Will to Live: Dispatches from the Edge of Survival Read Free Page A

group focused on a collective goal would ultimately contribute to the trip’s descent into discord and failure.
    Nevertheless, their first days proved idyllic, largely because they were still within the confines of civilization. They hiked from ranch to ranch, enjoying the hospitality of locals who housed them, fed them, and treated them as honored guests. During one such stop, Karl insisted on buying an emaciated dog, which he said would protect them from jaguars once they got deeper into the jungle. The dog proved to be much more of a burden than it was worth and ultimately ran away. Karl’s nearly neurotic insistence on buying the dog, despite his friends’ protests, should have been another red flag for Yossi.
    The first cracks in the group dynamic began to develop shortly thereafter. One morning, Karl rushed along a jungle path with Flaca (“Skinny”) the dog, leaving the others behind. Yossi, Kevin, and Marcus soon came upon a fork in the trail, and only by luck picked the path that eventually brought them to the spot where Karl and Flaca were resting.
    This was another Karl red flag. He was the one who knew the territory, he was the guide, and he should have known enough to wait at every junction for those trailing behind. When you’re traveling in a group in the wilderness, you always need to assign a lead person and a tail person. The lead person is responsible for stopping at all forks in the trail, while the tail person ensures that nobody gets left behind and that the rate of travel is comfortable for the slowest person. In addition, all of the members of the group should always be either in sight, or, at the very least, within earshot of one another. Karl ignored this basic rule of group wilderness travel.
    Four days after setting out from Apolo, the group arrived at the village of Asriamas, on the banks of the Tuichi River. There they had the opportunity to eat, rest, and replenish their dwindling food stores. Karl’s plan was to follow the nearby Asriamas River upstream for a few days, then cross a range of mountains to the Cocus River. They would descend the Cocus and continue crossing mountains until they came to the Colorado-Chico River, which would then lead them to the authentic “Indian village” and the gold they sought. An ambitious plan!
    With full bellies and backpacks, the four set out from Asriamas. The going was difficult from the start, and Yossi soon began to worry about the amount of food they had. Trusting your instincts is everything in survival, and Yossi was beginning to experience this instinctual characteristic of a true survivor, though he didn’t know it. Karl had assured them there would be loads of game to hunt along the way, though. The jungle, he promised, was practically bursting with animals they could hunt with the rifle they brought along from La Paz.
    For several days, they fell into a comfortable routine. Karl would wake before everyone else and prepare breakfast. He never asked for help and never chided the others for lying in bed while he worked. Then again, he was a loner, and likely preferred his time alone. The group had come to rely on Karl so much that they started calling him “Poppa.”
    And while things seemed relatively safe at this point in the journey, the cracks in the group dynamic that had begun to form before Asriamas began to rear their ugly heads again. Karl and Marcus began spending most of their time together; Kevin and Yossi did the same. Yossi was smart enough to broach the changing group dynamic with his good friend Marcus, but in the end they walked away without having resolved anything.
    Never underestimate the powerful negative effect that group dynamics can have on a survival situation. Bad ones have been the cause of hundreds of emergencies. Once tempers flare and emotions rule the day, tactical reason and intelligent travel perspectives get thrown out the window. Of course, nobody wants to see their travel mates come to ill fate, but if