Yossi Ginsberg tested himself and the consequences of his trials (9 photos)

When this adventurous guy arrived in Bolivia in the 80s, he could not have imagined that his story would be the subject of a film decades later.





After the army, the young man decided to see the world a little and gain impressions before going to routine work. The trip turned out to be international. It was attended by Yossi Ginsberg himself from Israel, Markus Stamm from Switzerland, Kevin Gale from the United States and Karl Ruprecht from Austria. The guys were young, but at the same time experienced in terms of travel.



Marcus and Kevin were old friends. Photographer Kevin was persuaded to take part in the trip to expand his portfolio. And Karl turned out to be the dark horse in the company. He introduced himself to the guys as a geologist and stated that he knew a village called Takana in the jungle, where you can get gold.

Despite the onset of the rainy season, the company moved into the jungle. Due to personal differences, the travelers split up. Markus and Karl continued their quest for gold, and Yossi and Kevin decided to take a raft to the city of Rurrenabaque.



The raft rocked and Yossi found himself in the river. A friend tried to look for him, but to no avail. Then he himself began to weaken and lose consciousness. But Kevin's ordeal did not last so long: he was discovered by local fishermen. The man came to his senses for several days, and then persuaded his rescuers to organize a search for Yossi. The expedition was led by experienced hunter and explorer Abelardo “Tico” Tudela.



But Ginsberg had to fully experience the results of his frivolous attitude towards the power of nature. He suffered from humidity, hunger and a mass of insects that gnawed into every millimeter of the unfortunate man's skin.



I somehow maintained my strength with eggs and fruits. Going down the river, the guy was once again afraid to move, since any branch could turn out to be a poisonous snake and kill him in a few minutes.



And then there was a meeting that almost became fatal. The king of the jungle, the jaguar, decided to try human flesh. Yossi was saved from certain death by insect spray and a lighter.

The ignited liquid burned the eyes of the predator, and he disappeared into the jungle. But in parting he managed to leave multiple wounds, many of which were quite serious.



Yossi could no longer walk, he sank to the ground and prepared for death. When suddenly I heard footsteps. It was Kevin who brought help.

In total, the man survived in the jungle for about three weeks. After which he spent three months in the hospital recovering from dehydration and wounds. And he believed in miracles and God’s providence:

Now I definitely believe in miracles, to think that the very place where they decided to go back and repeat the search was exactly where I was lying. This is truly inexplicable!



Yossi today

Karl and Marcus were not found. It later turned out that Ruprecht was a criminal and led people into the jungle, where he robbed them and left them to their fate, or worse.



Ginsberg and Daniel Radcliffe, who starred in the film "The Jungle"

Yossi wrote a book about his misadventures, which was used to make the movie “The Jungle” released in 2017. Now the man lives in Australia, raises four children from several marriages and develops mobile applications.