The Amazonian rainforest is roughly the size of Europe or Australia. It is the home of more than half the plant and animal species known to man, many of which are lethal.
In 1981 three friends went backpacking in a remote area of Bolivia: Yossi, 22, and his two friends Kevin, 29, and Marcus, 29. They hired an experienced guide, an Austrian called Karl, who promised that he could take them deep into the rainforest to an undiscovered indigenous village. Then they would raft nearly 200 kilometres down river before flying to the capital, La Paz. Karl said that the journey to the village would take them seven or eight days. Before they entered the jungle, the three friends made a promise that they would 'go in together and come out together'.
The four men set off from the town of Apolo and soon they had left civilization far behind. But after walking for more than a week there was no sign of the village and tensions began to appear. The three friends began to suspect that Karl, the guide, didn't really know where the indigenous village was. Yossi and Kevin began to get fed up with their friend Marcus because he was complaining about everything, especially his feet, which has become infected and were hurting.
Eventually they decided to abandon the search for the village and just to hike back to Apolo, the way they had come. But Kevin was furious because he thought that it was Marcus' fault that they had had to cut short their adventure. So he decided that he would raft downAhe river, and he asked Yossi to join him - he didn't want Marcus to come with them. Karl and Marcus agreed to go back to Apolo on foot. The three friends agreed to meet in a hotel in La Paz in a week's time.
Early next morning the two pairs of travellers said goodbye and set off on their different journeys... Yossi and Kevin soon realized that going by river was a big mistake. The river got faster and faster, and soon they were in rapids.
The raft was swept down the river at an incredible speed until it hit a rock. Kevin managed to swim to land, but Yossi was swept away by the rapids.
But Yossi didn't drown. He came up to the surface several kilometres downriver. By an incredible piece of luck he found their backpack floating in the river. The backpack contained a little food, insect repellent, a lighter, and most important of all... the map. The two friends were now separated by a canyon and six or seven kilometres of jungle.
Kevin was feeling desperate. He didn't know if Yossi was alive or dead, but he started walking downriver to look for him. He felt responsible for what had happened to his friend. Yossi, however, was feeling very optimistic. He was sure that Kevin would look for him so he started walking upriver calling his friend's name. But nobody answered. At night Yossi tried to sleep but he felt terrified. The jungle was full of noises. Suddenly he woke up because he heard a branch breaking. He turned on his flash light. There was a jaguar staring at him...
Yossi was trembling with fear. But then he remembered something that he once saw in a film. He used the cigarette lighter to set fire to the insect repellent spray and he managed to scare the jaguar away.
After five days alone, Yossi was exhausted and starving. Suddenly, as lie was walking, he saw a footprint on the trail – it was a hiking boot. It had to be Kevin's footprint! He followed the trail until he discovered another footprint. But then he realized, to his horror, that it was the same footprint and that it wasn't Kevin's. It was his own. He had been walking around in a circle. Suddenly Yossi realized that he would never find Kevin. He felt sure that Kevin must he dead. Yossi felt depressed and on the point of giving up.
But Kevin wasn't dead. He was still looking for Yossi. But after nearly a week he was weak and exhausted from lack of food and lack of sleep. He decided that it was time to forget Yossi and try to save himself. He had just enough strength left to hold onto a log and let himself float down the river.
Kevin was incredibly lucky – he was rescued by two Bolivian hunters in a canoe. The men only hunted in that part of the rainforest once a year, so if they had been there a short time earlier or later, they would never have seen Kevin. They took him back to the town of San Jose and he spent two days recovering.
As soon as Kevin felt well enough, he went to a Bolivian Army base and asked them to look for Yossi. The army were sure that Yossi must be dead, but in the end Kevin persuaded them to take him up in a plane and fly over the part of the rainforest where Yossi could be. It was a hopeless search. The plane had to fly too high and the forest was too dense. They couldn't see anything at all. Kevin felt terribly guilty. He was convinced that it was all his fault that Yossi was going to die in the jungle. Kevin's last hope was to pay a local man with a boat to take him up the river to look for his friend.
By now, Yossi had been on his own in the jungle for nearly three weeks. He hadn't eaten for days. He was starving, exhausted and slowly losing his mind. It was evening. He lay down by the side of the river ready for another night alone in the jungle. Suddenly he heard the sound of a bee buzzing in his ear. He thought a bee had got inside his mosquito net. When he opened his eyes he saw that the buzzing noise wasn't a bee...
It was a boat. Yossi was too weak to shout, but Kevin had already seen him. It was a one in a million chance, but Yossi was saved.
When Yossi had recovered, he and Kevin flew to the city of La Paz and they went directly to the hotel where they had agreed to meet Marcus and Karl. But Marcus and Karl were not there. The two men had never arrived back in the town of Apolo. The Bolivian army organized a search of the rainforest, but Marcus and Karl were never seen again.
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