A Bolivian man spent 31 days lost in the Amazon jungle and lived to tell the tale.
Jhonattan Acosta, 30, got separated from his four friends while hunting in northern Bolivia.
In the weeks that followed, he explained, he drank rainwater from his shoes and ate worms and insects.
He had to hide from dangerous animals like jaguars and peccaries, which are a type of pig-like mammal.
days in the jungle
Acosta was finally found by a search party made up of locals and friends a month after he went missing.
“It’s amazing, I can’t believe people have kept searching for so long“, he said, through tears.
“I ate worms, insects… you wouldn’t believe what I had to do to survive all this time“, he confessed to Unitel TV.
It also fed on wild fruits similar to papayas, known locally as gargateas.
“I thank God very much, because he has given me a new life“.
His relatives explained that they have yet to reconstruct all the details of how the man was lost and how he managed to stay alive.
To do this, they will interrogate him little by little, since he is still traumatized by the experience.
The rescue
Acosta had lost 17 kg, had a dislocated ankle and was dehydrated when he was found, but according to those who rescued him, he could still walk with a limp.
“My brother told us that when he sprained his ankle on the fourth day, he began to fear for his life.“, declared Horacio Acosta to the Bolivian newspaper Página Siete.
“He only had a cartridge in his shotgun, he couldn’t walk and he thought that no one would look for him anymore,” added the younger brother of the survivor.
When he got lost, Jhonattan Acosta did not have a machete or flashlight and had to use his boots to collect and drink rainwater.
He also told his relatives that he ran into a jaguar and other wild animals.
According to his younger brother, Jhonattan used his last cartridge to scare off a herd of peccaries, pig-like animals that inhabit the tropical jungles of South America.
After 31 days, he spotted the search party about 300 meters away and limped towards them through thorny bushes, yelling for their attention.
Horacio Acosta remembers that four locals found his brother.
“A man came running to tell us that they had found it. It is a miracle“.
His younger brother assures that Jhonattan has decided to stop hunting forever after this ordeal.
“He is going to play music to praise God. He promised God and I think he will keep his promise,” he explained of his brother, who plays the guitar.
Meanwhile, the police announced that they will question the four friends of the survivor to find out how he became separated from the group.
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BBC-NEWS-SRC: https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-latina-64818856, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-03-02 01:10:06
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