Episode 26- My Journey to the AMAZON Part ONE! Staying with Indigenous Tribes, Eating Insects and Surviving the Jungle

Wanna know what it's like to be an adventure travel photographer? To embark on an adventure to the middle of nowhere and stay with the tribes? Join Jason Lanier for Part 1 of a 2 part series where he recounts his epic journey to the heart of the Amazon jungle in Ecuador where he stayed in the protected area of Yasuni with the Waorani tribe, the last uncivilized indigenous tribe in the Ecuadorian Amazon.

This podcast contains tips for how to make it in these situations, and how to prepare yourself for a similar journey. We thank you for listening and ask you to share it with someone who you know would enjoy it!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
What is up, my friends. Welcome to Jason Lennar. I'm Filtered.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
This is episode twenty six of my Journey to the
mother Freaking Amazon, where I've done some just incredible, crazy, stupid, daring, ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Stuff and I can't wait to share it with all
of you. So this is episode twenty six of my podcast,
jas Leonard'm filtered. Thank you so much for being here, guys,
and it's gonna be a really jam packed episode where
I talk about a lot of adventures, a lot of
craziness that's gone on, and just kind of update you
with what's going on in my life. It's been, it's
been really crazy. So without further ado, let's get to it.

(00:51):
But thank you, thank you, thank you for being here.
First off, as we kick off this episode, I'm just
gonna be I'm gonna put it out there for you guys.
I'm trying to get in a good mood. And you know,
if you know anything about me, if you've ever been
around me, if you've ever lived with me, if you've

(01:13):
ever known me, whatever it is, I'm almost always in
a really good mood. And today it was no different. Today.
I'm in a good mood today. By the way is
day two ninety nine of my ten thousand or more
steps per day, So tomorrow will be three hundred days
that I have walked ten thousand or more steps per day.
Very proud of that. That's still going strong, Very proud

(01:35):
of that. And I was in a really good mood,
and I know it doesn't sound it doesn't sound like
I'm in a bad mood right now because I'm working
my way out of it, because you know, so much
about life is about your mental capacity to overcome the
things that you're struggling with. Well, my current struggle is

(01:58):
some mother freaker just went and stole three thousand bucks
from me out of my PayPal account. And so there's
this debit card fraud thing called go bank, and they
add a debit card to your account. So then when
you you or anybody else tries to transfer funds, when
I say anybody else, because the hackers will get on
there and they're transfer funds. They just lifted three grand from me.

(02:21):
So you call it PayPal, and they're absolutely worthless. They
always have been. PayPal is great for accepting payments, but
get your money out of that mother freaking thing as
fast as you can because PayPal. They are just absolutely
worthless as it relates to fraud and everything else. So anyway,
I don't want to go on and on and on
about that, but just having lost three thousand bucks on PayPal,

(02:44):
I'm just really grateful to be talking to you, guys.
I feel like I can envision you, Guys. I'm such
a visual person. I feel like I can envision you
listening to this in your car and you're consoling me
right now, You're feeling sorry for me, you're sending positive vibes,
and so anyway, that is what And this just transpired

(03:06):
about twenty minutes ago, and so I've actually been listening
to music to get myself amped to do the podcast
because anyway, that just really just I can't stand people
who do crap like that, thieves and so on and
so forth. So if you're out there listening to this,
if you're the one who stole it, if you're one

(03:26):
of those crazy people out there, then you know, I
hope that karma finds its way to your lovely life.
So at any rate, it's been an insane couple of
months for me. Again, this is episode twenty six, and guys, gosh, guys,
I haven't done a podcast in a month or two.

(03:49):
Let's be honest, it's been two months. And I really
thank you guys who are listening to this for sticking
around and listening to this new episode, because I've just
been so inundated with work. In the last two months.
I've gone to I've gone to Ecuador twice. I've gone

(04:09):
to the Amazon twice, and so I'm only going to
be speaking about the second time that I went into
the Amazon, to Ecuador, I should say, because that's when
I really went into the heart of the Amazon. I
mean really into the heart of it. The first time
I went to Ecuador, had an amazing time, met some
incredible people. But one of the things that one of
the takeaways that I had is when I when I

(04:31):
went to Ecuador the first time, some of the places
we went felt, you know, more like a tourist thing.
It was more like a I would refer to it
as more like a Disneyland experience. And I you know,
my buddy Christian that I met in Ecuador, I told him,
I said, I don't want to I don't want to
do Disneyland. I didn't come down here to do Disneyland,

(04:53):
you know, We've got more than enough stuff in America.
If I want to see the Polish version of it,
I want, I want the real raw version of the Amazon.
And so I'm gonna be talking about the second trip
just because there's so much to get to and I
have so much to talk about, even the even the
PayPal stuff I just spoke about taking away from this

(05:13):
and I'm trying not to make these too long, but
good grief, I have so much to talk to you
guys about. So anyways, thanks for your patience. That's all
I wanted to say. Thank you so much. As we speak,
it is October the eighth, Yes, it's the eighth. Let
me check my phone real quick. I got a funny

(05:35):
somebody's message me. Funny stuff on on Instagram. But at
any rate, I got a I leave tomorrow is what
I'm trying to say. I leave tomorrow for for London,
and I'm going to see Sir Rodrick, who Rodrick that is.
That is a funny nickname that we have. It's not

(05:57):
a really a nickname. His name is rod but we
call Roderick. But I'm going to be meeting with with
him and Rhode a light. They're going to come out
with two new lights, and so I am very excited
to be going back out there. It's funny. I did
a zoom with him, and you know, you talk about

(06:20):
time flying by and has the impact of the pandemic.
It used to be back in the good old days,
pre uh, pre COVID nineteen madness, that I would go
out to London because that's road light headquarters and I'm
the main spokesperson for rhad a light and all that jazz.
I would go out to road light headquarters, you know,
every I'd say two or three times a year at least.

(06:40):
And so when I was talking to Rod and everything
else where, We're talking about everything, and he said, you know,
it's been a couple of years since you've been here.
And I'm like, what hasn't He says, yeah, it has.
And I said, no, there's no way, and he says, no,
I'm telling you, it's been a couple of years since
you've been here. And then when we really sat back
and thought about it, it was like, good lord, it
really could have been a couple of years since I've

(07:01):
been there. And then when we've it's at least been
since twenty nineteen, and that was wow. That was a big,
huge wow. I think the last time I was in
London was with Emily for a Dreamland and I think
that's a two and a half years ago, and that
blew my mind. That was like, if I'm piecing everything

(07:22):
together correctly, I believe that was March of March or
April of twenty nineteen, and here we are in October
of twenty twenty one, and it just floors me that
it's been that long, and so I'm super excited to
get back there. Traveling during COVID is always interesting. I've
had to fill out all these passenger locator forms, vax cards.

(07:43):
Just it's such a nightmare to travel during COVID, But
you know me, I'm still doing it. So anyway, we're
gonna talk about so anyways, I'm flying out to do
that in road a light. They've rented some really cool
locations that we're gonna go shoot three days. You guys,
if you're listening to this before the twelfth, the new

(08:05):
protests get announced, products get announced on the twelfth, and
then thirteen fourteen fifteen, we're gonna be doing live stream
events from London with these new lights, and then I'm
gonna be doing shoots. They've rented a huge mannor from
the sixteenth century and it's all mine at least for

(08:25):
two and a half days or something. So that's cool.
They're telling me. It has like thirty rooms and I
get to shoot, and I get to shoot wherever, and
then there's huge grounds and everything else. And this is
down in an area of the UK called Kent, which
is let me do my geography here. That would be
southeast of where London is located. It's about an hour

(08:46):
and a half away. So and then they've rented an
entire western town for me. So and so they have
a whole western town where it's where they feel movies
and so they have these brand new lights, a whole
western town. We've got models lined up with all this

(09:07):
gear and everything else. And I've never met any of
these models. I'm not taking anybody with me, which is fine,
but I've never met these people. So it should be
a lot of fun. I look forward to it. I'll
be out numbered. I'll be in a western town. I'll
be the only American who speaks American in a Western
town in London with a bunch of Brits. So this

(09:30):
should be a riot and I'm excited to see it.
So gosh, so much to get to. So anyways, if
you're wondering what we're gonna talk about in this podcast,
I'm going to talk about going down into the Amazon,
sleeping with tribes down there, which are super cool, camping, canoeing,

(09:51):
kissing piranhas, seeing devil eyed Caymans. If you guys haven't
seen a Cayman in the wild, their eyes are I
had like freaking vampire or do vampires I red eyes? Well,
I don't know. I think I made that part up,
but they have like demon eyes. Okay, So anyways, I'm

(10:13):
gonna be doing that, Tarantulas in my room, fires that
were set in under just craziness. There's just so much
to get to, so I'm I'm excited to talk about it.
Uh and I'm gonna talk about the what, the where,
the who, why, and how all of this came together.
So what are you gonna learn of this podcast? My friends?

(10:35):
If you can't tell, I'm trying to follow somewhat of
an outline to make this as cohesive and cogent and
and uh and as uh as clear as possible. So
there's three seas that I had to just make up
off the top of my head. But you're gonna learn
about what's it like to do adventure photography in this
If you're listening to this, you're gonna learn about that.

(10:57):
You're gonna know that, you're gonna learn something about the
tools needed and lessons that I've learned in doing this
adventure kind of photography. As I embark to increase my
mantra and well not mantra my title, my claim, I
should say as the Indiana Jones of photography, because that's
who I am, motherfreakers. I wonder if Indiana Jones ever

(11:22):
had somebody rip three thousand dollars out of his paiper account,
probably if he was alive in this day and day
and age, you probably would have what it's like how
to travel during COVID, dealing with language barriers even when
you speak the native tongue, because as I mentioned earlier,
you know, we spent time with the tribes and I
speak very good Spanish, but the tribes don't really really

(11:44):
speak Spanish, even though you're in a Spanish speaking country,
because some of the areas we are so remote that
it takes a little bit more so dealing with travel
problems with his practices for traveling and recommended gear for
both photograph and making it outdoors when you're doing this
crazy stuff. So we're going to take a very quick break,

(12:05):
my friends, and then we'll be right back and we'll
get into all of this stuff. So let's do it.
Stay tuned, all right, guys, welcome back, Thanks so much
for being here. Very excited to have you join me.
So where did I go? I'm going to jump right
into all of this. I went down into two areas

(12:28):
of the Amazon in Ecuador that are very difficult to reach. Now,
why have I been going to Ecuador? Simple answer too,
Because I've gone to the Galapagos Islands, I've gone all
over Ecuador. I'm in love with Ecuador. Why am I
in love with Equador? Well, it's what first brought me
into this scenario was Ecuador is very travel friendly right now,

(12:52):
and of all the places to travel in the world,
especially during COVID, you're looking for places that do not
make it more difficult for you to travel if you
have a vaccine, which I will just put it out there.
I do have the vaccine, and I'll also put it
out there that I think is a personal choice to
whether or not people are vaccinated. So I'm not trying
to virtue signal or talk about how great I am

(13:14):
that I have a vaccine. I got vaccinated for a
simple reason I needed to travel. I looked at it
like when I needed to go to Ethiopia, I had
to get yellow fever and all this crazy vaccines because
I was going into a very you know, dangerous part
of the world. And so just like me, you shouldn't
even think about traveling with me. I don't care if

(13:34):
it's in freaking San Diego or if it's in New York.
You shouldn't travel with me unless you have a detap shot,
Like unless you have your tetnis shot. You shouldn't even
be anywhere in my remote proximity because well, if anybody's
gonna find rust and tetanus, that's going to be me.
But I'm digressing. So at any rate, you know, you

(13:55):
have to get vaccinated, but if you have a vaccine,
you don't have to quarantine. And I know some of
that is starting to like, some of that is starting
to uh, the restrictions are starting to loosen up a
little bit in some of the places in the world,
But at the same time, in many places they are not. Like,
for instance, right now, when I'm going to England, I

(14:17):
have to pre register and pre book for COVID testing
and if I don't do that, I can't travel. So
you have to you have to get all that done
before you go. You have to have a passenger locator form,
so on and so forth. Really it's a contact tracing form,
is what they're doing. They're tracking you and which I'm
not a huge fan of that kind of crap, but

(14:38):
but I have you know, I have business obligations that
I have to meet in London, so I'm abiding by
the laws at any rate. Ecuador, there is no quarantine
period if you don't if you have a vaccine, and
you don't have to do any COVID testing which you
arrive in the country. So that's one of the main
reasons I've been. I chose Ecuador. On top of that,

(15:01):
it's one of the most beautiful places just and so diverse.
It's just such a beautiful country to visit, and I
love going down there. So that's why I've been going
down to Ecuador. Like I said, in this particular trip,
I went down into two areas. Two areas. The first
is called Yasuni. We're gonna talk about the adventures in that,
and then the second is called Kuyaveno. Yasuni is is

(15:25):
a is a protected area where the Wawani tribe lives,
and so I went down there and we spent time
with the Wawani tribe. And then the second place is Kugaveno.
So we're gonna talk about both of them in this
And the other reason I've been going down to Ecuador
is I'm planning trips to take you guys there with me.
I want to take your guys down into some of

(15:45):
these areas and do that. So I'm very excited to
do that. So at any rate, I'm really, I'm really
it's such a such an honor to be able to
do these things. So so let's break down this epic journey.
All right, boys and girls, what's it like to travel

(16:07):
during COVID? Well, again, like I said earlier, if you
have the vaccines and the vaccine passports, and yes, they check,
they're very big on checking. If I know, a lot
of folks out there still are not traveling, especially internationally,
and so I'm just telling you it's all real stuff. Now.
When you get into Ecuador, every time I've landed in Ecuador,

(16:29):
which are two times. But when you land in Ecuador,
you have to they have people standing. They're almost like
in hazmat suits. They're truly covered head to toe, like
in scrubs with face masks and the foot the little
footsack thingies and the scrubs and all that jazz. And
then they go and you do temperature checks at the

(16:50):
airport before you go through customs to get your passport stamped.
So if you clear that, then you show them your
passport card. You have to show your passport, you're excuse me,
your vaccination card to get onto the plane. They have
to see your vaccination card when you're in line before,
when you're in line, after you know, disembarking from the
plane or deplaning or getting off the damn plane, whatever
you want to call it. Then you go and you

(17:12):
get your temperature check. So if you have your temperature
check plus a vaccine passport, then you get to go
through customs and then they give you no problems. So
that's what I really like. So so at any rate,
this let me let me walk you guys through it.
So I flew from Los Angeles, so this journey was

(17:32):
was truly, like you know, I purposely tried to do
this in a way where it was really like an
adventure I wanted. I wanted an adventure. I didn't want
just a normal hum drum kind of a thing. I
wanted an adventure. So my man, Christian, and I'll talk
about this real briefly, but Christian is a guy who's

(17:55):
who's become a very good friend to me, and he
and I met back in July when I went to
Ecuador for the first time. He was my driver. I'm
not going to get into the whole story, but he
was my driver who turned into a helper, who turned
into he's my guy down an Ecuador who helps me
do everything. So I think he's awesome, and so he

(18:18):
when I went back the second time, he helped set
everything up. And so I flew from Los Angeles to
Atlanta and then from Atlanta to Keto, and so once
I arrived in Keto, I have been traveling for about
I don't know, twenty hours between layovers and flights and
everything else. That it had been about twenty hours. I

(18:39):
lanted to Keto and Christian picked me up at the
airport with his buddy Brian, who is a driver who
we're going to talk a little bit about Brian in
this podcast. And then there was a model that I
met the last time I was there named nashot So.
At any rate, they all picked me up and the

(19:00):
plan was for us to drive all through the night
to get down into a city called Coca. Now, if
you live in an area of the world America, Europe,
those kinds of places where there are streamlined highways and
when you say, hey, we traveled one hundred miles, what

(19:22):
are you going to do the math? Right, sixty miles
per hour, blah blah blah, you're gonna say, okay, it's
in take an hour and a half. Well, when you
travel one hundred miles in Ecuador, it takes you eight
hours because the roads are hilarious. And I don't mean
that in a good way. The roads are hilarious because
you get off you're driving on these roads called a carreterra,

(19:42):
which is like a freeway, and you think you're going great,
and then all of a sudden, I'm not making this
stuff up, you're just driving. Then in the road to stop.
Now you get to continue, which we did, but you
drive and these roads just stop and turn into and rocks,
not gravel. I'm talking dirt and rocks. So you go

(20:05):
from going you know, forty or fifty miles per hour
to going two miles per hour because the cars can't
handle their rough terrain. Over there, there's not you know,
you're not driving in freaking cheap Cherokees or Wranglers or
whatever the hell you want to call it. You're driving
in a freaking Suzuki Esteem. And I'm not making that up.
So we're in a Suzuki Esteam. I'm sitting in the front,

(20:28):
Christian's driving, and the shots in the back snoring, and
Brian's behind me kicking the back of my seat because
he's he's trying to sleep, And I'm like, yo, dude,
I'm the one who's been traveling twenty hours and you're
kicking my seat. You're supposed to be driving, but you're
not driving because Christian doesn't trust you to drive, which
I don't understand because that's why we brought you. But
later on in the trip I kind of understood why

(20:50):
Christian felt that way. So at any rate, we got down.
I just have these It's funny because we're driving and
first off, you're down in Ecuador, so you think it's
the well, it is the equator, but you're down there
and you're thinking it's always going to be hot, humid
everything else. Well, that night that I that I arrived

(21:10):
the day before, they'd had a snowstorm. So we're driving
through the mountains and there's snow. You don't think of
Ecuador and think of snow, but there was snow. So
we're driving through and I'm trying to stay awake because
I'm worried about my buddy Christian driving because the whole
idea was he was gonna bring Brian, who was going
to sleep all day, and then Brian could drive us.
So I guess Brian didn't sleep, so Christian had to drive. Well,

(21:32):
I didn't really understand this, but it is what it is.
So I'm trying to stay a weak, stay awake, just
stay with Christian. That's so funny because I love this
little dude. But if you guys go to my Instagram,
you'll see videos and stuff I me and Christian, but
he's driving, and it's like, I love him to death.
If he was listening to this, he wouldn't understand two

(21:53):
words of this podcast. So I'm just gonna have to
just tell you that he'd be okay with it. But
it's like that people in the United States and Ecuador
are very different as to when they get tired and
they're driving, Like we don't see the same signs. So
we're driving, and again I'm in the front seat. He's
he's in the driving, he's he's the driver, and he's

(22:14):
rolling down the windows and he's playing the music loud,
and it's like three freaking three in the morning. And
I'm like, that's gonsalomigo. Are you tired? No? No, still,
I'm good. I'm good, boss. I laughed, just like that.
I said, you're not good. I mean you're you're you're
You're rolling down the windows, you're blasting up some cold
air and the freaking snow here, and you're telling me

(22:37):
you're good. You're tired, man, pull over, pull over, No no, no.
We gotta make it on time. We gotta make it
on time. Because the whole idea was we were driving
throughout the night and then getting into cocon to meet
our our our guide. Guys. This is so fun. It's
just such Indiana Jones stuff. I love it. So I'm
envisioning like in a movie where you meet this guy,

(22:57):
you know, you you walk into like this this ball
where there's like, you know, all these guys and then
you meet the guy who has the hat, who's a
ship captain, and you're you're gonna charter the boat to
take you down the river. Well, that's kind of the
crap that we did, and it's just a crack up
to me. So at any rate, we're driving and I

(23:18):
have these visions of Chris just slamming on the brakes,
my face likes faate, my head just face planting the
window because he's slamming the brakes. Because we go from going,
like I said, fifty miles per hour so there's nothing,
and then the cars just rocking and rolling. It was.
It was pretty funny. So at any rate, we drove overnight, bumps,

(23:40):
snowing more, just crazy six to seven hours for us
to get down into Coca and then, uh, I remember
going in and out of a sleep coma pretty much.
And then by the time we reached Coca, Chris stops
the car and I asked him, what's wrong. He says nothing.
We made it, so Chris got there safely, which I

(24:00):
really appreciate it. So then we're sleeping in the middle
of We're sleeping in the car in this city, and
it's just pitch black. So all of us try to
go to sleep, well most pretty much everybody did, and
then we slept for about two hours. Well in the morning,
Chris reaches out to our captain, the guy that, you know,

(24:24):
the equivalent of the guy who said that, you know,
I said, you know you're gonna charteris and blah blah blah.
Now this gentleman, which his name is Nanto, and he
is a member of he is the leader of the
Wadani tribe. Now, if you don't know, the Waadani tribe
is the indigenous tribe down there in Ecuador in Yasuni,

(24:46):
and so this is protected area. You can only get
into this ya area of Yasuni, and especially with the tribe,
the Wadanni tribe, you can only do that with special permission,
and we had acquired that special And so we meet
with Nanto and they're supposed to have food ready, they're
supposed to have provisions ready. We paid them ahead of

(25:08):
time to get food, provisions, everything ready. Well, we go
down and first they're like, okay, let's go on breakfast. Okay,
let's go. So then we go on breakfast and then
they're like, Okay, now we're gonna bring my family. You're
gonna meet the family. And it's just it was funny
because I'm like, when are we gonna When are we
gonna head down to the river, Like we're supposed to
be on the boat at this point, but supposed to
be going down. And this is why I do this

(25:30):
stuff without you guys, because I'm working out the kinks
before you guys join me on an adventure. So when
I do take you on an adventure, it is as
kink free as possible. So we're sitting there and we're
at some little restaurant eating, and then then it's so
funny when Christian gets serious because Christian's like where it's

(25:53):
me and the shot and Christian and Brian and then
Nanto and his wife and Hiss and so we're sitting
there and I'm like they're just talking about, you know,
random stuff, And I understand you got to kind of
familiar familiarize yourself with people, but it's like we got
to go, Like I really I'm anxious not to mention

(26:13):
the fact that I have been on two long plane
rides a layover Atlanta, and now I've been in the
car for seven hours and slept for another two. I mean,
at this point, I'm working on thirty plus hours of travel.
I just want to get there and like set my
stuff down and you know, just relax for a minute.

(26:36):
But that wasn't to be okay. So I look at
Christian and I said, hey man, we got to get moves.
So Christian motions for for Nonto and I to go
and and Nanto. Christian and I go have this little
pow wow, this little uh you know, private private chat
while everyone else eats. So they start talking about money,
and I still see Christian's face. Christian's so cute because

(26:57):
he'll sit there and he'll he'll get like really down
in the business when I want them to. But they
were supposed to buy all these supplies and do all
this stuff. They didn't do any of it. So then
we had to divide and conquer. So I told him,
I said, go buy your gasoline, go buy whatever you
need for the canoe. Christian and I'll go do all
the grocery shopping. We'll go do everything. So that's what
we did. Went about all of our provisions when about everything,

(27:21):
and man, if there's something I've learned on my international travel,
if you are somebody that is not familiar with you know,
they'll call it Ecuador time, or Africa time, or anywhere
that I've been. I remember being in Ethiopia. They'll tell
you five minutes, it's an hour. Well, the same is
true in Ecuador. Anytime they give you a timeframe, it's
not remostly remotely close to reality. So you know, the

(27:44):
running joke when I've been anywhere has been, Hey, don't
tell me, you know Ecuador time. Tell me regular time,
Tell me American time. Tell me a time that I
can actually think. Okay, when you say you're going to
be back in twenty minutes, be back in twenty minutes,
don't be back. And if you're back in twenty five
it is no big deal. But don't be back in
two hours, which which which can happen quite frequently down there,

(28:08):
and they'll joke around about it themselves. So we go
and buy all the provisions. And then as we're buying provisions,
which you know, it's just fancy word for food and
other stuff that we had to take, we go in
there and then Nanto's wife, the leader of the tribe.
She goes and starts putting a ton of like like

(28:30):
filling up the cart with more stuff and not food
stuff but like pots, pants, all stuff, and she's like,
you have to buy all this for the community. The
community is the tribe. And I'm like, okay, Now, keep
one thing in mind, if you're listening to this, I'm
already paying for this. We've already agreed. I'm already, you know,
paying the tribe to do this. A good amount of money,
I will say. And so I thought that that was

(28:52):
what everything that was supposed to be. But then I
found out that I had to I had to buy
a lot more things, which but again I'm fine doing it.
Just you know, We've had to have some conversations since
about hey, I'm okay doing this. If this is a requirement,
just let us know, let us know ahead of time.
And that's something that we had to work out, which
was fun. So again, we had the breakfast, we bought

(29:15):
all the provisions, and then we're packed into our suzuki
esteem and I'm thinking that we're going to go down
to down to the canoes because we're supposed to take
the canoes from Coca down into down into the Yasuni
protected area. Well, no, that wasn't to be the case.
We had to actually drive another two hours down into

(29:37):
a station. Well not a station, it's a little pueblit though,
it's a little little tiny city, and that's where we
launched from. So by the time we get down there,
now it is hot and sweaty. Now we are down
into the hot and sweaty and humid area of Ecuador,
and I have this vision and it's just it's just

(29:58):
this beautiful thing where you see the river and it's like,
we're doing it. This is really cool. We're really doing it.
And if there's one thing that you're going to hear
about in this in this podcast, it's that I really
grabbed on and ran with the idea of really letting
go of my inhibitions and living the life that I've

(30:20):
always wanted to live rather than just dreaming about it.
Now you may be listening to this same with gee, Jason,
you already are crazy, you already do crazy stuff. But
if you listen to this, and if you know me,
I did things on this that I have never done
I never thought I would ever do. To be honest
with you, because I've just I'm really grabbing life by
the horns and running with it. So we hop into

(30:42):
the canoes. We're getting on our way, and the canoe
ride was magical. It was I'll never forget being there.
And we had to take a few members of the
tribe with us, mostly Nanto, his wife and his daughters
down into the down into the what they call the community.

(31:02):
They call the community their home, so that's where they live.
So we go down there and then about about and
I have a video of all this. It's so much fun.
About thirty minutes in the motor on the canoe starts
breaking down and we're in the middle of a fast

(31:25):
running river in the Amazon. Truly everything you could imagine
in your mind of whatever you can envision, that's what
it was. Well, what makes it even better was is
if you've ever traveled in these waters, when you lose
the capacity to steer and or propel your given you know,
vessel in any in the direction that you want to go,

(31:48):
well what ends up happening is you start ramming into stuff.
And so we're literally like because and by the way
in the Amazon, it's not like you know, they've cleared
out the river, so so what's you're as you're going
down these things. It feels like a video game where
you're going down the river and there's huge branches, trees
that have fallen in from storms. And so I we

(32:11):
were literally plowing through, you know, and and you hear
you heard like every like the girls would scream, they
would everyone would duck, and then these trees would go
right over the top. Now I'm not I'm not saying
that the trees like went over the top and missed
the canoe. Oh no, they hit the canoe and they
scraped the whole thing. And if your head was up,

(32:32):
you're gonna get some smacks in the face. And I
mean some smacks are gonna either put you in the
water or leave a mark to to to say the least.
So we're going through all this, the motor keeps breaking
down and I'm like, what in the world is going on?
And so finally he pulls. He drifts. It's it's it's hilarious.

(32:53):
It's like fast and the furious, you know, Ecuadorian Wadani
tribe style. He's drifting and we drift the new into
this little his little neighbor. Now when I say neighbor,
that means that they're about thirty minutes to forty minutes apart,
and this neighbor is a part of the tribe as well,
and so we drift the canoe into there and we're

(33:17):
now they're trying to repair the motor on the side
of the river, and I'm like, okay, this is this
is this is this is something else. So I told him,
I said, I am going to get out. I'm gonna
do my steps. So that that started to be a
very frequent theme with with all of this, is doing
these steps. I would and I just this a little

(33:40):
bit of a little bit of a just a little
motivational thing. At least it does for me. One thing
the steps have helped me do. And I'll just say
this and I'll get back to the Amazon is no
matter what I'm doing, if I have to wait for something,
I walk. And it's been a big game changer for me.
So if I go to baggage claim, I walk while
I'm waiting twenty minutes for the bags to arrive on
the on the conveyor belt. If I am waiting at

(34:03):
CVS or whatever for my prescription, I just walk around
the store. It's really changed and I feel like all
of my time is very well spent because I'm being productive.
So at any rate, I took that mentality over into
the Amazon, and so I knew I needed steps because
now the calendar had switched over and all I've been

(34:25):
doing was sitting in the car, and I needed to
get my ten thousand steps in for the day. So
I said to him, I said, hey, you know, if
you're going to work on the motor, let me let
me just walk around. And so walking around this is
the freaking jungle. Okay, So walking around just meant this
little patch of land that this little tribe had carved out.

(34:48):
And so I'm doing my steps, and the funny thing
is everybody there is laughing at me. Now I'm only
I'm the only white guy there, and here I am,
I clearly looked different. I'm wearing my hat, I got
everything else going on, and then I'm looking like I'm
crazy because all I'm doing is walking in circles doing steps. Luckily,

(35:08):
I was able to joke around with them and have fun,
and I just let them laugh at me, and they
actually got a kick out of it, and that ended
up leading to us having some really good friendships and
relationships come as a part of it. So after the
motor breaking down, we got the motor fixed. Then you know,

(35:28):
I could keep going on and on and on about
the motor, but the motor broke down again as we
went and broke down, but two or three more times. Okay,
we finally reach the community. Now at this point, by
the time we'd done this, we've been traveling for I
had been personally traveling for about forty hours. I was exhausted.
The only sleep I had had came as a result

(35:50):
of sleeping in the car through Christian's wild ride. And
so we get to the community and the first thing
that I see when we land is I'm thinking, please
don't let there be like, you know, freaking you know,
like I don't want it to be Disneyland. Please don't
tell me we've come this far and it's freaking Disneyland.

(36:12):
Like there's you know, hot showers and you know, cable TV,
and people are wearing Levi's and all that stuff. Yes,
those are some creature comforts that are very nice, but
at the same time, that's not what I went there for.
So when we arrived, I was very thrilled that the
first thing I saw was tribal members out there, and

(36:35):
one of them. I don't mean to say this like
I wasn't thrilled to see what I'm about to describe,
but I was thrilled to see that it was very authentic.
And the first thing that I saw was an older
lady is actually the mother in law of Nanto. Nanto's
probably in his I don't know, fifties, mid fifties, and

(36:56):
he is he is married to the then the tribal leader. They're, they're, they're,
they're the leaders of this whole thing. But his mother
in law sitting out there, and so she's got to
be in her sixties or seventies, and she's sitting there
topless with war paint. I shouldn't even say war paint.

(37:20):
It's more ceremonial paint or as they came to find
out and learn, it was more uh, their paint when
they go hunting or when they have ceremonies or when
they do things of that nature. And so we get
there and she's out there waiting and she's singing and chanting,
and it was just awesome. It was absolutely awesome. So

(37:41):
we got in there and it's it was exactly what
I wanted. It was a community. There were no It
was just as authentic as you can get in today's
day and age. The only thing that had any sort
of a creature comfort, if you will, was a uh

(38:02):
I don't know who set this up, but somewhere back
in their past, through I don't know what it was,
somebody set up a little schoolhouse. Now when I say schoolhouse,
we're talking a very rudimentary concrete building. And this concrete
building is the only place in the entire area that
has any sort of power run by a generator. But

(38:25):
other than that, everybody sleeps in their little They sleep
in authentic what they call typical houses, costa stepkas and
straw people. Everybody's you know, they're running around half naked,
if not naked. It's really crazy. It just to be
there and they're just you know, especially the boys. The

(38:47):
boys you know, would run around just naked. I mean, like,
you know, it's just it's just crazy. But it's so funny.
I will say this, it's crazy. Once you're there for
a little bit of time, it normalizes. It's just not
like a weird thing, and it's just it's just, you know,
I could go on and on about these you know,

(39:07):
how us as as as a as a quote unquote modernized, civilized,
you know, society, how you know, how we look at
the human body so differently. But when you go to
these places. This is a pure national geographic place that
I'm in, and it's just so funny how we as

(39:28):
modern societies have, you know, put all of these restrictions
on us, but when you go to a place like
this and they don't care. It's funny how all of
that just evaporates. It's just it's just crazy. And I
think there's a lot of lessons to be learned in that.
And so we go and set up camp. We we

(39:54):
get everything set up as much as we can. And
then I asked him, I said, hey, you know what,
where do we go to the bathroom? There's the woods?
Oh okay, perfect. Now I want to make something clear.
I'm an Eagle Boys guy. I've I've camped a lot
on my life. Okay uh, And I'm not opposed to

(40:16):
using the restroom in the woods if you need to.
I mean, you gotta do what you gotta do. But
the real, the real one was where do you bathe? Right? Well,
there's two options for bathing in this in this particular area,
you either bathe in the uh river, which you're gonna
hear me talk about a little bit later. You either

(40:37):
bathe in the river or you bathe in what we
call the Yasuni jacuzzi. And so it's not a jacuzzi,
it is a uh it's like a water tank, but
they cut it in thirds. And so if you think

(40:58):
of like a water tank, a small water tank that
they would have to for fresh water on top of
an old apartment building, and it's plastic, and then you
cut that into thirds, imagine the bottom half where you
know you can still fill it with some water. What
they do is they they have bamboo and stuff coming
in feeding water from the river and or rain water,

(41:19):
and it feeds into this. And so then you take
your beautiful self and you get naked if you want,
or wear a bathing suit, whatever you want to do,
and you get into this bathtub. It's well, not a bathtub,
it's just a broken out water tank. But it's not

(41:40):
I'm not even describing this right, it's truly what I
said earlier. It's just this the third cutout of a
water tank. And then you take your butt down there
and you get naked, and you shower as best, not shower,
you bathe as best as you can. Well, anyone who's
ever known me knows I am kind of a what's
the word, I'm more of a shy person when it

(42:06):
comes to things like getting naked. You know out there,
I'm definitely more on the shy end of the spectrum
of things. And so this is what this is really
what helped break me of Jason. Get over it, dude,
get over it. Okay, you gotta shower. You feel and
smell disgusting. You've traveled forever. You cannot boycott bathing just

(42:29):
because you're shy. You gotta get in there, buddy. And
so you know, Christian goes and bathes, and then he
comes back, and Christian's hilarious. He has this big smile
on his face, and I'm like, where is this place?
And he gives me directions. So then what do I do? Okay,
because I'm quote unquote shy, I walk down into this

(42:51):
bathing area at night. Okay, so I go down there. Now,
it was already gonna be night. Christian bay when it
was night too, But it was already gonna be night
because it was late. But I'm just thinking, I can't
believe I'm walking down into this and I'm gonna show.
I'm gonna shower in the real Amazon. Okay, I keep
saying shower. I'm going to bathe, I'm gonna get buck

(43:13):
ass naked, and I'm going to I'm gonna sit in
my butt in this water tank and who knows what's
out there, jaguars, bores and a condas. Seriously, I'm like,
this is just whatever, So I do it. Okay, I

(43:37):
get now, I'm only sharing this. I'm not trying to overshare,
but I'm like, this is really what it was like.
And so I go down there and I'm and I'm
and I have my sandals on, like my flip flops.
Then I have my clothes and I have a change
of clothes, and I have a towel and all that jazz,
and I'm like, you know what, Jason, and I have
my flashlight, and I'm like, you know whatever, just do it.
So strip my clothes off, I jump into this thing.

(43:58):
The water is freezing, by the way, you know, because
it's nighttime at this point. But I be honest with you,
it was really awesome. It was an incredible experience. And
I even't filmed a little bit of it. Nothing graphic, nothing, nothing,
you know, PG, nothing R rated. Nobody wants to see it.
But I filmed this so you guys can see what
it was actually like. It was a really cool experience.

(44:20):
And if you can't tell, I really enjoyed just diving
into all of these moments with vigor and passion and
without inhibitions. And that's really what my life has has
taken on in the last year two whatever it may be,
is losing those inhibitions and living and that, to me,

(44:43):
is what this trip really embodies. And it was. It
was absolutely incredible. So after the shower experience, I showed
Christian the video that I took and then I told Christian,
you have to tomorrow you have to do a shower video.
I keep calling it a shower. You have to do
a bath video too. Any They're hilarious. Again, nothing R

(45:04):
rated materials, just to show you guys what it's like.
And I think that that's really cool. So the next day,
the tribe does a whole presentation for us. Now, let
me kind of talk about the community in general. Like
I said, they most of them run around semi nude.
They have a main area which is where they cook everything.

(45:28):
So there's no microwaves, there's no electricity, there's none of that.
They only have a tiny bit of electricity in like
I said, they're little school room, which is which is
honestly at least a quarter mile away from where they
all live at least. And so this area is a

(45:50):
wood hut with open sides, so there's there's logs that
hold it up and then that what they've done is
they put mesh to help keep the mosquitoes and other
stuff out on the perimeter of this. But it's open
because it has to be open because on the inside
of it they are constantly cooking a fire, so there
has to be a way for the smoke to evacuate.

(46:12):
So they had this fire because that's how they do
two things. A it's how they cook and b it
is how when they are not actively cooking something that
is where they put a broth or something on that
is meant to help with the bugs mosquitoes. They put
something in there like a vapor that helps to you know,

(46:33):
rid the area of bugs. This is probably about you know,
fifteen by fifteen maybe twenty by twenty foot space and
there's there's a few hammocks in there and a few
benches all fashioned out of you know, logs or you know,

(46:54):
twine or whatever it is, and they'll be, you know,
somebody laying there and mostly again most of the people
are topless. But that's just how they are and how
they that's how they live. And this is also this
this area serves not only as their kitchen and their
dining area, but also their communal area. This is where
they all gather at night or during the day and

(47:16):
talk and just be social with one another. So that's
we would go there two or three times a day,
depending on what we were doing to you know, eat
breakfast and then a lunch or so on and so forth.
And so we went in there and they wanted to
show us. You know, how they dress up and get

(47:36):
ready with their presentation is to go out on a hunt,
because they will go out and hunt for monkeys, they
will hunt for for other animals, you know, for for food.
I'm used to seeing, like the last time I went
to the Amazon, you'd see the girls dress up. But
when they would wear their skirts and stuff. When I

(47:57):
say skirts, it's like a grass skirt or leave. So
that they would put over there, you know, their privates
and stuff. They would you know, have like biker shorts
or regular you know, like normal person shorts, you know,
underneath it. This one they do not. Furthermore, I never
saw any guys in any traditional you know, attire and

(48:22):
any of the other things that I've ever done out
in the Amazon. Well, this was a very very new
one for me. The first of the ladies do their
presentation and they dance, and this is how they get
ready for all of the activities and festivities that they're
going to be doing. Uh, and then the men come in.

(48:42):
And when the men come in, it is if you're
a quote unquote Westerner, it is it isn't Uh. It
is a surprise because the men are completely naked. But
I think at least I have speak for myself. When
I went into this, I was definitely anticipating there to

(49:03):
be nudity with the men and the women. But what
I didn't anticipate was that the manner in which the
men come in. You know, the women will paint their
faces and so on and so forth, and they'll wear
something on their head called a corona, which is like
a it's a it's a it's a it's a green.
They'll they'll get a plant and they'll wrap it around

(49:25):
your head, almost like a bandana. But the men come
in and then they have a piece of rope that
ties around their waist. But then they take they they
take their penis and they put their penis against their stomach,
and then they take the rope and they tie the
rope around their waist, pinching the tip of their their

(49:49):
their penis to their body. And when they walked in,
I looked at them, and by this point we become
somewhat familiar eyes with being friends and so on and
so forth. And I'm looking at them and they look
at me, and they see the look on my face,
and they said, Jason, you do you wanna do you

(50:10):
wanna dress like us? I said, I said, okay, I'm
all about losing my inhibitions and and doing all this
other stuff. But that that that that's a lot. I mean,
even for a dude who has no inhibitions in the
Western society, that's still a lot. Especially the whole pinching
your your thing, you know, your your your manhood, and

(50:33):
then the red paint that they use, you know on
the ladies. What they do is they take this red
paint and they paint the testicles of the man. So
they come in with their testicles red red and their
penis tied to their to their abdomen. It's quite a sight.

(50:58):
Well you may think that this is just you know,
for show and presentation, but they they did dances just
like the women did. And then after they did the dances,
we followed them as they went into the jungle and
they walking completely naked with their things tied against them,
with barefoot and everything else, and they hunt like this.

(51:22):
And I'm sitting there watching them, and I'm like, Okay,
what is the what is the practical purpose for tying
your thing up? There's got to be some practical purpose.
Maybe I'm not even I'm really trying to think about,
like why would you do this? Because it looks so painful?
And I asked him, I said, is it hurt? And

(51:43):
they said, well, yeah, you have to get used to it.
And I said, they said, well you should try it, Jason,
I said, no, Christian can do it. Christian can do
that part for me. Okay me, no. Still, I still,
you know, would like to be able to utilize mine
with it having regular functionality, and when I said this
to them in some way, shape or form in Spanish,

(52:03):
they thought that was pretty funny because, like I said earlier,
yes we're in Ecuador, and yes the younger folks speak Spanish,
but the older ones really don't. They speak you know, waani,
and so when you speak you have to sometimes communicate
more through body language and pointing and stuff, more than

(52:25):
more than even speaking Spanish at that point because they
don't some of them just don't speak much Spanish at all.
And so we're going hunting and I did a photo
shoot with both the men and the women inside of
this hut and then we went into the jungle. It
was absolutely incredible, and you have these moments where you're
shooting them, at least for me, where I'm thinking this

(52:46):
is this is this is truly incredible. I mean I'm
not on a tour. I'm not some sanitized version of
this is what it used to be like, No, this
is what they do. And you have those momentary like
I'm really doing National Geographic type stuff, which is so cool,
and the fact that I was out there doing it

(53:06):
not on a commission from National Geographic meaning that I
owe them material. I'm just doing this for me. I'm
shooting this for my own edification and for my own
documentaries or stuff in the future, which is really cool.
I absolutely love it. So we went and did all

(53:27):
of that, which was so cool. The hunting of the
jungle was super cool. The photo shoot of them in
the jungle. I shot the men, the women, and the kids.
It's really interesting as a photographer to sit there and
you're documenting this and you're trying to piece together how
do I do this in a way that is respectful,
was respectful. I'm not too worried about because I try

(53:50):
to shoot everybody with respect and I believe that I do.
But more in a matter of how do I shoot
this in a way where you know, I would love
to post this stuff, especially when it comes to kids.
I really focused on how do I do this in
a way that is that really captures the moment in
a way that is true, but also do it in
a way that I feel is very respectful and appropriate.

(54:14):
And just being in there in that moment with them,
it's just it's an incredible moment. So the next day
we went out and we journeyed into the middle of
the woods to shoot and because something I had really
tasked them with was I said, take us to some
really cool areas where I can do some photo shoots
with the shot, because I really had a two pronged

(54:35):
mission here. I wanted to do it. I wanted to
do travels. I wanted to do documentary stuff. But you know,
some of these places are so gorgeous. I'm like, that's
why I bring a model to some of these excursions,
because I want to shoot some of this beautiful stuff
and share it. And you know, because it's so difficult
to get to some of these areas, there's so much

(54:57):
time and money and planning and effort to get some
of these areas, I want to maximize it by having
somebody there to shoot. So the shot did an incredible job.
We all we got back in the in the canoe
because anywhere you go out in the amazon As, you
can imagine you are ninety nine percent of the time

(55:17):
you are not doing it on foot. You are doing
it in the canoe. And then you get off in
the canoe and then you walk somewhere. So we traverse
our way down the river, get into this area where
there's supposed to be this beautiful you know, lookout over
over a valley and we go walking through the woods
and as we walk through the woods, we come across

(55:38):
this tree. And they explained that this is that this
particular tree is called a devil tree because it because
ants live inside of the tree. I'm not talking ants
live inside of a hole in the tree, the trunk
of the tree. They live in the branches in the trees.
Now you may think, Okay, what exactly do you mean, Jason, No,

(55:59):
they so first off, he said, you know it's a
devil tree because underneath the branches and everything, nothing grows.
Nothing grows over the entire bottom of the perimeter where
the branches reach out on this entire tree, which is
pretty crazy. There's nothing on the ground unlike the other

(56:20):
parts of the jungle. And that's because of something that
the ants are doing to discourage it. And so he
gets a branch he breaks. This is a guide that
we had. This is all part of the tribe. And
he breaks a branch off and cuts it open and

(56:41):
he says, stick your tongue in there, and I says,
stick my tongue in where stick your tongue in to there?
And he showed me and there's literally inside of a branch.
He opens up the branch and there's ants that are
inside of the veins of this branch. They're inside the
hollow part of a branch. And then he says, stick
your tongue in there. And when you're down there, you
just kind of gotta do what they're talking about. He's

(57:05):
I stuck my tongue in there, and he says, what
does it taste like? And I said, I can't tell
because they're biting my tongue, he says, and he laughs,
and they all laughed, and he says, yeah, but but
what does it taste like? I said, it tastes like lime.
He goes, yeah, it is like lime. And so it's
just I'm sitting there and these these ants are biting you.
And then they explained. They said, well, the problem is

(57:27):
you need to swallow faster because if you fall swallow faster,
then they die. You can't. They can't. You know, they
can't bite you if you swallow faster. So I did that.
Then after that we went and uh, the shot or
Christian Christian will usually do what I do, and the
shot wouldn't have any of it. She's like, I'm not

(57:47):
putting my tongue in that okay, So then we went
out to do the shoot and the shot was she
wore like a grass skirt with the top, definitely taking
on the effect of the attire that they would wear
out there. And we did a shoot with a flash.

(58:07):
And this is something that I've been using a lot
lately is I have this modifiers, a twenty six itch
modifier by Photex that just pops open like an accordion,
and I've been using it a lot when i've been
going down there because it's really been giving me great results.
And when you're out there, you need stuff that is
really really portable. Really portable. Portability is a huge thing

(58:33):
out there. So went shot with that, did a shoot
with the one of my lenses has become a favorite
of mine, which is the Sony twenty millimeter G lens.
I actually shot a lot, as you may remember, with
the Sigma twenty milimeter over the years, but that broke
stop focusing on me and so I bought the Sony
twenty millimeter G lens and I've been using that a

(58:55):
lot and I've been really really enjoying it. So when
I did that shoot that turned out fantastic. Went back
the next day and then I go into that little
communal area with the fire and where they have their
breakfast and everything else. And I went to have breakfast,

(59:16):
and all of a sudden, I start hearing YETI, YETI Yeti.
And I turned around, and then the old lady who
was topless, who is the mother in law of the
tribal leader, says to me, your name is Yetti. Oh,
And I laughed, and I said, you're calling me a Yeti,
And they said yeah. And I said, do you know

(59:37):
what a Yeti is? And I tried to explain to
him what it is. And finally, when I was able
to adequately explain that they were calling me an abominable snowman,
they laughed. They thought that that was really funny. They said, well,
that's not exactly what it means for us. It means
more like a warrior, or so on and so forth.
But it was a great laugh. And from that day forward,

(01:00:01):
and I was with them another four or five days,
I lost the name of Jason. I am forever known
as Yetti. Even when they communicate with us now about
going back in the future and doing other activities with them,
they always call me Yeti. It's all They'll call me.
They don't call me anything else, which I think is awesome.
I felt honored to get a name from them. So

(01:00:23):
that morning we go out. We visited one of their
neighbors and that was two hours away. Went down there
on the canoe. Guys this community, when you go down there,
they have two cans. They have monkeys that run around
with no leashes, nothing, no wings clipped, and they are

(01:00:43):
the pets of the tribe. And the funny thing is
I went down there, the two can was biting my phone.
I was trying to film it. This two can. I'm
on my hands in these This two can is biting
my camera as I'm filming it. And when the tribal,
when the lady that was down there got tired, the
two can chasing me, it barked, well not it. The lady,

(01:01:05):
you know, yells at the two can and says whatever
she said because she's speaking about Annie. Whatever she said
to the two can, and the two can just like
a dog would like, kind of barks back and then listens,
almost like if you're scolding a dog, like hey, knock
that off, get over here. The two can listen in

(01:01:25):
the same way. It was hilarious. So we went there,
we did another shoot in the shot under a dry house.
They have a house where they dry their leaves and stuff.
We did a shoot there which was really cool, put
up the drone for some footage, and then then on
the way back I did a really cool shoot because
one thing I asked him, I said, is can we

(01:01:45):
stop the canoe in the middle of the river and
do some shoots? And we did and we got some
great work done. We shot some with the flash and
we shot some with the roter like Neo two, both
in the middle of the river and on my previous
to the to Ecuador, I actually lost my my drone.
You can watch my Instagram story if you want to

(01:02:07):
see or not story my feed to see what happened.
But but yeah, I lost my drone and so this
time when I went back down to Ecuador, I had
two drones with me, but I was really kind of
nervous because I didn't want to lose another one because
I lost it in the river the last time. But
I still put the drone up and got some incredible
footage of a shooting getting out there. It was it

(01:02:28):
was really funny and and got some really cool stuff
that I'm very excited to share with you guys down
the down the road, so really really fun. And so
the next day we go down and this is this
was a real true adventure. We go down the river

(01:02:49):
and this time they said we're gonna go down to
a meet out or a lookout, you know, like a viewpoint.
And so we go down and as we're heading down,
they look in the sky and Nanto says, we are

(01:03:10):
going to get a thunder. We're going to get pummeled
by rain, and so we pull over the canoe. We
pull a canoe over. They have a plastic tarp to
put over the gear, and we get the rain ponchos
out for the Think Tank backpack. So that's one thing
I would say is on this trip, you know, if
you guys are going to adventure and travel with gear,

(01:03:30):
make sure that you have backpacks and bags that come
with ponchos like they are custom fit for your gear.
If not, you're going to ruin gear, plain and simple.
So we went and we put these ponchos on the bags.
Then all the other bags we put underneath the tarp,

(01:03:52):
and then for the drone and for my light because
I have two drones, like I said, but they're in
the dji bags, which will take on some water, but
not a ton, like if it's really raining, they're going
to ruin the drones. And so we took these and
so I brought up a dry bag, a forty liters
dry bag, and then what I did is I put
the drones inside of the dry bag. And a dry

(01:04:14):
bag is really used to keep things dry. Obviously then
as the name says, but that dry bag will really
keep things like even if you had a capsize. I
was in Honduras and we had the boat cat size
and we did this and it really protects your gear.
So it's a great way to keep cell phones all
that other kind of stuff dry. And I actually put
a video out on YouTube on this if you guys

(01:04:36):
are interested. Well, it rained so much that we had
anticipated going down to this viewpoint that day and then
going back to fall, you know, going back to the community.
Well that didn't work out. We get down to this
area called Shtipouno and there is an abandoned lodge. Now

(01:04:57):
when I say lodge, guys, this is not like you know,
what you may think of with the lodge where you've
got you know again, accommodations and rooms and everything. This
is just some very rudimentary UH buildings where they would
house people who biologists, scientists, members of the educational community

(01:05:23):
that come down to study the Amazon. And this is
owned by the wild Anie tribe. And so being that
we were with the waud Anie tribe, they said, we
cannot make it back to the community tonight, so we're
gonna stop here at the lodge. And so when you
stop at the lodge, what that means is you are
getting off, getting off the canoe, taking your stuff up,
and there's still no electricity, there's no lighting, there's nothing.

(01:05:46):
You're just under some at least at least and I
was very grateful for it. There at least there was
some UH. There was the ability for us to be
able to set our stuff down and get out of
the get out of the ring because the rain was
crazy night. But what we did is we decided to
do a photo shoot in the shot at this lodge,
since all the other plans for the day were washed out.

(01:06:11):
We did a shoot with the Neo two and her,
which was really cool. Christian helped me with that, which
is which was a lot of fun. And and then
the tribe. When I say tribe, there's only there are
two members of the tribe with us at this point.
That went three. There was the lady who was the
mother in law of the topless lady, seventy year old

(01:06:31):
topless lady. And then there was non to the leader.
And then there was a guy that I nicknamed Machete
Machete because he was always killing or not killing, but
clearing the path everywhere we walked with a machete, as
you would see in the movies. And so we get
into this in this little area, and there's one thing
I will say. One thing that I did is from
the United States, because the advice that Christian gave me

(01:06:54):
before coming down is he said, any camping supplies that
you need or you hope to have, you better bring
from the United States because they are not going to
be available here. And so I brought a big tent
down with me that we utilized for all the nights,
and the shot had our own tent. Christian and I
slept in our tent and she slept in her own.

(01:07:15):
But then one thing I also did was I bought
and took three twin size air mattresses down there with
me because if there's one thing I've learned in all
these travels is they don't ever have stuff like that.
And if I don't know about you, but if I'm
sleeping on a hard floor, I'm going to be miserable
the next day and I'm not going to be able

(01:07:35):
to really work very well. So I bought one for myself,
one for Christian, and one for a shot, which was
it worked out great to have those. And the reason
it worked out great is because they have these rooms
in this lodge that are made for, like I said,
the scientists and biologists, all those you know, the people
who study the Amazon. They go down there. So instead

(01:07:58):
of having to set up the tent down at this
lodge place, we blew up the air mattresses and put
them down in there, which was really really cool. And
Christian and I slept in separate rooms next to each other.
And then the shot was down with the Topless Lady somewhere.

(01:08:19):
And then that was a funny story too, because the
Topless Lady, she would watch me every morning. She would
stand in my doorway and just smile and watch me
as I would try and change and do other things,
and I would I would tease her and say, hey,

(01:08:39):
you know, I'm a little I'm a little too old
for you. I would like tease her and she would
just smile at me. And lots of great stories happened
at this just beautiful. There's again there's no lights, so
we would we would just the tribe would light candles
and then feed us. They said they would you start

(01:09:01):
a fire and they would set the fire and then
we would light by the candlelight. It was just it
was just a really really cool experience. And the shot
gave dance lessons and the shut is actually a dance instructor,
and she would give dance lessons to us, trying to
teach us how to dance, which was hilarious. And she
kept saying to me, Jason, because I have my hip

(01:09:21):
orplace she goes, you got to unblock your hips, dude.
And so that was really fun. And that's not something
that I've done a lot of in my life because
of my hip, and so that was another thing that
I really worked on that was a lot of fun.
I really enjoyed that. The next day the rain stopped
and we went to this meet out lord, which is

(01:09:43):
again the lookout Point. Well Nanto, the leader of the
tribe looked at me, and he says, you know, I'm
wondering if the YETI can make it. I said, of
course I can make it. I've been walking my ten
thousand steps. He goes, this one is really tough. I
don't even think Christian will make it. I don't think
any of you will make it, is what he said.

(01:10:03):
And I laughed. I said, I'm going to see you
at the top, mother freaker. So long story short, we went.
We want another hour some odd time in the canoe.
We're chopping down stuff. I really can't wait to have
the time to put these videos together because they are
just adventures galore. We're chopping down the woods, we're going

(01:10:24):
through there, and we get into this. We climb and
climb and climb. And this was at least a two
hour it's a four hour round trip, but a two
hour hike up into the jungle, which to this lookout
that overlooks the entire Amazon. That was honestly just incredible,

(01:10:47):
absolutely just incredible. One little piece of advice I'll give
you is if you are flying a drone, make sure
And again I thought I told you guys, I would
give you some advice if you are in an area
like all of these areas that does not have Wi
Fi access, doesn't have any signal, has nothing. Make sure
that you sign onto your account prior and make sure

(01:11:08):
your phone is logged into your dji account prior to
losing service, because if you do not, then when you
get into these areas, it will restrict your altitude and
distance that you can fly your drone, and it restricts
it pretty significantly. It's some something a lesson I had
to learn, So make sure to do that. But we

(01:11:28):
did some incredible shoots with the drone looking at looking
out at us, just amazing. I can't wait to share
these with you. And they have these assassin they called
assassin ants. They're huge, and so Nasha is posing against
this tree and these assassin ants are actually binding her
and they're vicious. The ants are so freaking vicious out

(01:11:53):
in the Amazon, little freakers. They really are. Shot was
wearing a swim suit. But then what what uh Nanto
Nanto with MACHETI did a on by the way, I
nicknamed because since they gave me names, and they were
laughing about it, because you know, uh, they're laughing that

(01:12:16):
they called me an abominable snowman. I gave Nanto, the
leader of the tribe, the nickname of Naga, which is
butt cheeks, because everywhere everywhere that he walked he was sagging.
He'd have these little shorts on, but his butt cheeks
were showing, and I'm like, either go nude or pull
up your pants, dude. Clearly I wasn't telling him what

(01:12:38):
to do. It's just funny, and so I called him Naga.
So Nauga and Machete are making these beautiful outfits. And
when I say outfits, they they could in the matter
of minutes make baskets and all these things with leaves
and just picking stuff out of the woods. It was
really pretty cool. So we did a really cool shoot there.

(01:13:00):
Really really had to deal with the elements there. One
piece of advice that I'll that I'll say is when
we were out there, you know a lot of the
times and the shot wouldn't you know, it doesn't really
make sense for her to be wearing high hills or sandals,
but you would get eaten alive if you stood there
with no shoes on and no protection. And so we

(01:13:22):
had bug repellent everywhere we went, and so we would
put giant leaves down on the ground and spray the
top of these leaves to death, and then she would
step on those and that would really help to keep
the ants away from her. So just a little piece
of of, you know, advice as to what you can
do to really help mitigate, you know, some of the
problems that you'll deal with when you're out there, because

(01:13:44):
those definitely, you know, those those those those ants alone
will just make you want to just they'll make you
they'll make you want to quit. They are vicious, they
bite like a mother freaker. So then as we're drawing
us so we finished that, we walk down out of
the area where we just did this shoot. And we

(01:14:04):
walked down and it was really funny because we're walking
back and we hear we hear Nauga, the tribal leader.
We hear him stumble. Then we hear a ruckus, we
hear animals. Apparently Nauga tripped and this chicken like thing,

(01:14:27):
I don't even know, it's not a chicken, but it
just it comes flying out of a roost, a nest,
i should say. And we turn around and he has
a sheepish grin on his face and I'm like, what
was that? And he looks inside of the tree. It's
a hollowed out tree and there's a nest with eggs there. Well,
apparently he scared the hell out of this bird. The
bird flies out and he looks and he goes, oh, cool, breakfast,

(01:14:50):
and he takes the eggs. There's like these blue eggs
and he says, othery're just like it's gonna taste just
like chicken, like chicken eggs. So we went and did that,
and then the following day we well, we were supposed
to go back to the community, but it was too late,
so we stayed the night at that lodge again, which
was really a lot of fun. So the following day

(01:15:12):
we took the canoe five hours now because we're really
far away from the launch point where we first started
this journey, up to up to where we had first
launched from. We took the canoe back up there because
this was our last day in Yasuni, and we go

(01:15:33):
and get food. It was really cool though, because a
lot of the community members from the Yasuni, from the
Wadani tribe went to this launch point, this little poevlito,
and they all saw me off, saw all of us off.
I should say not just me. They saw all of
us off and then they went into the town to
you know, to get groceries or get something to drink

(01:15:54):
or whatever. So that was really cool because when we
when we would walk down the street, they would say YETI, YETI,
and you know, they were calling out my name and
I don't know. Just the fact that they called me
by a name that they gave me was really special.
I really really enjoyed that. And I got to tell you, guys,
this is why I want to take you guys. There
just so many incredible, incredible opportunities. Guys, this podcast is

(01:16:17):
so long, I'm going to split this into two, so
this will be part one of two on my trip
to the Amazon. Thanks for listening to part one, guys.
I love you until next time. Keep shooting, never give
up on your dreams. Finder get that works for you.
To remember you only have one chance to get it right.
Make sure to listen to part two coming up very soon,
my friends. Talk to you later.