The Teachings of Gerineldo Moises Chavez, or, The Rainforest Is a Great Place to Save, But I Wouldn’t Want to Live There

This experience of jungle survival in the Amazon Basin predated all those ensuing reality shows about weird survival experiences. This one was tough—and real—enough. A week in the Amazon, living off the land. What did I take with me? A machete, a toothbrush, and water purification. And a great photographer, Bill Hatcher, who endured all the same deprivation as I did.

Worth it? Well, I fell in love with the jungle and with birds. And our guide, Moises Chavez, is an extraordinary character. But Bill and I agreed that if we had it to do over, we’d cheat.

This article won a Lowell Thomas Gold Award for Best Adventure Travel story. I also went back to the Amazon to film the experience for Outside Television, which I wrote, narrated, and was featured in. The lower two shots at right are screen grabs from the film.

Excerpt:

“We have only grubs to eat,” Moises said, sounding somewhat apologetic.

“Great,” I replied, in all earnestness.

I’d had it with hunger. I'd had it with wet. My own scent offended me. My arms ached from waving off kamikaze flotillas of mindless, DEET-disrespecting mosquitoes. I’d had it with sweat bees, desperately in love with my sodden leather boots, clouds of them swirling around my feet at every stride. I was a starved sweat machine, a giant itch, a pathetic, sleep-deprived gringo who couldn’t even catch an agouti for dinner. But at least I’d developed a yen for grubs. When you’re trying to live off the land in the green heart of Peru's upper Amazon rainforest, strange things begin to happen.

You learn to like beetle larva.

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