame and hold it for a fire.

I almost lose it here, which would spell
disaster for my week.

All right.

So far, so good with this dust.

Whoo!

Ooh, there's big, big bugs in here that
are crawling away from this fire.

And that's what I like to see.

We have fire, folks.

I'm gonna sleep well tonight, I hope.

Mind you, I'm still on the ground.

That's a problem.

Heat will probably bring the scorpions
around.

Well, that's the end of a good day.

That was a good judgment call to come
downstream and to opt for a better shelter

over top of going for some food,
trying to catch fish.

I'm glad I'm here now.

I can spread out and try to dry out a bit.

This fire is fantastic.

It doesn't guarantee any problem going
away like Jaguar, but it sure helps.

It should keep the bats down.

I'm sharing this hut with bats and a horde
of ants and a lot of spiders.

But tomorrow I better build... Oh,
smoke's going in my lungs here.

Tomorrow I better build a platform and get
up off the ground because I'm sure there's

still a lot of scorpions and snakes
around.

Okay.

It was good to get here.

That punky wood keeps going all night.

It's great.

If I keep the ashes up over top of it,
it'll actually last longer.

Got this hut.

Now it's time to get some food.

I've walked this far upstream because
there's a feeder stream just over there

that's hopefully dropping food into the
water for fish in this area.

Now, what I'm going to do is I'm going to
go to the backwash areas and I'm going to

be shoving my hand in
underneath and into the holes

trying to catch the catfish
that might be in there.

Now, the dangers are many.

First of all, there's getting the wrong
kind of catfish, the spiny catfish.

If I grab one of those by accident,
extremely painful.

Secondly, the electric eel.

They like to live in the same place that
catfish do.

So that can be very painful.

And lastly is the freshwater stingray.

The Waurani fear it equally to any snake
in the jungle.

Its sting is so painful and powerful and
it instantly infects.

Fortunately, they like to stay where the
water is calm.

And they're all through
this river, but that's why I'm

coming here to where the
water is moving quite a bit.

At least minimize the risk as much as
possible.

You know, in truth, I've never done this
before.

Fish for catfish like this.

It just shows you.

It's one of those things where you can't
just figure in a survival situation.

You can just do it.

Oh yeah, I'll just go and I'll catch some
catfish.

Some of these things take practice and
take time.

Books can be very misleading when they
suggest certain survival tactics.

Ouch.

This is what I like to do.

Shove my hand and my
arm way deep inside a muddy

murky hole in an overhang
in an Amazon jungle river.

This is just what I like to do.

That was spooky.

Hmm, I don't know if I want to keep doing
this.

Can't do it the traditional way,
I'll do it my way.

There we go.

Got you up here.

Got you down there.

Time to rip apart that pop can and see
what I can make.

Why do these guys like my shirt so much?

I've got some friends.

Today's show is brought to you by the
number three.

Now I need some bait.

Surviving for days in the
jungle without removing

my boots is beginning
to take its toll on my feet.

Infection has begun.

Okay, that's the infected toe.

There are some little frogs here.

But, uh, you leave frogs alone in the
Amazon jungle.

There are frogs here that, uh, touch them
once, touch your mouth, and you can die.

They are highly, highly toxic.

So I'm just staying
away from any and all

frogs, no matter what
size, just to be sure.

You can bet that this guy's going down.

Oh, good, I chopped him in half.

That is now the fifth money ant that I've
come across.

And, I mean, that's the decapitated
version.

He has no head.

And as I touched him with the stick,
you can see that he was still,

it's still trying to sting, even though
it's been decapitated.

Just like its head keeps trying to bite,
even though it has no body left.

These guys are mean.

There we go.

Hate to do it, because it is a butterfly,
but...

I've gotta eat.

There we go.

You know what, this area's...

I can't get to it, it's just too deep,
too strong.

Adventure racing is one of my passions.

But a recent race has left me with a bad
hip injury, and the jungle dampness is

really affecting it, making survival
harder than it should be.

But you can't choose your times of peril.

I can see how being
sick or having an injury

can really take its toll
on trying to survive.

I've got enough daylight left,
but...

it's gonna hurt going upstream.

Just little guys, minnows.

Okay, I'm at that spot
where I tried fishing

by hand, where the
freshwater stream comes in.

I don't have enough energy to try here for
a bit, and then I'll call it a day.

I've been fishing for almost five hours.

I've tried hand fishing, and now with a
hook, and nothing's working.

That's disappointing.

I was actually really hoping to catch
something like this, really.

I've given it a good shot.

It's just not as easy as I had hoped.

Yet another day without food.

I'm going back to draw my clothes.

It's been four days with nothing to eat,
but at the very least, I can keep my fire

going and get myself up off the ground
tonight.

The platform in this hut is infested with
ants and spiders.

But the wood itself, in spite of
the many leaks, has a few dry

spots, which will provide me
with some much-needed firewood.

You know, until now, I've just been
drinking water fresh from the river.

And trust me, I've been paying for it.

And then it occurred to me that I can do
something else with this pop can.

There we go.

There we go.

I now, thankfully, have something to boil
water in.

Oh.

Wow.

Nicely boiled water.

Oh my god, that makes you feel humid
again.

A great way to k*ll fungus is to smoke
your feet using this punky wood.

Oh, this is all fogging up again.

Wow.

If the fish aren't going to come to me,
I'm going to go to them.

Remember that mosquito screen?

Well, as luck would have it, in
this part of the Amazon jungle,

or at least this area of this
river, there's no mosquitoes.

But that means I don't really need this
net for mosquitoes now, do I?

So...

I don't know about you, but... For
me, that looks like the perfect fish drop.

There you go.

I've got a little grip handle here.

I've got myself a fishing net.

These are my friends.

I know they're my friends because they're
with me through thick and thin every day,

all day.

Unfortunately, going to the fish means
heading into the thickest part of the jungle.

This was a spot I wanted to try fishing.

But apparently the area is blocked by a
zillion spiders.

Here they'll go.

And I've got to cut my way through them.

Yuck!

The rains stop.

Then they continue.

Then they stop.

And then they continue again.

Survival in a rain forest.

There we go.

A little...

freshwater shrimp.

And you know what?

Hey, if I can get a few handfuls of these
guys, why not?

Ooh!

That tasted good.

That tasted really good.

I'm going to get some more.

Shrimp number two.

My last one kind of bit my tongue when it
went in.

I didn't think they could do that,
but the last one did.

So you were getting chewed right away.

Yes, you.

That's great.

Wow, that's really good.

I can't believe I'm that happy for such a
tiny little meal.

This is my lucky day.

Check this out.

This guy here.

Some jungle fruit.

And if I could remember the name of it,
I would tell you.

But I can't.

So the narrator will do that for you.

It's a cocona fruit, also known as taboca.

Oh, yes, and it's perfectly ripe.

It's actually a member of the tomato
family, and it is going to go down so good.

Now, this is a little bit
tricky to get to because the

palm vipers like to curl
up in these little spots here.

Some more delectable jungle fruit.

Okay.

This is going to be so amazing.

I mean, they're super nice.

But this is going to be a flavor
expl*si*n.

Oh, yeah.

Mmm.

This is out of this world.

The taboca fruit tastes like a cross
between a lemon and a tomato.

Oh, my gosh.

It's amazing.

I'll tell you, that fruit was a fantastic
boost to my energy.

The tomato fruit and the liquid and the
shrimp just right to the bloodstream,

you know.

I've got the shirt dry and now I'm drying
my pants over the fire.

But the worst thing
right now is the fact that

I'm dealing with some
pretty bad foot fungus.

It's right across the five toes on my
right foot.

And, uh, I don't know.

I'll have to see how that goes.

If I end up getting real bad tomorrow with
it, it's not worth losing any toes over.

That's for sure.

So, uh, I might have to call it if that's
the case.

Cause right now I got to feed fungus
blues.

Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Diffle, dimle, dimle, dimle, dimle,
dimle.

While I wait for the
morning shower to subside,

I hope, I figured out
how to get into this fruit.

All you have to do is carve away the top,
and it's just like a green coconut.

Just open that up a little bit.

And inside of that little hole is liquid.

Fresh, rejuvenating breakfast liquid.

You've got to come check this out.

It's going to go out into the jungle a bit
here, and in the last five minutes,

thanks to the rain, the river has risen
about three feet.

It's a good thing that I'm terraced
up up there in the abandoned

hut, because if I was down
by the water, I wouldn't be.

Wow, this really is a fast flash flood.

So I'm just going to really hope that my
canoe stays tied on.

It looks to me like the river is still
coming up and fast.

So while I have the chance, I'm going to
Wade upstream against the current,

and just re-tie that canoe up a little
higher.

Tied up the canoe
about another four or five

feet higher, and the
water is still rising.

So hopefully that'll hold.

That was fun.

Ah, I showed you.

I left my shirt lying on the ground.

I just went to put it on.

Something must have been in it.

Oh, it stung me in the back really good.

I don't know if it was a wasp or an ant.

Oh, man.

It's that sting.

Whew!

I suppose what I should mention that in
reality, as I get stung out here,

the best thing to do is not
to SWAT them, because

you can shove the stinger
down deeper into your skin.

Of course, that's pretty
hard not to do when

they're on your back
and they're stinging away.

The best thing to do is to flick them
away.

That way you avoid possibly them even
biting or stinging you, and you avoid

shoving their pinchers or their stinger
down into your skin.

Let's go hunting.

Finally, a chance to put my traditional
blowgun to the test.

The dirt just goes in, in the end,
like this.

And you spin it as you get close.

And it's ready to go.

Oh, baby!

Yeah!

Let me see if that got on camera.

Oh, it did!

That's only about...

Oh, that's barely an inch away from what I
was actually trying for.

So, that's how well it works.

I think this spot will do just fine.

The Amazon jungle is the most biodiverse
place on the planet.

More variety of species here than anywhere
else.

The jungle that, although dangerous,
still is intensely beautiful.

You know, many of the shots after game in
the tree, whether it be monkey or birds or

whatever, are taken almost completely
straight up.

And you have to be
very careful that you don't

look up to watch the
dart coming back down.

You can't see it.

And many of the Waorani natives have lost
an eye to the dart coming down.

In fact, one man
actually lost both his eyes

because he did it again
on another occasion.

This involves hours of waiting.

I can't head out on a
long hunt looking for

monkey, so I'm hoping
to hit a passing bird.

There are many, but none will land close
enough for me to even get a shot away.

I.

haven't eaten more than a few shrimp and a
couple of pieces of fruit all week.

On top of that, my feet are deteriorating
quickly from foot fungus.

And in the jungle, if you can't walk,
you can't survive.

I was told that there
was an old trail leading

from my abandoned
hut to the Waorani village.

And it's here, and I found it.

So that's good.

I'm going to walk it and see if I can find
some termite nests.

If I can smoke the termite nests,
I can put my feet over top of that smoke

and it'll help to cure the foot fungus
that I'm dealing with.

There we go.

That's what I'm looking for.

There we go.

Wow, look at them all.

The good thing about termites,
they don't bite.

Not these ones anyway.

So, I'm going to take that home.

See if I can help my feet out a bit.

Man.

A weak solid of being muddy and wet.

Oh.

Let's do this.

The smoke from this termite nest is said
to ward off jaguars.

It's said to help keep away the bugs and
help to cure foot fungus.

And in addition, you can use it like a
fire carrier.

Because it'll take that and hold that
Ember for a good long time.

As I practiced this traditional medicine
on myself, one said to ward off Jaguar,

I couldn't have known
that moving in on me

was a danger far greater
than the foot fungus.

A quick trip out of the hut, just a few
yards to relieve myself before calling it

a night, revealed the reason for the fear
I have had all week.

These next few moments are frantic,
but real, and possibly the most danger I

have ever been in, in a survival
situation.

Or I should say I wasn't really expecting
to do this.

I have to do this.

All I did was go out for a pee,
and not very far from my hut was a Jaguar.

I watched him for a while,
he watched me, I yelled, I

used my whistle, and
unfortunately he didn't even flinch.

So, it's getting dark really fast.

I know this probably seems a little
contrived, but, ah, trust me, it ain't.

I brought my spear with me, and my pack,
that's all I could really grab.

I left all the camera gear there.

I just threw my pack on it.

And I figure, well, maybe a spear is
better than a machete.

I can't see a single thing.

I just got the screen flipped around so I
can see where I'm going a bit.

What bothers me about it is that it didn't
run away when I tried to scare it.

I mean, I spent a lot of
time in black bear and

wolf territory, never
wouldn't even worry a bit.

And, ah, but when I, if a bear doesn't
scare easily, then you have to be concerned.

I've done my time in grizzly territory.

But there's just something about a big cat
who's interested in you that, ah,

makes me nervous.

I think I left him behind in the jungle.

I can hear people.

After far too many hours, I have finally
made it to the fenced-in village,

fenced in to protect from Jaguar.

When they hear of my run
from the jungle, the warani

immediately begin to regale
me with stories of Jaguar attacks.

The elders are looking after my
progressively worsening foot fungus with

ancient traditional medicines that will
clear it up in a day or two.

Thank you so much.

Once I got into camp, my warani guides
told me that it's absolutely certain that

the Jaguar would have followed me all the
way into camp on the trail.

And not only that, but there were some
women that were also out on another trail

coming in, and they had a Jaguar following
them.

They didn't have a
flashlight, and they made

double time to get in
here as quickly as possible.

Right now, we've got a Jaguar just on the
other side of this Reed wall.

And he's pacing the village.

And we can hear him.

One of the crew member woke up and said,
listen, you could hear a low moan.