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3.77 AVERAGE
3.77 AVERAGE
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
'Jungle' by Yossi Ghinsberg is a memoir of an incredible month-long trek into and out of a Bolivian jungle! The trip was originally supposed to be only a fun two-week camping and hiking experience for four adventure junkies. After the first week, things went terribly wrong. Getting out became a survival walk of solitary hell. Awful parasites, jaguars, fire ants, constant rain, a major storm, bogs, overturned rafts in fast moving streams - I was horrified and intrigued by the descriptions. Ghinsberg had only a small pack of essentials for jungle survival - mosquito net, some food, one lighter, etc. - but rough terrain, mistakes, insects and starvation almost killed him.
Everybody did not survive. It was deadly journey. Why do guys DO this to themselves?
The book was first published in 1985, revised in 2015. Yossi talks briefly about his 1981 Amazon jungle trip in a YouTube video, apparently because of the movie about his extraordinary survival, made in 2017:
https://youtu.be/kDx2fv33Ez8
Movie trailer:
https://youtu.be/Ys9si3mFqGY
The video is not very plain-spoken or explanatory about 'Jungle' (it seems a montage of jungle videos), but it gives you an idea of Ghinsberg today. The Epilogue chapter tells us he is a motivation speaker, and is a promoter for a technology curing opiate addiction. In Australia where he lives, he initiated the Alma Libre Foundation and a clinic to treat opiate addictions. Unbelievably, he still is enraptured by rainforests!
When Ghinsberg had this jungle adventure he was only twenty-one years old and a mochilero (backpacker). I didn't know there was a huge culture of mochileros and supporting businesses which supplied them with cheap places to sleep and eat, although I knew many young American people of my generation were indulging in backpacking travels during the 1970's and 1980's - mostly to southeast Asia and India. However, I guess young people from many countries, and some not so young, were traveling everywhere around the world with a pair of jeans, sneakers and a backpack wherever they felt like going. Ghinsberg, an Israeli, met an Austrian, Karl Ruchprecter (thirty-five) and an American, Kevin Gale (twenty-nine) and a Swiss, Marcus Stamm (twenty-eight) in La Paz, Bolivia. Karl offered to guide them all to the Amazon jungle. He claimed he was one of the best guides they could hire, very familiar with the Bolivian part of the Amazon. The other young men had never hiked into a real jungle before! They couldn't wait! So thrilling! They wanted to see a real Amazon native village, and Karl promised to guide them to one which was untouched by civilization.
Really? Really!
The men were very different, so under the physical stress of jungle camping they soon were disputing with each other about divisions of labor and hunting. Marcus in particular did not like the shooting and cooking of various animals. Eventually, Gale and Ghinsberg teamed up more often than not, both English speakers. Marcus became sort of the odd man out. Ghinsberg does not hide his own participation in these disputes from readers.
Questions about Karl's expertise began to percolate up into sotto voce conversations - did he know where he was going? Karl did seem to know things about hunting - but the Amazon jungle? Maybe not....
The book is well written and fascinating. It reminded me a bit of the fiction novel [b:The Ruins|21726|The Ruins|Scott B. Smith|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1432679747l/21726._SX50_.jpg|2453000], actually. The book has a lot of the same horrors, only worse, with insects as the creeping crawling horror instead of a plant. Wow. I will never set foot in a jungle. Never. No. Not.
Everybody did not survive. It was deadly journey. Why do guys DO this to themselves?
The book was first published in 1985, revised in 2015. Yossi talks briefly about his 1981 Amazon jungle trip in a YouTube video, apparently because of the movie about his extraordinary survival, made in 2017:
https://youtu.be/kDx2fv33Ez8
Movie trailer:
https://youtu.be/Ys9si3mFqGY
The video is not very plain-spoken or explanatory about 'Jungle' (it seems a montage of jungle videos), but it gives you an idea of Ghinsberg today. The Epilogue chapter tells us he is a motivation speaker, and is a promoter for a technology curing opiate addiction. In Australia where he lives, he initiated the Alma Libre Foundation and a clinic to treat opiate addictions. Unbelievably, he still is enraptured by rainforests!
When Ghinsberg had this jungle adventure he was only twenty-one years old and a mochilero (backpacker). I didn't know there was a huge culture of mochileros and supporting businesses which supplied them with cheap places to sleep and eat, although I knew many young American people of my generation were indulging in backpacking travels during the 1970's and 1980's - mostly to southeast Asia and India. However, I guess young people from many countries, and some not so young, were traveling everywhere around the world with a pair of jeans, sneakers and a backpack wherever they felt like going. Ghinsberg, an Israeli, met an Austrian, Karl Ruchprecter (thirty-five) and an American, Kevin Gale (twenty-nine) and a Swiss, Marcus Stamm (twenty-eight) in La Paz, Bolivia. Karl offered to guide them all to the Amazon jungle. He claimed he was one of the best guides they could hire, very familiar with the Bolivian part of the Amazon. The other young men had never hiked into a real jungle before! They couldn't wait! So thrilling! They wanted to see a real Amazon native village, and Karl promised to guide them to one which was untouched by civilization.
Really? Really!
The men were very different, so under the physical stress of jungle camping they soon were disputing with each other about divisions of labor and hunting. Marcus in particular did not like the shooting and cooking of various animals. Eventually, Gale and Ghinsberg teamed up more often than not, both English speakers. Marcus became sort of the odd man out. Ghinsberg does not hide his own participation in these disputes from readers.
Questions about Karl's expertise began to percolate up into sotto voce conversations - did he know where he was going? Karl did seem to know things about hunting - but the Amazon jungle? Maybe not....
The book is well written and fascinating. It reminded me a bit of the fiction novel [b:The Ruins|21726|The Ruins|Scott B. Smith|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1432679747l/21726._SX50_.jpg|2453000], actually. The book has a lot of the same horrors, only worse, with insects as the creeping crawling horror instead of a plant. Wow. I will never set foot in a jungle. Never. No. Not.
How can one rate and review someones terrible life experience?
Jungle (or my edition In the Heart of the Amazon).
I did feel like I was stuck in the Amazon rain forest alongside Yossi.
I also did like the 'characters' (they are real people guys). And I did feel a tear come to my eye in the epilogue.
All in all a slight disappointment (I usually love non fiction biographies) but you know that's ok.
Jungle (or my edition In the Heart of the Amazon).
I did feel like I was stuck in the Amazon rain forest alongside Yossi.
I also did like the 'characters' (they are real people guys). And I did feel a tear come to my eye in the epilogue.
All in all a slight disappointment (I usually love non fiction biographies) but you know that's ok.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Toxic friendship
Really good story that shows how crude life can get to be in the wild and how huge the hope and survival desire are. Really accurate description of places and really amazing events occurring during the development of the story.
adventurous
inspiring
medium-paced
I listened to the audiobook after watching the movie.
It's hard to think someone could survive the amount of time Yossi survived in the Amazon. For some reason the movie seemed more impactful than the book, possibly because of the audiovisual effects on top of the story.
7.5/10. Recommend
It's hard to think someone could survive the amount of time Yossi survived in the Amazon. For some reason the movie seemed more impactful than the book, possibly because of the audiovisual effects on top of the story.
7.5/10. Recommend
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
This story is absolutely wild - no pun intended. Literally an unbelievable story of survival that you have to read. 3.5 stars only because the writing didn't flow super nicely but that didn't stop me from devouring this unputdownable, harrowing story.