Lost in the Amazon: Rainforest Nightmare

Dave Boyer heads to Brazil to explore the largest tropical rainforest on earth. It’s a place of breathtaking beauty and constant sensory stimulation. But here, just one step can lead to calamity. When Dave and his travel companion stray from the trail they realise that once you’re lost in the Amazon, you might never be found… A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins. Written by Nicole Edmunds | Produced by Ed Baranski | Assistant Producer: Luke Lonergan | Exec produced by Joel Duddell | Sound supervisor: Tom Pink | Sound design by Jacob Booth, Matt Peaty | Assembly edit by Rob Plummer | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Ralph Tittley. For ad-free listening, bonus material and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Click the subscription banner at the top of the feed to get started. Or go to noiser.com/subscriptions If you have an amazing survival story of your own that you’d like to put forward for the show, let us know. Drop us an email at [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 1:03John Hopkins?

  It's May the 30th, 2002. Deep inside the Amazon rainforest, dusk has settled. The rivers and floodplains glow a deep navy blue as spindly trees stretch into the darkening sky. The dense jungle is gradually coming alive as its nocturnal inhabitants begin their nighttime journeys. Insects scuttle along the leaf-strewn floor, bats squeak in the trees, and feline predators pad through the undergrowth. From nowhere, there is a deafening clap of thunder, followed almost instantly by a flash of lightning.

• 1:45John Hopkins?

  A millisecond of silence, and then the heavens open. Rain plummets down in heavy, cold droplets, turning the ground into a slushy, brown bath. But while the creatures of the Amazon can scamper away to find shelter, there are two individuals here who have nowhere to hide. Twenty-three-year-old Dave Boyer and his friend, Crystal. Shivering inside a hastily dug hole, the pair are covered head to toe in thick mud. The American tourists are stranded, totally lost in the largest tropical rainforest on Earth.

• 2:28Speaker 03

  Within seconds, basically, we start hearing the rain approaching. The trees there have really broad leaves and when rain hits them, it makes really loud, like, clinging sounds, almost like a metal roof does. So you can hear the rain coming before it gets to you.

• 2:50John Hopkins?

  The rain continues to pelt down, soaking the hikers and flooding the ground around them.

• 2:57John Hopkins?

  Trees bend and then break as sparks of lightning flash ominously against the pitch-black sky.

• 3:05Speaker 03

  It just gets harder and harder rain and there's just big booms of thunder. And it's kind of eerie to see, looking around, when the lightning goes off because it's like for this one flash, you see the entire forest around you and then it just goes right back into pitch black. You can't see anything. Just really play in with your mind to get a glimpse of your surroundings and then be put back into darkness.

• 3:35John Hopkins?

  Fumbling in the dark, Dave's hand brushes against crystals. Her skin is freezing cold, like his own.

• 3:44John Hopkins?

  Unable to hear through the stormy cacophony, they pull each other close. The blackness of the forest engulfs them. An enormous, natural prison, it seems impossible to escape.

• 3:56Speaker 03

  It was the coldest I've ever been. We're getting pounded by this torrential downpour and this awful storm. And I just kind of shut down.

• 4:15John Hopkins?

  Ever wondered what you would do when disaster strikes? If your life depended on your next decision, could you make the right choice? Welcome to Real Survival Stories. These are the astonishing tales of ordinary people thrown into extraordinary situations. People suddenly forced to fight for their lives.

• 4:36John Hopkins?

  In this episode, we meet Dave Boyer. In 2002, he takes a once-in-a-lifetime trip to South America. Alongside his travel companion, Crystal, who also used to be his girlfriend, Dave sets out to explore one of the most remarkable places on Earth. The Amazon is 6.7 million square kilometers of sprawling, breathtaking rainforest. But here, just one wrong step can lead to calamity. Once lost, you might never be found.

• 5:09Speaker 03

  If you could imagine being in this forest where it is so thick, you can't see but a few yards, a few meters in any one direction. If somebody were to take me there today and spin me in a circle and stop me and say, "Okay, walk back the way you came", I don't know that I could find the way that I came.

• 5:30John Hopkins?

  Trapped somewhere in a wilderness twice the size of India, Dave and Crystal will have to battle downpours, darkness, and despair in a slow torture that goes on for days.

• 5:42Speaker 03

  I don't know how much hope we actually had of ever being found or getting out. So I started to really worry about our survivability at that point.

• 5:52John Hopkins?

  I'm John Hopkins. From the Noiser Podcast Network, this is Real Survival Stories.

• 6:25John Hopkins?

  It's May 24, 2002, in southeastern Brazil. In Sao Paulo, 23-year-old Dave Boyer and his friend, Crystal, are weaving through a throng of people.

• 6:38John Hopkins?

  They're bleary-eyed, having just arrived after an 11-hour flight. But the vibrancy of this enormous metropolis, home to almost 12 million people, is filling them with excitement.

• 6:50John Hopkins?

  Bags strapped to their backs and passports in hand, they wander through the streets. Concrete gray skyscrapers surround them, bridges lead over wide waterways, lush green parks are dotted here and there. It's an urban jungle, easy to get lost if you don't know where you're going.

• 7:10John Hopkins?

  But soon, Dave and Crystal will be tackling something even more mesmeric and mind-blowing. The world's largest rainforest, the Amazon.

• 7:23John Hopkins?

  This ambitious adventure is the culmination of years of planning. The pair first met back in 1998, when they were at college together. Dave, a soccer-obsessed jock from North Carolina, was training to be a pilot, while Crystal studied engineering.

• 7:39Speaker 03

  I was a college student and had fallen in love with a girl and kind of shared aspirations of traveling the world with her. Both of us kind of found that when we went out and explored in the world, that we found happiness there. And so it was kind of those thoughts of being out in nature, searching for wildlife, that that was going to be a chance for us to find happiness and have an amazing experience together. So that's sort of how we made this pact to go to the Amazon.

• 8:16John Hopkins?

  They dated for a few happy years, until life ultimately got in the way. A job studying and working with big cats took Crystal to South Africa, while Dave moved back home to North Carolina. With an entire ocean between them, the relationship fizzled out.

• 8:36John Hopkins?

  But their dream of traveling to the Amazon never faded. So in 2002, when Dave heard Crystal was back in the States, he reached out to his ex.

• 8:47Speaker 03

  I had hopes that we would get back together. And the Amazon trip, I looked at that as really an opportunity for us to have some really quality time together. And I thought for sure that that was going to be the spark that would get our relationship back together. And so I continued to push the plans and she was excited about it. I was excited about it.

• 9:13John Hopkins?

  Bags packed, hostel reserved, flights booked. The pair leave North America for Brazil on May the 23rd, arriving the following day.

• 9:23John Hopkins?

  From the effervescent city of Sao Paulo, it'll take a few days to reach their destination.

• 9:29John Hopkins?

  First, they journey to the Amazon River. Then they board a boat that sails down it. It drops them in a small town on the edge of the rainforest.

• 9:40John Hopkins?

  Then a local drives them deeper into the jungle, eventually bringing them to the Amazon Youth Hostel.

• 9:47John Hopkins?

  As expected, the accommodation is basic, or rather, authentic, stripped of any glitz and glamour, but surrounded by stunning natural beauty.

• 10:00John Hopkins?

  As they unpack their bags by the light of the moon, the hostel's owner explains the different trails they can hike during their stay.

• 10:09Speaker 03

  She draws where the kitchen is and where the library is, where her house is, where our cabin is. And then she just sort of scribbles a line off the top of the page and she goes, oh, if you just go out behind the kitchen, there's trails that lead off into the rainforest and you're welcome to go for hikes. You can get canoes down by the river and go paddling into the flooded forest or along the river. So there wasn't a tour guide there to take us on hikes.

• 10:36John Hopkins?

  The route Dave and Crystal pick for their first expedition is known as the White Trail, clearly marked by little chalk arrows. It promises to take hikers into the heart of the rainforest, passing jaw-dropping scenery and exotic wildlife before leading them back to the hostel in a loop. The owner assures them it's a popular route for tourists and will be a good starting point for their adventure. Dave and Crystal settle down in their simple cabin, staring out of the window at the night sky with its twinkling stars. Tomorrow, the wonders of the rainforest await.

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• 11:48Speaker 01

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• 12:20John Hopkins?

  It's 10 a.m. on the morning of May 28. Dave and Crystal are adding the final supplies to their backpack ahead of today's hike. They load up with cereal and granola bars, crackers, and fruit roll-ups. Nothing too substantial, as they plan to be back by lunch. Dave slings the rucksack onto his back and hands Crystal a water bottle. Then they swing open the porch door and step out onto the sunlit forest floor. With the promised white chalk arrows marking their path, they exchange excited smiles and the adventure begins.

• 13:02John Hopkins?

  The wide, meandering trail leads the hikers through a little pocket of paradise. Bright, green foliage borders their route, the early morning dew still glistening on the leaves. Pastel-colored flowers carpet the floor as exotic birds flap lazily from one branch to the next.

• 13:22John Hopkins?

  Dave and Crystal make their way along the track, their mouths open in awe, heads constantly turning to absorb the marvels that surround them.

• 13:32Speaker 03

  The further we went in, the more wrapped up in the beauty of the forest we got. The trees seemed to have gotten bigger. There was just all of these insects and spiders that are just brightly colored. And every time we saw one, we would stop and just kind of like stare at it for a couple of minutes and just be in awe of it.

• 13:54John Hopkins?

  As they drink it all in, the strange coying of a bird steals their attention.

• 14:01John Hopkins?

  It sounds like it's coming from a few meters off the track. Dave and Crystal scamper into the undergrowth, following the enticing calls.

• 14:11John Hopkins?

  They lose the sound of its cry somewhere in the thicket.

• 14:15John Hopkins?

  But another noise then filters through. A gentle crash of a waterfall.

• 14:22John Hopkins?

  Abandoning their quest for the bird, they push on through the jungle to catch a glimpse of it.

• 14:28John Hopkins?

  It's only when they turn around to rejoin the trail that they realize they have no idea where they are.

• 14:36John Hopkins?

  The white arrows that guided their way have disappeared.

• 14:43Speaker 03

  Every one of these small little encounters just got us even more lost in our minds of being there. And we were naive and we weren't thinking about navigation and we were just kind of wrapped up in the experience and loving it. Like we were so happy to be doing this finally. We just kept following what we assumed was the trail, but our heads were never looking down. Our heads were always up in the trees.

• 15:10John Hopkins?

  After they've been walking for almost two hours, the pair reach a flood plain. It must be part of the river, the one that leads back to the hostel in a loop.

• 15:22John Hopkins?

  Dave wades through and calls to Crystal to follow. The coast is clear.

• 15:31John Hopkins?

  But when they clamber out the other side, the landscape has changed.

• 15:36John Hopkins?

  There is a trail here, but a few hours ago, the marked path they were on was wide enough for Dave and Crystal to walk side by side. This one is so thin that they have to march in single file. Flora closes in on them. Sinewy branches hang low, constructing a claustrophobic tunnel.

• 15:57John Hopkins?

  Soon, they reach a fallen tree. Dave and Crystal pause and look at each other.

• 16:05Speaker 03

  The moment for us to stop and actually think and analyze was a large tree had fallen across the trail. And I kind of climbed through the branches and kind of fight my way through to the other side. And on the other side, I didn't see anything that looked like a trail, nothing like what we had been following. So I crawled back through to tell Crystal, I was like, I don't know, I don't see any trail back there. If you could imagine like being in forest where it is so thick, you can't see but a few yards, a few meters in any one direction. And if somebody were to take me there today and spin me in a circle and stop me and say,

• 16:49Speaker 03

  okay, walk back the way you came, I don't know that I could find the way that I came. And I think that immediately happened to us.

• 16:57John Hopkins?

  The pair are trapped in an endless, green kaleidoscope of indistinguishable leaves, vines, and branches with no clear paths in or out.

• 17:09John Hopkins?

  But Dave doesn't panic.

• 17:12John Hopkins?

  Taking the lead, he reassures Crystal that everything will be okay. They might not know the way out, but at least they can simply turn around and head back in the direction they came from.

• 17:25John Hopkins?

  They begin attempting to retrace their steps, splashing through shallow streams, hopping across boulders and fallen branches, ducking beneath low-hanging vines.

• 17:36John Hopkins?

  Morning melts into afternoon and eventually evening as Dave and Crystal battle through the jungle terrain. But by 6:00 PM, there is still no sign of the hostel or the river that will lead them home.

• 17:52John Hopkins?

  There's nothing else for it. They decide it's time to rest.

• 17:58Speaker 03

  We just said, hey, we're gonna sit down by this tree right here as it gets dark and we're gonna stay up tonight. Just kind of talk to each other, sing some songs, mess around. We're gonna battle the mosquitoes, but we're not gonna try to make a shelter. We can sleep at the hostel once we get back there in the morning. Let's just wait out the night.

• 18:27John Hopkins?

  The next morning begins with shimmers of sunlight softly sparkling through the rainforest.

• 18:34John Hopkins?

  The brightening sky draws Dave and Crystal out of their shallow slumbers. The new dawn brings with it fresh hope. Dave, in no doubt that they'll navigate their way to the hostel in time for breakfast, eaves himself to his feet, throws the backpack onto his shoulders and sets off.

• 18:53John Hopkins?

  At first, the mood between the hikers is light. The temperature is mild and birdsong fills the air as they ramble through the beautiful surroundings.

• 19:03John Hopkins?

  But by mid-morning, with temperatures rising and little progress made, the atmosphere begins to shift.

• 19:11Speaker 03

  That's really where our first kind of moments of panic hit is by nine or 10:00 in the morning. It was really hot, really humid. We finished the bottle of water that we had left and obviously at that point, we knew we were not just easily gonna be making it out that morning and that we now had to come up with some plans.

• 19:37John Hopkins?

  They solved the water issue easily enough. There are plenty of streams scattered throughout the jungle that they can drink from. They appear clean enough, though they can't know for sure.

• 19:48John Hopkins?

  But the bigger issue remains. They are totally lost. With no map or GPS device and no discernible landmarks.

• 19:59John Hopkins?

  At times, the density of the vegetation above means even the sun is shielded from their view. But Dave does have one idea for how they might get their bearings.

• 20:10Speaker 03

  I had a watch that was in my pocket and on the band of my watch was this tiny one-centimeter diameter compass.

• 20:21John Hopkins?

  He has an inkling that they should head south, but there's no way to be certain. So he devises a plan to cover all bases.

• 20:30Speaker 03

  I didn't want to just go straight south. So instead, I decided to do these box patterns where I would keep track on my watch and we would walk for five minutes south. And then we would walk for five minutes to the east and five minutes to the north and five minutes to the west, making one circle. And then I would start over and do it for 10 minutes in each direction and then 15 minutes in each direction, making these boxes kind of bigger and bigger throughout the day, hoping that it would intersect with the trail or the hostel or anything. It was a very frustrating plan for Crystal. She didn't like the idea, even though she kept that to herself in the beginning, but

• 21:14Speaker 03

  eventually she started to voice that. She's like, "I don't understand why we're walking on circles on purpose. Why don't we just pick a direction and walk that way?"

• 21:27John Hopkins?

  Despite Crystal's protestations, Dave is adamant his plan will work.

• 21:32John Hopkins?

  The day progresses and their circles gradually widen. They pass rocks and creeks, monstrous trees and sharp sinister bushes. There is no sign of the river or the trail.

• 21:48John Hopkins?

  Over time, their footsteps become slower and heavier. And when the sun sinks in the sky at 6:00 PM, the lost hikers, again, have to call it a day.

• 22:00John Hopkins?

  Although they're resigned to spending another night in the wild, the pair try to keep their spirits up. Dave sets to work building some form of shelter, and Crystal offers motivation for the task.

• 22:14Speaker 03

  We had talked about getting back together during that second day. There's a lot of conversations while you're walking, and it just kind of keeps going in different directions. But we were feeling really close to each other because we needed each other being lost. And so, Crystal was like, "You know what? Every palm branch you bring over here for this teepee, I'll owe you a kiss, and you'll have to collect it when we get out." So, like, I got motivated. I'm like, "Oh, sweet, I'm gonna pick up 100 branches and bring them in." So, we built, I thought it was a pretty good teepee structure, and we had cleared out the ground underneath it. And basically, as nightfall was coming in, we crawled in there and tried to lay down.

• 23:00John Hopkins?

  But just as they're settling down in their self-built teepee, the air around them starts to vibrate with activity. Insects bite and sting them with no mercy, a constant hum of mosquitoes and horseflies. They do their best to bat away the buzzing creatures, but it's going to be a long night.

• 23:23Speaker 00

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• 24:27John Hopkins?

  When morning arrives, Dave and Crystal are groggy, itchy, and aching. But staying positive is key, as is staying active. Dave takes the lead once more as they pick up the thankless task of walking round and round in the ever-growing circles.

• 24:46John Hopkins?

  But today, with two nights of no sleep, no food, and only dirty water to drink, Crystal's patience is really wearing thin.

• 24:55Speaker 03

  Crystal stopped me and she's like, "I can't do that. I can't just walk in circles. We're getting nowhere. I don't see that as being the best plan." And I was open to ideas. I felt guilty and responsible, so I wanted to have a plan, but it didn't have to be my plan. She said, "I just want to pick one direction and just keep walking."

• 25:19John Hopkins?

  The immediate way southeast looks slightly more possible. As good a reason as any to head in that direction.

• 25:27John Hopkins?

  Just like the previous two days, progress is slow and painful. Tree roots block their tracks. Nettles and plants sting as they brush past, and the unrelenting, sticky heat clings to their skin.

• 25:41John Hopkins?

  At times, they are forced onto their hands and knees to scrabble up rocky hillocks.

• 25:47John Hopkins?

  As insects swarm over them, another day fades away with no reward.

• 25:54John Hopkins?

  The monotony is brutal.

• 25:56Speaker 03

  We alternated turns in the lead, and that person that had to take the lead took on a ton of responsibility. Just the idea of staying on path, making the choices of which way to go around some obstacle, which thorns to avoid, which spider web to go around. The person in the lead had to constantly make choices about all those things, whereas the person that was walking behind pretty much just stared at the person in front of his foot and followed their path and just talked maybe to try to keep their mind off of it. But I really needed Crystal to take on some of that because that really made it to where

• 26:37Speaker 03

  we could walk for 12 hours and struggle through a lot of the obstacles. We were covering a lot of ground on that third day.

• 26:47John Hopkins?

  They may be covering a lot of ground, but they're no less lost. Again, 6 p.m. arrives and the sun sinks in the sky, sending darkness across the Amazon. Muscles burning, heads pounding, Dave and Crystal finally stop and rest.

• 27:07John Hopkins?

  The prospect of another night surrounded by mosquitoes is a grim one. Every centimeter of their exposed flesh, from neck to ankles, is raw, red, and irritated.

• 27:22John Hopkins?

  But then, an idea.

• 27:26John Hopkins?

  Dave remembers that on one of the previous days, the mosquitoes didn't seem to bite so much when his arm was coated in mud.

• 27:33Speaker 03

  I said, "We're gonna make this big hole, and we're gonna lay down in it. We're gonna make a bunch of trips down to the creek with our Ziploc bag and fill it with mud and bring up some mud, and we're gonna bury ourselves and cover ourselves completely in mud and see if that helps with the mosquitoes."

• 27:53John Hopkins?

  As darkness coats the forest, Dave digs. Drenched in sweat, he manages to hollow out a six-foot trench. Then, they fill the hole with mud and smear it all over themselves, settling in to their sludgy bath for the night. At first, it does seem to help. Their skin is soothed, and the insects appear to be leaving them alone. But pretty soon, any sense of relief evaporates.

• 28:27Speaker 03

  There were sounds of thunder in the distance, and I actually asked Crystal, I was like, "Man, do you think tonight's gonna be a rainy night? Wouldn't that suck?" And then, within seconds, basically, we start hearing the rain approaching. And probably thirty seconds go by, and it starts to rain where we are. And I'm hoping that this is just one of the little fronts that comes through, and will rain for five minutes and then be done. So we just kind of patiently lay in the hole, getting soaked, hoping that it's just gonna stop and we'll be able to recover ourselves in mud.

• 29:14John Hopkins?

  But the rain doesn't relent. Instead, it grows heavier by the second, pounding down on the trees and flooding the forest floor.

• 29:24John Hopkins?

  The torrent finds its way into Dave and Crystal's trench. They can't see a thing, but they can feel it. The water starts to climb around them, reaching their chests and their chins.

• 29:37Speaker 03

  "We can't stay in this hole. We're like, we felt the water was covering us, and we're gonna drown. Like, we gotta, we gotta do something."

• 29:46John Hopkins?

  Scrambling blindly in the darkness, Dave's hands slide over loose stones and squelching soil as he tries to find a grip to hoist himself out.

• 29:57John Hopkins?

  As thunder claps in the distance, he finds enough strength to free his body. Crystal scrambles out too, shouting to Dave through the deafening storm. The ground is so saturated and uneven that keeping their feet is impossible. They're forced onto their backsides, sliding away from the trench. Coughing and spluttering, the pair scrabble around for any kind of shelter. Eventually, they stumble into a tree trunk. They huddle against it.

• 30:28Speaker 03

  There's just big booms of thunder and it's kind of eerie to see, like, looking around when the lightning goes off because it's like for this one flash, you see the entire forest around you and then it just goes right back into pitch black and you can't see anything. Just really playing with your mind to kind of get a glimpse of your surroundings and then be put back into darkness.

• 30:54John Hopkins?

  Dave and Crystal cling to each other as the freezing rain soaks them to the bone and white-hot lightning darts above.

• 31:03Speaker 03

  It was the coldest I've ever been. Like, I just started shaking uncontrollably because I was just soaking wet. All night long, we couldn't really even talk to each other because it was so loud and there were sounds of things falling down all around us. Terrifying time. And night three was probably the turning point. It was a very critical night.

• 31:35John Hopkins?

  Only when the sun finally returns does the storm subside. A warm wind sails through the trees and intermittent rays dapple the forest floor.

• 31:50John Hopkins?

  Despite the somewhat improved conditions, Dave's optimism is all but gone, though he tries to rally again. As for Crystal, things have taken an extremely difficult turn.

• 32:04Speaker 03

  Crystal has a very different thing going on in her mind. She battled depression, but had been taking a pretty powerful antidepressant for several years. And when she misses doses of that, it's only a couple of days before she really starts to struggle with keeping a positive outlook. Crystal was not feeling like, oh, it's a new day. I am not doing that kind of a night again. And she told me, she's like, I can't make it through a night like that. So we gotta get out today, or I'm not gonna make it out.

• 32:51John Hopkins?

  Dave helps Crystal forwards. Just keep moving. Another hour, one more scramble up a hill. But eventually, darkness spills across the rainforest yet again, signaling the end to another day. That's four days that have passed since they first trekked into the Amazon.

• 33:13John Hopkins?

  Now the despair is really growing as another hellish night begins.

• 33:19Speaker 03

  I just was losing my sanity with the mosquitoes. I felt like they were always on me. They were biting my eyelids if I tried to close my eyes. They were always in my ears. Like I felt like the buzzing of mosquitoes was nonstop. Every part of my body itched. And I was just kind of not able to get any like peace and calm.

• 33:46John Hopkins?

  When another pale dawn eventually arrives, it does little to improve their spirits. Day five in the jungle.

• 33:55John Hopkins?

  Mechanically, they get back to their feet and start trekking again.

• 34:01John Hopkins?

  But today, after hours of slow, monotonous walking, the landscape finally begins to alter.

• 34:10John Hopkins?

  The muddy forest floor gives way to soft, golden sand, and the suffocating tunnel of trees clears.

• 34:18Speaker 03

  We kind of got to where there were some thick, small shrubs and crawled through and found this area that was covered in sand and very sparsely vegetated. Most of the plants there were either like small ground cover. Almost no large trees were in this area. And we started walking out on it and we go, wow, this is just so different. We had felt so enclosed, walled in on all sides. And now we had a sky above us for the first time that we could see. And it was just a really comforting place compared to what we had been going through.

• 34:58John Hopkins?

  It's something, a change. But does this spell a change to their fortunes?

• 35:05John Hopkins?

  Crystal drops to the ground and unties her boots, letting the soft sand soothe her feet. Meanwhile, Dave assesses their new surroundings.

• 35:17Speaker 03

  There was like a tree fall where there was some clearing and a harpy eagle was on the other side of this clearing, which harpy eagles are, I think, the largest predatory bird in the world. Like, they're massive, they're huge, but they're so majestic looking. So like, there were a lot of those kinds of moments where we saw something that we were just in awe of and in love with and could take a minute to kind of forget what we were in. But we also understood that seeing those kinds of things meant we were probably pretty far away from villages and settlements and rivers. And that was making us a little bit nervous.

• 35:58John Hopkins?

  Their peaceful moment is all too brief. Crystal forces her shoes back over her bloodied feet and they resume their trudge.

• 36:10John Hopkins?

  The hours pass as the pair meander through the sandy clearing. This time, when evening arrives with the starry, dark blue sky above, they can finally get some proper rest.

• 36:22Speaker 03

  I really wanted to sleep and did get some sleep that night. We're so far away from light pollution and civilization that I have never seen a sky that looked like that with the Milky Way just stretched across it and just countless stars and this beautiful quarter moon that rose later that night. There were a lot of times where I would wake up kind of groggy and just stare up at the sky and just be amazed at where we were.

• 36:53Speaker 00

  New and exclusive holiday decor just launched online at The Home Depot. Check out the viral Grand Duchess collection with smart holiday lights you can control from your phone. Easily customize the twinkle across trees, wreaths, and garlands to match your holiday vibe. Create stunning light effects, then switch it up with the tap of your fingers. Even the man in red will be impressed. Shop the holiday decor you want, online only, at homedepot.com.

• 37:23Speaker 04

  Life is all about making decisions. Sometimes you make questionable ones, like buying a new TV that's too big for the wall because the electronics store employee was a little too good at their job. Then, sometimes you make great ones, like protecting your home and auto with Progressive. You get customized coverage options, so you can be sure you have the right coverage. Get your quote today at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and other insurers, not available in all states.

• 37:56John Hopkins?

  The sun rises on the morning of June the 2nd.

• 38:01John Hopkins?

  Dave is the first to wake, and as the sky lightens, he watches Crystal sleeping next to him, her chest rising and falling with her shallow breaths. Dazed, he gets up and puts his walking boots on.

• 38:16John Hopkins?

  As he's tying up his laces, listening to the early morning bird call, a horsefly lands on his arm.

• 38:23John Hopkins?

  It leads to a surreal, macabre moment.

• 38:28Speaker 03

  And I smacked it and it fell down to the sand and I'm just like staring at it and it's kind of like wiggling around in its last moments of life and Crystal's laying there and I'm kind of losing my mind a little bit, so I just start ripping apart the body of this horsefly and kind of seeing that that's our future, that our bodies are going to be laying there and things are going to come by and rip our bodies apart and we're eventually just gonna disappear into the forest and be recycled as part of the life cycle there. So there's this like morbid morning after the sunrise.

• 39:10John Hopkins?

  Dave shakes Crystal awake and urges her to put her boots on once more. As the rainforest springs to life around them, the hikers go again.

• 39:22John Hopkins?

  Their progress is faltering. Every few minutes, they need to stop to catch their breath, or so that Crystal can bathe her torn up feet. If yesterday was tough, today is a whole new torment.

• 39:36Speaker 03

  I just kept having to come up with new reasons, like we gotta do this, it's only 10 o'clock, we're gonna go till 6 o'clock tonight, but it was clearly becoming more and more evident that we weren't gonna cover much ground that day and that if we weren't able to walk, I don't know how much hope we actually had of ever being found or getting out. So I started really worry about our survivability at that point.

• 40:05Speaker 03

  I started to accept that either she or both of us were gonna have to give up. But I was still trying to reach for any other reason to motivate her to keep going. I at one point stopped her and I said, okay, today, this is the last day. We're gonna fight through this day. And if it gets to be 6:00 PM tonight, we're not gonna go through another night. We can end it at that point.

• 40:35John Hopkins?

  They trek onwards, southeast through the undergrowth, praying to see civilization.

• 40:42John Hopkins?

  There's nothing, just the boundless, unbroken wild. Eventually, not long before dusk, Dave throws up his hands in surrender. He agrees that the time has come for them to control their own destiny. There's just something he needs to do first.

• 41:05Speaker 03

  We had been covered in mud the third day, the third night, and we're six days now away from out of a shower. We were just dirty and disgusting. And we had started conversations about what death was. What was it gonna be like when we died? What was gonna be after death? Like, is there gonna be some thing that we're showing up at the gates of heaven and having to go through some sort of like a judgment and passing through or being sent to hell or whatever? And I just sort of had this feeling in me that I wasn't ready for that the way that I looked, which is just stupid.

• 41:49Speaker 03

  But that's what I had in my head. And once I got in my head, it really stuck. So I said, I wanna get clean.

• 41:58John Hopkins?

  And so begins a search for water, somewhere to wash themselves clean before the end.

• 42:07John Hopkins?

  After almost an hour of walking, exchanging no more than a few words to each other, Dave begins a descent down a sharp, rocky hill.

• 42:17John Hopkins?

  As he is slaloming left and right, careful not to trip, he catches sight of something gleaming at the bottom.

• 42:26John Hopkins?

  It's water, an enormous floodplain.

• 42:33John Hopkins?

  Lush, green plants and bushes sprout from the murky water, and trees rise from the middle as though they're floating.

• 42:42John Hopkins?

  It's an unbelievable sight. In the Amazon, a floodplain leads to a river, and a river can lead to civilization.

• 42:53John Hopkins?

  Stopping in his tracks, Dave shakes his head in disbelief. After all this time, at the eleventh hour, have they really stumbled upon a way out? Or is he hallucinating?

• 43:08John Hopkins?

  Moments later, Crystal joins him on the bank.

• 43:13John Hopkins?

  For a few moments, they just stand there in stunned silence.

• 43:19John Hopkins?

  Then Crystal takes the first step forwards.

• 43:22Speaker 03

  She just starts taking off into the water, and she's just like stomping her feet through this shallow section. And I'm following behind her, and each step starts to get deeper and deeper. And we get more and more view as we're going through and see that we're in this vast flooded forest.

• 43:47John Hopkins?

  Before they know it, they're swimming, kicking and pushing themselves between semi-submerged tree trunks.

• 43:55John Hopkins?

  Suddenly, they have renewed vigor, renewed purpose.

• 44:02John Hopkins?

  And then, while Dave is catching his breath, a strange new sound crackles through the air.

• 44:10Speaker 03

  We heard the sound of a plane flying overhead, and that was the first clear human sign. Couldn't really see it because there's still a canopy above us, but it sounded like it flew right over our heads, and it sounded like it was flying really low. And that was a sign to me that that was probably a search plane.

• 44:34John Hopkins?

  The stranded hikers scream and wave at the aircraft as it passes overhead, but to no avail.

• 44:42John Hopkins?

  With layers of foliage still above them, the plane stands no chance of spotting them. Still, hearing the aircraft suggests that help is almost within their grasp.

• 44:55John Hopkins?

  Following the logic that the floodplain will merge into a river and a river should lead them home, they swim on.

• 45:03Speaker 03

  I kicked backwards and kept making our way from one trunk to the next trunk. Eventually, I start pulling down some of the thin vines that were hanging on some of the trees and wrapping those around one of my arms to collect, thinking that we would be able to make maybe a raft and float on the river once we got to the river until we found a village or somebody.

• 45:28John Hopkins?

  One hour turns into two, and then three.

• 45:33John Hopkins?

  At last, under a deep, red sunset, their hunch is proven correct.

• 45:41John Hopkins?

  The floodplain does begin to narrow as it cuts through the rainforest, morphing slowly into a bright, blue river.

• 45:50John Hopkins?

  Their bodies are barely able to function, yet somehow Dave and Crystal find the strength to swim on, heads bobbing between the ripples.

• 46:02John Hopkins?

  And just as night threatens to fall once more, that's when they see them.

• 46:08John Hopkins?

  Two canoes on the horizon.

• 46:13Speaker 03

  Crystal sees them and doesn't believe that it's real. She thinks she's lost her mind and asks me, "Is that real? Do you see people? Are there people coming towards us right now?" And I look up and I see them and I'm like, "I think so." Let's yell, "Hello, help, help, help." We're screaming at them and they just kind of calmly paddled their way towards us, which seemed to take forever because this river is vast and we saw them pretty far off in the distance. But it's almost like they're so far away and then you blink and they're just gliding right up to you at the next moment.

• 46:52John Hopkins?

  After six days, on the brink of giving up entirely, Dave and Crystal have finally found their way out.

• 47:00John Hopkins?

  The two men on the wooden rafts glide effortlessly towards them, extending their arms. The stranded hikers turned swimmers, gripped tight, as their battered bodies are heaved on board.

• 47:14Speaker 03

  I'm able to look across at Crystal and she's looking at me and the sun's setting along the bank and these birds are just chirping and flying around like just the most beautiful setting that we could imagine. And then you add on top of that, the emotions of we were, we were dead and then we swam for four hours and then we got pulled out of the river by these people and and I think we're gonna make it, we're saved, like we've made it through this six day ordeal. So we're just crying and looking at each other, like just have a euphoric feeling.

• 48:02John Hopkins?

  As the sun drops behind the trees, Dave and Crystal float down the Amazon River until they reach a village.

• 48:11John Hopkins?

  Too weak to help themselves, they let the villagers strip them of their clothes, dress them in clean linen, and feed them delicious, freshly prepared food.

• 48:21John Hopkins?

  Next, they're moved to a school turned makeshift hospital to have their wounds treated. It's here that Adoni Elson, one of their rescuers, explains the miraculous story of how he found them.

• 48:35Speaker 03

  The owner of the hostel had recorded a message that was playing on the radio stations, basically saying, there's two Americans lost. If you find them, treat them as if they're your family. They're gonna be tired, they're gonna be hungry, they're gonna be scared, just take care of them. And so Adoni Elson had heard that message that morning and in this afternoon was paddling, looking for something to feed his family with and the search plane that flew over us and had us yelling and screaming at it. He heard that at that moment and knew that that was the two Americans that he had heard about on the radio.

• 49:16John Hopkins?

  The kindly stranger quickly paddled to his cousin's home, asking for his assistance in searching for the hikers. The two of them then set out on the river and the rest, as they say, is history.

• 49:29John Hopkins?

  After days of ill fortune, this piece of luck and kindness ultimately saved Dave and Crystal's lives.

• 49:41John Hopkins?

  Over the coming days, the pair gradually regain their strength. Then, they're ready to head home.

• 49:48John Hopkins?

  They're taken to the city of Maui's. At the hospital there, they are checked over and given the all-clear to travel on. Then they get on a plane, leaving their South American adventure behind.

• 50:01John Hopkins?

  But there is one piece of the puzzle left to complete.

• 50:05John Hopkins?

  After being moments away from death in the rainforest, experiencing suffering like never before, Dave's attention turns to his future.

• 50:15John Hopkins?

  A future which, over the coming years, he continues to hope will include Crystal.

• 50:22Speaker 03

  We had talked a lot during the six days about getting back together, and I really held on to that for many years after it, and thinking that there's got to be some sort of fate involved, that if we survived these six days together, like we were meant to be together. And that really drove a lot of my personal relationship life for many years after that. And it took a long time for me to accept that it's okay that we didn't get back together, it's okay to move on. And it doesn't mean that the six days wasn't important, there wasn't a connection between us. It's just that life is different. Relationships are hard and complicated. And it took 10 years really after that for me to decide

• 51:07Speaker 03

  that I wasn't ever going to get back together with Crystal, and I needed to move on.

• 51:14John Hopkins?

  And move on, he does.

• 51:17John Hopkins?

  As the years pass, Dave finds a new direction in life, training to become a teacher. He meets new people too, settling down and starting a family.

• 51:28John Hopkins?

  Today, though Dave and Crystal's six-day Amazon ordeal is firmly in the past, it is a chapter of his life that will stay with him always.

• 51:38Speaker 03

  It was terrible to go through, but it's been the most amazing thing for me. It changed me from a young immature boy into a strong and confident man that was ready to approach life and have more focus in life and drive to to make the world a better place. Internally, I think there's a lot of confidence that I got out of this, but also just an understanding of, well, things could always be worse. It's definitely given me a confidence in myself or an acceptance that whatever I have to face, I'm strong enough to to battle through.

• 52:30John Hopkins?

  In the next episode, we meet Jonathan Alpery. A celebrated photojournalist, in 2013, Jonathan is on his third trip to war-torn Syria when he is kidnapped by a group of rebel fighters. Over the next 81 days, he'll get to know his captors extremely well, though he'll never fully understand what they have in store for him. It will be a harrowing ordeal, testing both his body and his mind. In a country where journalists face execution by extremist groups, forming a rapport with his kidnappers will be crucial to Jonathan's survival.

• 53:10John Hopkins?

  That's next time on Real Survival Stories. Listen today without adverts by subscribing to Noiser Plus.

• 53:17Speaker 00

  New and exclusive holiday decor just launched online at The Home Depot. Check out the viral Grand Duchess collection with smart holiday lights you can control from your phone. Easily customize the twinkle across trees, wreaths, and garlands to match your holiday vibe. Create stunning light effects, then switch it up with the tap of your fingers. Even the man in red will be impressed. Shop the holiday decor you want, online only, at homedepot.com.

• 53:48Speaker 04

  Life is all about making decisions. Sometimes you make questionable ones. Like buying a new TV that's too big for the wall because the electronics store employee was a little too good at their job. Then, sometimes you make great ones. Like protecting your home and auto with Progressive. You get customized coverage options so you can be sure you have the right coverage. Get your quote today at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and other insurers. Not available in all states.