Ed and Cho in Trouble: There may be trouble brewing for Ed Stafford, and his companion Gadiel “Cho” Sanchez Rivera. As you probably recall, Ed is the man who is hiking the entire length of the Amazon, covering more than 4000 miles in the process.
He was joined by Cho part way through the hike, and they’ve been a team ever since. Ed has been in the jungle for 519 days at this point, and he generally keeps us updated through his website and
Twitter feed using a satellite uplink, but his most recent messages indicate that the next week or so are going to be quite challenging for the two men.
According to several “tweets” sent out this morning via Twitter, Ed and Cho are starting to run dangerously low on food and have not found a good way to resupply at this point. Ed says that they are down to just 4 cups of farine, which he describes as “the carbohydrate of the Amazon and is made from dried yucca roots.” The guys have been surviving on fish that they’ve caught, along with the farine, but now they are finding it harder and harder to find anything to replenish their supplies.
The situation has gotten so bad that they spent a day and a half trying to find a settlement where they could trade, but they are in such a remote location of the Amazon, the didn’t even come across a village.
Now, they estimate that they are 7 to 10 days away from the next village, and have about 7 more days worth of food as well. If they don’t reach the next settlement, they could be very hungry for a few days. On top of all of that, they report that their energy levels are getting quite low as they work hard in the jungle and have few calories to replenish the energy they are expending.
As if all of that wasn’t scary enough, the last message from the team says they’ll be out of communications for awhile. Batteries are low and they are having issues reaching the satellite uplinks under the thick jungle canopy. This may mean that we won’t hear anything until they actually make it to town again.
Once again, this expedition is fascinating to watch unfold. With their ongoing communications from the jungle, we’re actually part of the adventure as it happens, and it is really interesting to follow along with Ed and Cho. Lets just hope they’re back in communication again soon, and they find something to eat along the way.
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I hope everything turns out okay with this story. Both for their safety and for the future of this expedition. Hopefully they are able to continue their journey.
It is certainly an inhospitable environment to be in for long periods of time. The only people that typically spend that much time deep in the Amazon jungle are the indigenous tribes that live there.
I've said it before, Ed and his guide Cho have balls of steal for undertaking this journey.
I'm with you Carl. These guys are on an amazing expedition, and really are putting it all out there. It has been such an amazing thing to follow along with. Just hope they make it to the next settlement in one piece.