20 years of decoding the Amazon of the American explorer

Paul Rosolie, a 39-year-old American adventurer, spent nearly two decades living and working in the Amazon jungle – where he repeatedly faced poisonous snakes, crocodiles, rare tropical diseases and even drug trafficking groups. His scarred body is a testament to the days spent wandering deep in the Amazon jungle.

Born in Brooklyn, Paul was fascinated by nature from a young age. From the age of 12, he went alone into the forest with a small hunting knife at his side. At the age of 18, Paul first set foot in the Amazon and was quickly drawn into the harsh but mysterious ecosystem here.

According to Paul, the scale of the Amazon may be larger than the entire United States with many almost unexplored areas. He said there still exist tribes that have never had contact with the outside world, often only known through word of mouth or traces from encounters with explorers.

The Amazon River system resembles a giant tree with the main river as the trunk and countless tributaries radiating out as branches. His group operates mainly in the southern tributaries and once discovered an area that has remained almost untouched for centuries. This area is indirectly protected by the nomadic Mashco-Piro tribe – a group of people who have never had contact with the modern world and are considered “legendary” because no one has ever encountered it.

Paul’s team has partnered with indigenous communities that can communicate in Spanish. Through the Jungle Keepers organization, they support indigenous people against loggers, illegal gold miners and drug trafficking groups – forces that often take advantage of the weakness of indigenous communities to exploit resources.

About a year ago, indigenous communities alerted the Jungle Keepers when they spotted long arrows appearing on the riverbank – a sign that uncontacted tribes may be leaving the jungle. Upon receiving the news, Paul’s group immediately traveled through the night by boat to the reported area. The boatman is Ignasio – a ranger who survived being shot in the head with an arrow during an attempt to make peaceful contact with a native tribe.

When they arrived, the group found only footprints and remaining arrows. Believing in the judgment of the natives, Paul decided to continue to stay. After several days of walking to the river’s source, they suddenly encountered the Mashco-Piro tribe. From the opposite bank of the river, Paul first saw people coming out of the forest, carrying bows and arrows and moving in a state of high alert. They are living in the bamboo age, not even advanced to the Stone Age.

After initial greetings, the tribe requested food, mainly bananas. Paul’s group advised them to put down their weapons to ensure safety, and to hide behind trees while observing. An anthropologist in the group brought bananas as an offering, opening a rare recorded contact.

The moment of receiving food left a strong impression on Paul. He found that the tribe’s response was clearly survival when the banana boat arrived on shore, with members quickly claiming their share instead of sharing in the usual way in many hunter-gatherer communities.

The videos Paul released only reflect a small part of the reality he witnessed. During the past 20 years, Paul encountered many cases of tribal people killing people who had invaded from outside. That’s how Amazon operates when law enforcement powers exist only within urban boundaries.

When entering the deep forest, the wild world does not have laws in the human sense. There, everything operates according to the law of survival – the stronger will have the advantage. According to Paul, many isolated communities in the forest still exist according to that rule, because they have never known the concept of law like in modern society.

“We don’t want the public to romanticize the lives of these communities, leading to dangerous spontaneous expeditions,” Paul said. For centuries, the message of these tribes has been clear: they want to live in peace in their territory and are willing to defend it with force.

The Amazon is not completely dead, there, indigenous communities also possess valuable knowledge. While tracking tigers in India, Paul contracted tularemia, a rare tick-borne disease that caused a serious infection in his hand that left him bedridden for months.

When he returned to the Amazon while still being treated with antibiotics, JJ – an indigenous person – took him into the forest, took sap from a tree, created a natural seal on the wound, and was given herbal solution to drink. After just one night, the infection was almost under control.

When Paul was stung by a stingray, causing intense pain, JJ’s relatives used tree bark and forest herbs to suck the venom out of the wound. According to Paul, the medical knowledge of indigenous communities is a form of “survival technology” that the modern world still does not fully understand.

The technology of tribes that have never had contact with the outside world cannot be underestimated. Paul said he had seen traces showing that they used fire for cooking.

“If I gave you a lighter and a bunch of twigs, you wouldn’t be able to start a fire right away,” Paul said.

Paul himself once experienced ayahuasca – an herb that affects the nervous system – prepared by a skilled shaman in JJ’s tribe. The 80-year-old shaman fell asleep while cooking, making the ayahuasca mixture stronger.

Paul describes the experience as a journey he never wants to repeat. He found himself going through the formation of the universe, witnessing the Big Bang, drifting aimlessly in space between star systems. That experience made him extremely scared.

Before, he had faced the risk of death many times, but this time the feeling was completely different. This feeling is like a person living his whole life in a giant mansion with thousands of rooms but only using one room; Ayahuasca causes all doors to open at the same time, sweeping people through all unknown spaces. And that’s just one of the many mysteries Amazon is keeping.

“As roads and urbanization expand, many communities are forced to abandon their traditional languages ​​and lifestyles, causing knowledge associated with the jungle to gradually disappear,” Paul said.

However, Amazon is increasingly being compromised. When Paul was 19 years old, he and JJ watched loggers burn the forest, full of thousand-year-old trees, larger than a room. Smoke rose sky high. Both looked at each other but neither knew what to do. Inside the deep forest, there is no protection agency.

Lumberjacks are a major threat, alongside gold miners and drug gangs. That’s why Paul and JJ founded Junglekeepers. They recruited former loggers and gold miners to become forest rangers. These people now receive salaries to protect forests instead of cutting trees. Currently, Junglekeepers protects more than 536 square kilometers of forest area and aims to establish a national park.

According to Paul, the Amazon plays a vital role in the world’s destiny and the current people are the last generation that can save the forest. If the Amazon disappears, life cannot be sustained.