Walking the length of the Amazon

[Pedro Arvy]

It's not UL but its impressively insane. This guy is walking the length of the Amazon. Check out http://www.walkingtheamazon.com especially the videos – crazy stuff.

The guys are in a bit of trouble at the moment and are forced to live off the land. That's a good way to save weight!

[Mark McLauchlin]

Pedro,

Compass Broken?
The page you were after (forums/www.walkingtheamazon.com.html) is lost in the woods.

You may have followed a bad link or mis-typed a URL. That’s most likely what went wrong.

For now, you may want to load our home page, try a search (see the upper right for the search box), or get in touch to ask for what you're after

Obviousely I can get the URL, but thought I would point it out.

Cheers

[Pedro Arvy]

Link fixed

[Diplomatic Mike]

The guy has been out there a while. The 'thousand yard stare' is well established! :)

[Miguel Arboleda]

No-one has ever done what he is attempting….

The arrogance of western people can really be astonishing sometimes. How in the world can anyone from an industrialized country know that? Living and moving in the Amazon is a way of life for the people who have lived there, and originally travelled there, for millennia. They have no problem "living off the land". It's just as stupid a statement as pioneers declaring that they were the first people to go out West. Walking the length of the Amazon is definitely an amazing feat, but the first people to do it? Come on. Credit is due where credit is due. The people who live there are people, not "nobody".

[Walter Carrington]

Miguel, I agree with your sentiment on this, but I think the native people would go by boat/raft/canoe and would think these guys are insane. Is there any motive other than just to say they did it? Any environmental inventory could more easily be done by water travel.

There was a group that walked a transect across Africa, also a very difficult trip, but one that made more sense to me because there was no easy route right next to their route.

For those that might be interested in the Amazon, two interesting movies are Fitzcarraldo and Aguirre the Wrath of God. Parts of Fitzcarraldo were filmed in Iquitos, Peru, which has the best ice cream in the world.

[Pedro Arvy]

Ed is currently short of food. So much so that he is forced to trying to work out what jungle plants he can eat.

BTW, what would motivate someone living in the jungle as an Indian to walk its length i.e. from the Pacific coastline, over mountains, and then down the Amazon. I don't think primitive people moved those sort of distances. Nor would they have had any geographical idea about west to east, the Andes, the Pacific etc. Seems unlikely for someone dependent on tribal life.

Sure, you can't prove it but by that measure you can't prove any world record as we don't have eternal records for every act in human history.

[Bob Bankhead]

Someone actually beat Andy Skurka to the punch!

There's always the tip of South America (Cape horn) to the end of the Aluetian Islands in Alaska. Packraft optional but recommended.

[Andrew Richardson]

Cho is the man! He was supposed to simply guide Ed for 5 days and then he just decides that he's going to come along too! I wonder if he was just like "Welp, I think Im'a go with you to the mouth. I don't have much else going on sooo.." These guys are living a dream of mine. They are on a real adventure!

Now, this adventure doesn't match the like of Captain Scott's polar expeditions, which conducted rigorous scientific studies, but this is still pretty cool. Traveling is harder when science is involved, and the nature of the studies lead to more land impact, so I'm not too discouraged. Still, imagine what they could provide as far as flora and fauna collections.

As for being the first to do something like this, it is true that he probably isn't the FIRST person to any of the places he is visiting. However, recording his journey is a first, and I hope he is documenting more than is apparent from the blog. That is where knowledge is gained and passed on to the masses (scientists).

[Author]

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