
Yossi Ghinsberg has the type of story that's almost impossible to believe.
The Israeli adventurer was just 21 years old when he became stranded in the heart of the Amazon jungle without food or supplies in 1981.
For three long weeks, Ghinsberg faced death multiple times, encountering a jaguar, poisonous snakes, and burrowing worms.
It's an extraordinary story of survival. A story so extraordinary, in fact, that it had to be dialled down for its film adaptation, Jungle.
Watch the trailer for Netflix's Jungle below. Post continues after video.
As a young man, Yossi Ghinsberg dreamed of exploring the uninhabited heart of the Amazon jungle.
After completing his service with the Israeli Navy in his early twenties, Ghinsberg was drawn to Henri Charrière's book, Papillon, which detailed the author's experience as a convict on the run. The book moved Ghinsberg, and he had plans to reach Charrière in South America and follow his footsteps in the jungle.
Once Ghinsberg had saved up the funds to travel to South America, however, Charrière had died.
Undeterred, Ghinsberg continued on his journey.
Along the way, the 21-year-old was joined by two fellow travellers – Marcus Stamm, a teacher from Switzerland, and Kevin Gale, an American photographer.
While the three men were travelling through La Paz, Bolivia, Ghinsberg met Karl Ruprechter, an Austrian who claimed to be a geologist.
Ruprechter was planning a journey into the Amazon in search of finding gold, and the three men decided to join him.
"I think he saw the naivety on my face. I drank up every word he said," Ghinsberg told The Sun.
"I was begging him to take me with him."
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