Lost in the Jungle: A Harrowing True Story of Survival

Israeli Yossi, American Kevin, and Swiss Marcus are mochileros (backpackers) in Bolivia who decide they want to see a real jungle and Indian village. They hire a man, Karl, to guide them through the forest. As the title makes obvious, everything goes terribly wrong. These mochileros have no idea that their enthusiasm isn’t enough to get them out alive. It is gruesome and harrowing. Yossi lives to write the book—so there’s that. Yossi spends what feels like an eternity getting to the hike, especially the relationship between them. But he continues that level of detail throughout, and it seems he wants to do right by the men who started the journey with him to acknowledge what each man went through. Whatever you do, don’t listen show more to the audiobook. The narrator doesn’t sound human (I confirmed it’s not AI). He over-enunciates (annoying!) and provides almost no emotions. I quit the audiobook and checked out the ebook. So glad I did. I recommend it but beware, this is sheer survival mode. If ever one could have almost every bad thing happen, it happened to Yossi. I hope to see the movie Jungle with Daniel Radcliffe now, but I hope it is not so gruesome. show less

Yes, this was a good read. But...
When I see how the author helped the natives in Bolivia, and the opioid addicts in Australia, i wondered that he didn't think of helping the Palestinians in his own country.

It was difficult for me to like the protagonist and his fellow boys who went on this jungle trip. They seemed like privileged white boys who just wanted to play around... "Go see an Indian village!"... But I got really pissed off when they had to be cruel to animals:
P.66-7:
"we asked if the moral of the story was that we should have a dog along as Jaguar bait.
'don't laugh,' Karl said. 'she can come along with us, eat a lot of the fresh game that we'll soon be hunting. She'll get stronger and turn into a beautiful, lively dog.' as if show more anxious to demonstrate his point, he began tossing bones to 'flaca,' angrily driving off any of the other dogs that tried to snatch one of the bones away, and the dog did perk up a bit.
it wasn't difficult to talk the Rancher into selling her. karl fastened a rope around her neck. 'no, no, sweetheart, you aren't going to go running back home,' he said to her. 'I'll keep her on a leash for a few days until she gets used to me, and then she'll follow along on her own.'
Kevin snapped a few profiles of the newest member of our party, and we set out again.
The damned dog slowed us down terribly. she refused to keep Pace with us, and every once in awhile she'd lie down and wouldn't budge. Karl tried everything. First he sweet-talked her, promising better things to come. Then he cursed her, threatened her, kicked her, and beat her with a flimsy branch.
we had a good steep climb ahead, and the dog was determined not to move an inch. Karl dragged her cruelly over every root, dry branch, or rock in her path until Kevin took pity on the poor animal. He untied her, picked her up, and draped her across his shoulders, two legs hanging down on each side of his neck, like a lamb...."
P.84-5:
"At noon Karl noticed a gathering of dark clouds on the horizon. before long a heavy rain was pouring down on us. Determined, WE marched on, drenched to the Bone.
Flaca, who was being dragged by the rope around her neck, rebelled. Her legs went out from under her, and she laid down. Karl's shouting and kicking did no good. he dragged her a long way over the muddy ground. She didn't let out a whimper. finally he got really mad, took the rope from around her neck, and shouted, 'you don't want to come? Fine, have it your way. Just stay here!'
we went on, looking back sadly at the poor dog, sure we would never see her again. what a bum deal she had gotten, I thought to myself. we had bought her from her poor owners, thinking she'd be better off with us, but had brought her nothing but hardship. Now we were abandoning her to her fate. Alone in the jungle she would die of cold and hunger. I looked back again. Flaca was stretched out in the mud, watching us apathetically, as if resigned to the end that would soon be hers." show less

I was occasionally on the edge of my seat taking this, particularly when I had settled into the book. It seemed to improve once he was on his own. Interesting to read this gave a really good feel for the jungle in Bolivia, the dangers there and the awesome nature of it. How Yossi coped with being alone in this is interesting and of course will make readers wonder how they would cope.

A riveting tale of adventure, hope, and ultimately defying death in the Peruvian Amazon. This is the true story of Yossi Ghinsberg as he sets out on an Amazon exploration adventure with 3 others and ends up on his own trying to survive for the next 3 weeks. I kept putting myself in his situation and quite frankly it scared the crap out of me. I have no desire to see the movie as I don't think it could come close to what I was imagining him going through while reading this. A nice piece of work...recommended for all.

I usually read fiction but picked up this true account after reading a review. So glad I didn't pass it by. This is the story of four young men who meet in Boliva and plan a two-month trek into the jungle to look for gold. It is told in the first person by the author, Yossi Ghinsberg, and I love the way he writes. It's as though he's telling the story to a trusted friend. I was amazed at the poor judgement of these young men. It makes me want to get on Google Earth and look up some of these incredible remote villages in the jungle. Reading the book also spurred me on to Googling "shrunken heads", and that's all I'll say.

Yossi Ghinsberg's "Lost in the Jungle: A Harrowing True Story of Survival" tells the story of Ghinsberg's trip into the Bolivian jungle and his three weeks surviving alone after being separated from his friends. As a survival story, it is pretty amazing as Ghinsberg survives starvation, jaguars, torrential rains and bugs before he is rescued. In that way the story is compelling. However, it was difficult to like the book because I so disliked Yossi -- who created a good portion of his own troubles and fell in with someone who was very obviously at best a con man. He appears to feel little remorse about one of his comrades, who was likely murdered (an idea that Ghinsberg doesn't even seem to entertain...) My dislike for the narrator show more definitely lessened my enjoyment of this book. show less

This is an interesting adventure book. The writing is plain, unadorned, and not elegant but sense of being there in the first person really comes across without being maudlin. There is a little gratuitous writing of extraneous things; kept to a minimum. As an adventure or survival book vs. the others I've read, it does seem somehow local or unpolished, but the adventures are so heartfelt and scary.

The story is about a young man who wants to do some hiking or bushwhacking in South America. Clearly he sees the beauty of the scenery. He also takes a lot of time (perhaps too much) to lay out the group dynamics of the various people he teams up with/goes along with along his journey. While not tedious, it reminds the outdoors-person the show more cutting and clear ups and downs of dealing with people you have not known for a long time, and being with them making joint travel decisions or even being in life threatening situations with them. The survival part - when the man was in the jungle alone for like 17 days with a cigarette lighter and no knife - is awesome. I would recommend the book - just be ready that at times it's like reading someone's unedited personal journal. show less