Speaker 1: This is unexplained, Season four, Episode four, Always Already Part two.
Speaker 1: It had been two days since McEntire had so carelessly
Speaker 1: followed the Maya Runa into the depths of the Amazon rainforest.
Speaker 1: That night, having strung up a hammock on the edge
Speaker 1: of the camp, he lay awake, replaying those words over
Speaker 1: and over in his mind, some of us are friends.
Speaker 1: How could the chief have communicated this without uttering a word,
Speaker 1: let alone not speaking English? Did he have access to
Speaker 1: an ancient form of communication, he thought, abilities that had
Speaker 1: long died out in more contemporary societies. Or had McEntyre
Speaker 1: merely picked up on a general sensibility and conjured the
Speaker 1: thoughts on his own? What, then, did it mean that
Speaker 1: only some of them were friends? McEntire awoke the next
Speaker 1: morning with an acrid smell of burning rubber assaulting his nostrils.
Speaker 1: He lifted his arm to check the time, but there
Speaker 1: was no watch on his wrist. His camera and shoes
Speaker 1: were gone too. Stumbling into the middle of the camp,
Speaker 1: he found Red Cheeks and some fellow warriors of the
Speaker 1: tribe standing around a fire, with a suspiciously dark plume
Speaker 1: of smoke rising up from it, and on top of
Speaker 1: it were his sneakers. McIntyre grabbed them, putting them, still scolding,
Speaker 1: onto his feet As Red Cheeks and the others crowed
Speaker 1: with laughter. McEntyre breathed deeply, doing his best to control
Speaker 1: the anger now swelling up inside of him, as he
Speaker 1: looked desperately for his camera, the one thing that justified
Speaker 1: his stupidity at getting lost out there. Just then, the
Speaker 1: chief appeared and approached him. I need to know what happened,
Speaker 1: came the voice in McEntire's head. Many others had appeared
Speaker 1: by now, crowding round the fire. The chief looked first
Speaker 1: at Red Cheeks and then to Macentyre, before turning his
Speaker 1: back and walking away. As the rest of the village
Speaker 1: moved in behind him, Macentyre shouted out to them, but
Speaker 1: nobody responded. It was not uncommon for tribes to ostracize
Speaker 1: individuals to the point of invisibility. If they no longer
Speaker 1: observed them, they no longer existed. Macentyre couldn't afford to
Speaker 1: let that happen to him, so he began to jog.
Speaker 1: He started slowly at first, on a steady line circling
Speaker 1: the entire camp. By the fourth lap, he was running
Speaker 1: at pace stamping and flailing his arms every time he
Speaker 1: went past the chief, determined for him not to ignore him.
Speaker 1: Slowly the villagers began to take notice. Red Cheeks had
Speaker 1: noticed too, stepping forward from the others with his hand
Speaker 1: tightly gripped on a club. For a moment, Macentyre thought
Speaker 1: he might attack him, but something was holding him back,
Speaker 1: and then he saw the chief watching him. Hoping he
Speaker 1: had done enough, Macentyre finally came to a stop. The
Speaker 1: chief regarded the stranger for a moment, then, as Macentyre
Speaker 1: watched in complete amusement, he started to jog, also taking
Speaker 1: the exact same line as McEntyre, but in the opposite direction.
Speaker 1: He continued until he had completed the same amount of laps.
Speaker 1: Then a thought came into Mcentyre's mind, the face of time,
Speaker 1: and then he realized they thought he had been putting
Speaker 1: a spell on the village and the chief was trying
Speaker 1: to reverse it. Having finished the last lap, the chief
Speaker 1: stared again at McEntyre for a moment, then went back
Speaker 1: to his hut. Now witnessed again by the tribe, McEntyre
Speaker 1: returned to the fire and pulled the remains of his
Speaker 1: watch from under the ash. His last connection to time,
Speaker 1: as he knew it had now gone. Just then he
Speaker 1: caught sight of something odd dangling from a branch. It
Speaker 1: was a roll of film. Then saw the monkey in
Speaker 1: the tree above it, holding his precious camera in its hands.
Speaker 1: McEntire watched helplessly as it tore off the back and
Speaker 1: threw what was left of it somewhere deep into the undergrowth.
Speaker 1: Though he was relieved not to have been cut off
Speaker 1: from the group, losing the camera was a tough blow.
Speaker 1: He slumped to the floor, exhausted. At the very least,
Speaker 1: he still had two rolls of shot film in his pockets.
Speaker 1: If he should ever make it out of there alive,
Speaker 1: he thought. Just then, a girl he had decided to
Speaker 1: call Monia, walked past. He had seen her lying with
Speaker 1: red cheeks before, and assumed they were a couple. In
Speaker 1: her hair, she wore a blue piece of the wall
Speaker 1: he had left out by his camp when he first arrived.
Speaker 1: He noticed her nails were now painted the same color too.
Speaker 1: It was as if Macentyre's presence was already staining and
Speaker 1: corrupting these people, a reminder perhaps of how quickly an
Speaker 1: isolated culture could become tainted by others. Later, after bathing
Speaker 1: in the river, newly replenished, he was greeted by the chief,
Speaker 1: who offered him one of his beautifully crafted arrows with
Speaker 1: bristles made of bore hair. A peace offering, perhaps, thought Macentyre,
Speaker 1: who gave him the belt he had weaved in return
Speaker 1: at the chief's invitation. Macentyre then followed a small group
Speaker 1: of children into the forest and watched as a shaman
Speaker 1: gave them a lesson on the many plants and insects
Speaker 1: of their habitat. Then the chief approached him again, and
Speaker 1: thought appeared in his head. You must run away, it
Speaker 1: said Macentyre looked confused as they stood silently together. More
Speaker 1: words appeared in McEntire's mind. The tribe had been attacked
Speaker 1: before by white men who came from the sky. They
Speaker 1: were now on a journey to escape it all. But
Speaker 1: how thought McEntyre. In response, by returning to the beginning,
Speaker 1: came the reply, Yes, thought McEntyre, This was why they
Speaker 1: seemed so restless, and why they were starving themselves. The
Speaker 1: chief called it a journey to the beginning, but as
Speaker 1: McEntyre understood it, it was a journey to death. The
Speaker 1: chief was offering him the chance to leave and save himself.
Speaker 1: McEntyre looked out into the jungle and weighed up his options,
Speaker 1: but there was no question that his best chance was
Speaker 1: to stay with the tribe as long as he could,
Speaker 1: looked back at the chief and shook his head. Over
Speaker 1: the next few days, McEntyre began finally to adjust to
Speaker 1: the rhythms of the jungle. He survived about of diarrhea
Speaker 1: and spent most of his time listening for sounds of
Speaker 1: a plane, waiting in vain for the Maya Runa to
Speaker 1: up sticks and move on to the next destination. On
Speaker 1: the sixth night, McIntyre woke in the dark. Then he
Speaker 1: heard it the unmistakable roar of a jaguar. Moments later,
Speaker 1: and excited red cheeks appeared carrying a flaming torch, beckoning
Speaker 1: for the photojournalist to follow him. Sensing a chance to
Speaker 1: finally prove his worth and win him over, Mcenttyre cautiously
Speaker 1: headed out to him as more hunters appeared from out
Speaker 1: of their huts, and soon they were charging through the
Speaker 1: forest in pursuit of the wild animal. Hearing more jaguar
Speaker 1: cries in the distance, macntyre did his best to keep
Speaker 1: up with the balls of flame, bobbing and weaving through
Speaker 1: the trees ahead of him, until suddenly they came to
Speaker 1: a stop by a large thorny bush. Rushing toward it,
Speaker 1: Macntyre was just about to stop when one of the
Speaker 1: hunters pushed him hard from behind and sent him tumbling
Speaker 1: into the thorns. He cried out in agony as the
Speaker 1: barbs stuck into him, many breaking off while still under
Speaker 1: the skin. Stumbling to his feet, Macntyre found himself alone
Speaker 1: in complete darkness, with no sign of the flaming torches
Speaker 1: and no sign of the hunters. Of course, he thought
Speaker 1: there had been no jaguar. Either he just wanted him gone,
Speaker 1: or Red Cheeks had tried to kill him. Macentyre realized
Speaker 1: with alarm that those thorns could also be poisonous. As
Speaker 1: quickly as possible, he did what he could to pull
Speaker 1: them from his skin in the dark, but many, especially
Speaker 1: those on his back, he could not reach. He waited
Speaker 1: for a moment, expecting some effect from the poison, but
Speaker 1: nothing came. Scratched and bloodied, he listened out for any
Speaker 1: sound of the camp, but heard only crickets in the
Speaker 1: occasional cry of a macaw somewhere in the canopy above.
Speaker 1: Unable to see anything more than a foot in front
Speaker 1: of him, he decided to stay put until first light.
Speaker 1: Moments later came the gnats, assaulting him from all over,
Speaker 1: nipping and biting at its body. Each time he swatted
Speaker 1: them away, they seemed just to come back in greater numbers.
Speaker 1: Needing to find any kind of shelter, he eventually settled
Speaker 1: under some roots, taking care to scare off any poisonous
Speaker 1: creatures that might have been lurking there. And there he
Speaker 1: remained waiting out the rest of the night. Maclntyre woke
Speaker 1: at daybreak, his body shivering with cold and itching all over.
Speaker 1: Finding the bush of thorns again, he soon located a
Speaker 1: path near by. After following it for a few minutes, however,
Speaker 1: the path split in two. Exasperated, he took one and
Speaker 1: headed down it. Hours later, maclntyre broke through into a
Speaker 1: clearing with a flush of excitement. He spotted chainsaw marks
Speaker 1: on the trees and wandered if the loggers were still close.
Speaker 1: Though he found the practice objectionable, he realized too, with
Speaker 1: a touch of irony, that these people might also be
Speaker 1: his best chance of survival. Moments later he found the bodies,
Speaker 1: four of them in various states of decay, being steadily
Speaker 1: devoured by an endless line of army ants and other
Speaker 1: small creatures. MacIntyre did his best to cover his nose
Speaker 1: from the smell and swatted the flies away. Then he
Speaker 1: noticed the arrows sticking out of their chests. The flights
Speaker 1: made of bare bristles, just as the chief had handed
Speaker 1: him the day before. The men Amazonians, too in their
Speaker 1: way with families of their own to support, had likely
Speaker 1: been dropped in by helicopter to prepare a formal landing
Speaker 1: spot for developers. They were unlikely to be found. MacIntyre
Speaker 1: made a note of the chainsaw serial number, hoping it
Speaker 1: might help identify them. Later, continuing on, feeling more and
Speaker 1: more itchy all over his body, he noticed a puncture
Speaker 1: wound on his arm beginning to swell unusually. Taking his knife,
Speaker 1: he dug into it and pulled out a small, wriggling maggot.
Speaker 1: Many hours later, with the heat and humidity intensifying, Macntire
Speaker 1: stumbled on in a state of near delirium, having lost
Speaker 1: all comprehension of distance as he felt his entire self
Speaker 1: being absorbed into the buzzing vibrancy of the forest. Then,
Speaker 1: hearing the sound of water, he staggered toward it, breaking
Speaker 1: through into a scene of unparalleled beauty. Before him, under
Speaker 1: dappled sunlight lay a small river beach of untied white sand,
Speaker 1: at the foot of two high and narrow waterfalls cascading
Speaker 1: off the face of a vast green mountain. Macntire flopped
Speaker 1: onto the beach and threw his head into the water. Then,
Speaker 1: after taking a short rest to pick more maggots from
Speaker 1: under his skin, he carried on, hoping to follow the
Speaker 1: stream back to the river. Seconds later, he collapsed. Are
Speaker 1: you always taking care of your family? Do you often
Speaker 1: take care of others and not yourself? Now it's time
Speaker 1: to take care of yourself, to make time for you
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Speaker 1: com Forward slash Unexplained podcast. To day to Get Started.
Speaker 1: That's t e l a d oc dot com slash
Speaker 1: Unexplained podcast. McEntire slowly opened his eyes and found himself
Speaker 1: back in the Maya Runa camp as shaman busied themselves
Speaker 1: about him, sucking out the worms and tending to his wounds.
Speaker 1: He had been rescued hours later. After drifting in and
Speaker 1: out of consciousness, he was finally strong enough to stand.
Speaker 1: Walking round the village cautiously. He saw no sign of
Speaker 1: red cheeks anywhere, while all about women, men and children
Speaker 1: were making a huge pile out of all their possessions. Everything,
Speaker 1: it seemed, from axes and bows to calabashes and spears,
Speaker 1: was being thrown away. Then he saw it, the body
Speaker 1: lying inside a funeral basket propped up inside one of
Speaker 1: the huts. It was only when he drew near enough
Speaker 1: for the flies to scatter away from the face that
Speaker 1: mac Intyre recognized the red painted cheeks underneath. Recoiling in horror,
Speaker 1: he stepped back outside in a daze. There was no
Speaker 1: sign of Red Cheeks its friends either. Some of us
Speaker 1: our friends, he thought to himself. Looking up, he saw
Speaker 1: the Chief standing by the pile of tools, ordering a
Speaker 1: fire to be lit next to it. All of it
Speaker 1: was broken up and flung into the flames. Spotting MacIntyre,
Speaker 1: the Chief came over to join him. They were holding
Speaker 1: us still in time. When it is burned, we will
Speaker 1: move away, came the voice in McIntyre's head. Where two,
Speaker 1: he thought in reply to the beginning. In bewilderment, McIntyre
Speaker 1: took a seat on the edge of the camp and
Speaker 1: watched as one by one the huts were torn down
Speaker 1: and flung into the fire. Then, finally, the basket containing
Speaker 1: the body of Red Cheeks was also placed into its
Speaker 1: hungry flames. Once it had all been destroyed, just like before,
Speaker 1: the group promptly filed into a single column and marched
Speaker 1: headlong into the jungle. On their journey toward the beginning, McIntyre,
Speaker 1: feeling the two rolls of film still safe in his pocket,
Speaker 1: rose to his feet and set off after them. For
Speaker 1: two days and nights they walked, stopping only for short
Speaker 1: rests and the occasional drink of water. No food was consumed.
Speaker 1: This was finally, it, thought Macentyre, They would walk until death.
Speaker 1: On the second morning, he made up his mind, at
Speaker 1: the first sight of a serious body of water, he
Speaker 1: would leave the tribe and take his chances alone. In
Speaker 1: the meantime, with the pace now barely more than a crawl,
Speaker 1: with many limping painfully, they continued forward. But then from
Speaker 1: out of the trees came a stream of new but
Speaker 1: familiar faces with tattooed lines around their mouths and noses
Speaker 1: pierced with whisker like spines, And soon they were surrounded
Speaker 1: by them, greeting them with wide smiles and warm embraces.
Speaker 1: They hadn't been walking to their death, realized McIntyre. They
Speaker 1: had been walking home. Perhaps that was what they meant
Speaker 1: by the beginning, he thought. Before long they were arriving
Speaker 1: into another village, much bigger than the previous camps, with
Speaker 1: over twenty huts dotted about. The mood was jubilant as
Speaker 1: the new arrival settled in with the others, and the
Speaker 1: chief was given an especially warm welcome. Then McIntyre spotted
Speaker 1: incredibly that one of the new tribespeople was wearing shorts.
Speaker 1: Could it be, he thought, as he approached him, cautiously,
Speaker 1: trying hard not to get his hopes up. Hello, he
Speaker 1: said in Portuguese, my name is Lauren. Lauren. Yes, welcome,
Speaker 1: replied the man, also in Portuguese. McIntyre could barely stand
Speaker 1: as the relief washed over him. The man named Cambio
Speaker 1: had learned the language after being forced to flee from
Speaker 1: his village when it was attacked by developers. Having managed
Speaker 1: to escape to Peru, he had sought refuge in a
Speaker 1: Baptist mission, where he stayed for three years before finally
Speaker 1: rejoining his people. That night, the ravenous MacIntyre stuffed his
Speaker 1: face on plates of turtle meat and bade you. As
Speaker 1: Cambio explained more about the life of the Maya Runa. Later,
Speaker 1: Macentyre asked him if he ever spoke to the others
Speaker 1: without words, Was it possible that he had been doing
Speaker 1: this with the chief. Cambio's face lit up with a
Speaker 1: look of great surprise. No, he had not, he replied.
Speaker 1: Only the elders knew how to do that, but there
Speaker 1: was nothing more he could tell him about it. After dinner,
Speaker 1: McEntyre noticed some women spitting into bowls and mixing it
Speaker 1: with chopped vines from the forest, preparing for a ceremony.
Speaker 1: He asked Cambio, Yes, he replied, we are returning to
Speaker 1: the beginning. It seemed the mysterious journey was still happening
Speaker 1: after all. McEntyre woke up in the middle of the
Speaker 1: night to find Cambio standing over his hammock, gesturing for
Speaker 1: him to stay quiet. He led the photojournalist toward a
Speaker 1: large hut from which a soft yellow light was emanating.
Speaker 1: McEntyre stepped inside and froze there. On the ground. Before
Speaker 1: him sat the chief, now more regal than ever, in
Speaker 1: a grand McCaw feathered crown, surrounded by other elders and shaman,
Speaker 1: their faces just visible under the flickering of torch light.
Speaker 1: The chief gestured for MacIntyre to sit down. Why did
Speaker 1: you come to us, he asked out loud, as Cambio translated.
Speaker 1: Then Macentyre explained that he had heard of their tribe
Speaker 1: and had come there to photograph them. The men looked
Speaker 1: to each other with concern, and why hadn't he left already?
Speaker 1: He had wanted to before, he replied, But now, if
Speaker 1: he was allowed, he would like to witness them reaching
Speaker 1: the beginning. He needed to know what it was. After
Speaker 1: a moment's pause, the men smiled and nodded in approval.
Speaker 1: You staying here will be good for the ritual, said
Speaker 1: the chief. Macentyre, suddenly unsure again about what he was
Speaker 1: getting into, asked when it will happen, to which the
Speaker 1: chief replied in two days. But how do you know
Speaker 1: what you were looking for? What if the beginning isn't
Speaker 1: there anymore, asked Macentyre. As Cambio translated, the chief broke
Speaker 1: into a laugh. The beginning is always there, he replied,
Speaker 1: it is never over, and with that Macenttyre was dismissed.
Speaker 1: The following day, Macentyre watched with interest as the village
Speaker 1: continued to prepare for the ceremony to the beginning, as
Speaker 1: more ingredients were brought from the jungle and mixed into
Speaker 1: pots by the women. That night, he was unexpectedly woken
Speaker 1: by Cambio. Come, Lauren, he says, it is happening now.
Speaker 1: At this McIntyre is led through the dark toward a
Speaker 1: long line of tribesmen. Cambio explains to him that they
Speaker 1: must join the line to choose their new name, the
Speaker 1: name they will take to the beginning. Before he has
Speaker 1: time to think, the entire line takes a big step
Speaker 1: to the left. Cambio nods for McIntyre to join in. Quickly,
Speaker 1: they take another three steps forward, followed by two more
Speaker 1: to the right, then back and to the left, ending
Speaker 1: the movements with a clap. McIntyre does his best to
Speaker 1: dance with them as they go round again, and soon
Speaker 1: the men are beginning to chant as well. But so
Speaker 1: on and on it goes until daylight, when finally they stop.
Speaker 1: McIntyre then spots the chief making his way down the line,
Speaker 1: asking each of them to give their new name, placing
Speaker 1: a thumb print of red uruco paint on their foreheads
Speaker 1: as he goes. Another elder following behind smears their chest
Speaker 1: with crushed jinnipap and gives them a bowl to drink from. Finally,
Speaker 1: it is McIntyre's turn. Unsure what to say, he gives
Speaker 1: his surname, to which the chief nods, then presses a
Speaker 1: red thumbprint onto his forehead, and then comes the bowl
Speaker 1: of fiscous liquid, the concoction of fermented vine juice and spit.
Speaker 1: Unable to back out now, he takes a deep breath
Speaker 1: and drinks heavily from the bowl. MacIntyre had hoped at
Speaker 1: the very least the drink wasn't a hallucinogenic drug. He
Speaker 1: realized very quickly that it was. The men stagger out
Speaker 1: at the line in a daze. McIntyre finds Cambio and
Speaker 1: gestures for him to sit with him as he waits
Speaker 1: for the drug to hit. Before long, he feels the
Speaker 1: warmth of it coursing through his body, feels time and
Speaker 1: space contracting at will. Heading back into the throng, he
Speaker 1: sees the lid of a bamboo container lifted up to
Speaker 1: reveal hundreds of frogs flopping about inside it. Cambio holds
Speaker 1: one up and shows McIntyre the secretions on its back,
Speaker 1: and then drips some onto his tongue. To the side,
Speaker 1: a shaman pierces his arm with a knife, while others
Speaker 1: peel back the wound and drip the frogs cretion straight
Speaker 1: into it all about him. The men are pacing around,
Speaker 1: with some having dropped to all fours, barking and roaring
Speaker 1: as they mimic the sacred jaguar. Through the chaos, McIntyre
Speaker 1: also becomes aware of other men blowing powder into each
Speaker 1: other's noses. After receiving it, the men clutch at their
Speaker 1: faces for a moment, then opened their eyes in a
Speaker 1: distant and vacant stare. McIntyre, who had refused all of it,
Speaker 1: stumbled back to where it started through puddles of vomit
Speaker 1: brought up by some of the more adventurous drinkers of
Speaker 1: the liquid. Finding a quiet spot on the edge of
Speaker 1: the village, McIntyre dropped back onto the floor and stared
Speaker 1: up at a distant, unknown point above. By the afternoon,
Speaker 1: with the ritual over and the effects of the drink
Speaker 1: wearing off, McIntyre finds the chief. Knowing he will be
Speaker 1: leaving soon, he wonders if he might stay in contact
Speaker 1: with them to trade ideas or help them acquire medicines perhaps,
Speaker 1: But the Chief looks confused. Just then Cambio appears. You
Speaker 1: are at the beginning now, McIntyre, you cannot return to
Speaker 1: your people. They are no longer there. And then it
Speaker 1: hits him, when are we going to die? He asks?
Speaker 1: Now it is Cambio's turn to look confused. We are
Speaker 1: not dying, he said with a smile. The Chief gestured
Speaker 1: for McIntyre to follow him. Moments later, they are standing
Speaker 1: by the banks of a muddy stream. The Chief points
Speaker 1: to a narrow section of it up ahead, then looks
Speaker 1: back to McIntyre. The Beginning comes the voice in his head,
Speaker 1: and finally McIntyre understands it is not home or death
Speaker 1: that they have journeyed to, but simply to a time before,
Speaker 1: a time that always was and always is, a time
Speaker 1: before the objects of the world were smothered by the
Speaker 1: language of humans. The journey to the Beginning was a
Speaker 1: shedding of all that baggage, the burning of those material
Speaker 1: possessions that were holding them still in time, a chance
Speaker 1: to reset and begin again. Now having reached the Beginning,
Speaker 1: perhaps they could find a better path forward. Perhaps now
Speaker 1: they might be safe. And with that also, MacIntyre understood
Speaker 1: something else. If they were to let him leave, it
Speaker 1: would destroy the spell and take them right back to
Speaker 1: the future they had left behind. They would sooner kill
Speaker 1: him than risk that. Over the next few weeks, maclntyre
Speaker 1: tried to accept his fate with no hope of Returning
Speaker 1: home on his own, he focused on learning more of
Speaker 1: their language and helping out with whatever he could, until
Speaker 1: one night when maclntyre woke up to find himself being
Speaker 1: completely drenched as a guttural thunder roared above him. Jumping
Speaker 1: from his hammock, he landed in a streaming torrent of
Speaker 1: knee high water. Only then did he become aware of
Speaker 1: the frantic screaming at the villages. Stumbling about in the
Speaker 1: dark with the flood waters at his legs, he is
Speaker 1: suddenly clattered by a makeshift raft of two locks tied
Speaker 1: loosely together. Falling onto it in seconds, his whisk through
Speaker 1: the trees and spewed out beyond into what is now
Speaker 1: a raging river. Hearing the cries again of the villagers,
Speaker 1: he tried furiously to paddle back to the bank, but
Speaker 1: then he realized this was his chance. Clinging tighter to
Speaker 1: the raft, he let the river take him away from
Speaker 1: the camp and out into the dark. Over the next
Speaker 1: day and night, McIntyre was knocked about ceaselessly by turbulent waters,
Speaker 1: only stopping occasionally to rest and shelter from the unforgiving sun.
Speaker 1: On the second day, raising his head wearily from the raft,
Speaker 1: he spotted three rubberized bags strung out across a fallen tree.
Speaker 1: After almost three weeks, he had finally made it back
Speaker 1: to his former camp, finding tinned food in one of
Speaker 1: the bags and later a battered canoe. McEntyre was eventually
Speaker 1: spotted and rescued by the Peruvian Navy. He would eventually
Speaker 1: make his way back to Aquito's, from where he had
Speaker 1: first set out on his epic journey in search of
Speaker 1: the Maya Runa. It was only after he was rescued
Speaker 1: that McEntyre realized a roll of film had fallen from
Speaker 1: his pocket. With only one roll of shot film left
Speaker 1: to develop, McEntyre will later be devastated to discover that
Speaker 1: it had been completely damaged by water. A few weeks later,
Speaker 1: after being given a clean bill of health from the
Speaker 1: Navy doctors, McEntyre returned home. I'm sure of just what
Speaker 1: exactly he had experienced in the jungle. McIntyre wrestled over
Speaker 1: it for years before telling his story to Petru Popescu
Speaker 1: and Jean Michel Cousto while drifting down the Amazon River.
Speaker 1: All those years later, in nineteen seventy one, MacIntyre returned
Speaker 1: to Peru, where along with three others, he is credited
Speaker 1: with locating a lake that many take to be the
Speaker 1: further most source of the Amazon, What is now known
Speaker 1: as Laguna McIntyre was found just over seventeen thousand feet
Speaker 1: up about Mismi in the Andes. He remained one of
Speaker 1: national geographics most celebrated and respected photojournalists until his death
Speaker 1: at the age of eighty six in two thousand and three.
Speaker 1: In twenty sixteen, writer Petru Popescu published The Encounter Amazon Beaming,
Speaker 1: giving the full and previously unheard account of McIntyre's extraordinary adventure.
Speaker 1: It would also be remiss of me not to mention
Speaker 1: the one man show The Encounter, adapted from the book
Speaker 1: and performed by the genius that is Simon McBurney. The show,
Speaker 1: produced by his company Complicitate, was simply one of the
Speaker 1: most incredible theater shows I have ever seen, and I
Speaker 1: can only hope it returns one day for anyone who
Speaker 1: didn't get the chance to experience it. As for the
Speaker 1: Maya Runa, also known as the Matsies, if Mcentyre's story
Speaker 1: is to be believed, their journey to the beginning did
Speaker 1: little to correct their path from the ever encroaching modern world.
Speaker 1: Despite being a nomadic tribe by nature, With developers moving
Speaker 1: further and further into their usual territory, they were forced
Speaker 1: to agree a land settlement in nineteen ninety eight. Home
Speaker 1: to three thousand, two hundred tribespeople, the area, covering roughly
Speaker 1: eighteen hundred square miles is known as the Matsies Indigenous Reserve.
Speaker 1: To continue to survive, they are now having to sell
Speaker 1: it off to developers. If you enjoy listening to Unexplained
Speaker 1: and would like to help support us, you can now
Speaker 1: go to Unexplained podcast dot com Forward Slash Support. All donations,
Speaker 1: no matter how large or small, are massively appreciated. All
Speaker 1: elements have Unexplained are produced by me Richard McClain smith.
Speaker 1: Please subscribe and rate the show on iTunes, and feel
Speaker 1: free to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas
Speaker 1: regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you
Speaker 1: have an explanation of your own'd like to share. You
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Speaker 1: Forward Slash Unexplained. Now it's time to take care of
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