Through Jaguar Eyes: Crossing the Amazon Basin

An account of the perilous 3600-mile journey - without compass or map - across the vast Amazonian Basin, from the Andes of north-west South America through the tropical jungles of the lowlands to the dense forests of the Mato Grosso in Brazil. In February 1993 Benedict Allen became the first Westener to make the crossing at its widest point. Benedict Allen's plan in setting out to cross the Amazon Basin was to place his life in the hands of the remote Matses, the "jaguar people" - Indians who aspired to all the grace and strength of the powerful cat, tatooing their faces with jaguar stripes and placing bamboo spikes in their no0ses to resemble whiskers. From the foothills of the Ecuadorian volcano Cotopaxi he descended into Columbia and "forbidden" cocaine traffikers' country. Eluding a hitman from a drug gang, he entered Peru and made contact with the Matses. For two months he was taught how to make hunting traps and learnt the properties of plants. Then Benedict, jokingly dubbed "The Man Without fear" by the Indians, had to put his newly acquired knowledge knowledgr to the test.