- Hi, I'm Les Stroud host and creator of Beyond Survival.

Within the scope of filming this series, I've circled the globe eight times in 10 months.

I learned to go beyond the technicalities of hunting and fishing and shelters and fire.

And instead, to dig deeper into what it means to be truly connected to the earth in profound ways.

To go beyond survival.

This is an overnight ordeal.

He's asked me to bring along some blankets, a pad to sleep on and to be prepared to spend the entire night on the influence of the medicine.

Here we go.

(shaman chanting) (Les coughs) (Les vomits) (intense music) I'm Les Stroud.

And I'm in the jungles of Peru seeking out the true masters of survival.

Some of the last indigenous people on earth.

(shaman chanting) Before they're gone.

Before the past is lost.

Before their world vanishes.

I can learn their ways.

(upbeat music) Vast, but sparsely populated, the Amazon rain forest runs through nine south American countries and cover 60% of the country of Peru.

Deep in these forests live a tribe that was hidden from modern civilization for 100s of years, called the watchpaede.

Though the, Watchpaede have abandoned their nomadic ways they still hunt with bow and arrow and gather wild edibles and insects for food.

Here in the Peruvian rain forest, I'll learn the secrets of this rare ecosystem from the jungle's very secret keepers themselves.

We continue on our hike into the jungle to gather the elements needed to carve bows and arrows by hand.

Survival here is a daily exercise, whether dodging snakes, collecting edibles, or making tools.

Yet the reality is, they're only a jungle drive away from civilization.

It's an extreme juxtaposition of ways of life.

Now we're scattering all we can for making bow and arrows.

(bark cracks) Around the world, the process of making bows and arrows is not one to be rushed.

Hours, days, or even weeks are spent perfecting the tools needed to live in the jungle.

This tribesman is an expert in his craft, assembling a weapon quickly and efficiently using the wood we've collected and a simple knife.

He's much faster than me.

Each tribe around the world that I've seen, still use the bow and arrow.

Has pretty much the same technique.

We've got to get it carved down until it's thin enough.

And in some cases like right now, he's putting notches in depending on what they're going for.

And then always, always, always using heat to straighten it up.

Put it over the heat, it loosens up, opens up the pores.

Opens up the cell structure so that you can straighten it out.

And then it cools straightened.

And it's no different here.

(intense music) Once again, the outside world makes its impact however small, in the middle of the jungle.

(knife cracks) It's like in so many places making use of modern tools to do a very ancient and primitive skill.

A pair scissors probably used to be a sharpened stone, sharpened bone.

This right here is the bird that the feathers came from.

Paul.

He, I can't pronounce it, but it's a big black bird from the jungle of Peru.

First rubs it with the inset dung and then charcoal just creates a glue.

You watch closely just how intricate this is to put this fetching on the arrow.

It's a marvelous skill.

It's a beautiful skill.

It's intricate.

It takes technique.

It takes patience.

And how many young kids are learning this skill right now?

I haven't got a clue, but I can't see people knowing how to do this 20 years from now, unless they keep it alive.

Here, hoping they will.

- Here they don't use poison at all.

It's just this long arrow and they'll have other types of arrows as well.

But for the hunting we're going to do for bird or small mammal, this is what this arrow is made for and they don't need poison.

You can tell in the workmanship that he's a master craftsman.

It's just beautiful, beautiful work done quickly, swiftly, smoothly, and solid.

The Watchpaede are skilled fishermen, but not using poles using instead, these very arrows we've been working on.

(calm music) Heading our way to the river.

Hope there's another bullet and check that out.

Okay.

Meanest thing in the jungle is an inch long, deep in the Peruvian Amazon jungle.

I'm making my way to a river used often for its bounty of fresh fish.

It's about a four or five hour journey.

Get jungle trail here, build a raft.

We're going to head down and do some fishing.

This is still part of how they exist throughout their, throughout the years is navigating the rivers by raft and fishing with bow and arrow.

So we're gonna have to do that and see if we can get in some hunting along the way.

(river flowing) I wanna see if I can get a shot away with bow and arrow.

I'm going after fish, which is tricky He's a little worried that there may not be any fish for us to go for, but we'll give it a shot anyway.

(Calm music) So we've got to move real slow.

Just to try and spot the fish in the water.

everything matters while searching for fish.

Even our shadows, each movement has to be slow and measured or the whole hike, becomes a waste.

The Fisher becoming scarce in this river, but we can still spot a few through the muddy water.

It's a bit of a mental challenge.

Fishing like this.

If unsuccessful, as in our case today, all of the well-crafted arrow tips have broken on the rocks beneath the surface of the water.

At least we can still meet up with more members of the tribe to carry out what is hopefully a more productive way of trapping or catching fish.

First, we have to head downstream just getting this raft together, continue jamming in the spikes into the balsa wood, which had been brought from further upstream, because even that's starting to be completed in this area.

It's quite the process.

(hitting of wood) Some hard wood that's chunked out.

Sometimes they actually do split the logs and put the spike in just the right way.

The machete and the ax are the two most valued tools from the outside world.

They make so much possible in the jungle.

(upbeat music) There are places down river, the Watchpaede want me to experience.

areas of the jungle, where we can poison fish and gather plants of medicine, meant to give me the strongest of purification's for people who live in the jungle gathering supplies takes on the form of a giant spider web of trails and journeys throughout their territory.

There is no box store at the end of the street, where all your wants are satisfied.

Yet life here seemed somewhat more satisfying - Throughout most of the jungles of the world.

People have found ways to catch fish simply by poisoning them.

And Watchpaede are no different.

So this morning I'm going to head out and see if that skill is still intact and just how effective it can be and a place like the Peruvian Amazon.

(foreign language) I asked them, if they get stung or bitten much doing work like this in the jungle.

And they just said, yes, yes, always.

Ow!

(foreign language) like that.

There's always something here to sting you or bite you, mostly ants.

The jobs of survival here is split evenly between the men and the women.

The women generally do a little bit more of the weaving.

Of course, in the men generally do a bit more of the hunting with bow and arrow, but otherwise a lot of the jobs are split between the both sexes Also split evenly is the pride in the skills of the jungle, along with the desire for their children to learn skills of the outside world.

So 37 ant bites, but pound of sweat later, and we've got all the routes we need for poisoned fishing, Almost at a jogging pace.

I'm trying to keep up on the jungle trail with the barefoot Watchpaede of the Amazon rain forest clothing they're wearing is their clothing of choice.

They do have t-shirts and pants.

Sometimes they wear that.

Sometimes they wear what they're wearing now, which is essentially clothing that's been made out of bark.

Bark of trees, processed, beaten down, softened up, died painted until they end up with the beautiful clothing they have on.

Now another day they might throw on their cotton t-shirts they got from town.

They just jumped between the two worlds without thinking about it.

- [Host] While the men often show me much pride in their hunting skills.

It's the women who are always the most playful once their shyness subsides.

(foreign language) That's my new name, Derrick, daddy and Y. means the one who travels the world.

Nowadays.

They use plastic to do the poison fishing and cover the pond, but they just have discussion.

Cause they said, well, can you turn the camera off?

When, when we use the plastic and then later we'll put the leaves on, which is the way we've always done it.

I guess they felt bad about it, but I told them I'm not here as a tourist.

I don't want to see the dress up version of what they do.

I want to see what they do now.

And it's fine by me they wanna use plastic, use plastic, they wanna use leaves, use leaves.

I know they know how to do it.

That's all it matters.

(foreign language) (river flowing) - [Host] Within a short period of time and a few hands for help.

We manipulate the flow of the river, giving us a spot with a slow current to put the poison in.

All of the ingredients have roots and stems need to be broken down individually to allow the chemicals to work together and permeate the water.

It's a poison is so strong that I'm not supposed to now put my hands in the water.

It'll send the fish away.

I don't want any pieces to go in the water.

It will scare the fish away and I'm not supposed to touch my mouth, my eyes.

And I can't wash it until I'm done.

Some pretty powerful poison.

I remember I was poisoned fishing in another country, actually was in the jungles in Sri Lanka.

And there, from what I could tell the poison, put in the water actually took the air out of the water, the oxygen out of the water.

And so the fish rose to the surface, trying to gasp for air and you could catch them here.

They say this poison might make them a bit dizzy, make them dopey and make them easier to catch.

And eventually also kills them outright.

Once again, I find myself a poison all over me that I'm not supposed to get in my eyes or lick or touch.

Gotta wonder how fishing using poison can just evolve in jungles thousands and thousands of kilometers apart, one jungle.

And then you go halfway around the world to another jungle.

And they both have peoples that catch fish by combining ingredients and poisoning them (river flowing) For this method.

The poison is put into the top of the flow and winds its way down the stream, effecting the fish as it goes.

(river flowing) Got one.

Ah, hah, that's what I'm talking about.

This one Swan us off right up onto the shore, Just coming to the surface readily now.

Dozens and dozens of multi catfish and different fish.

One big one.

You can see a whole group of people from the village came down to help out with this one.

This was pretty amazing to do this kind of work.

It's not a huge payoff for what we've got here, but still I imagine there are times where the fish they get are quite large.

(foreign language) All depends on the season, the river, the timing, everything, This whole process is amazing and utterly primitive.

I hadn't actually seen this one before, but take the bamboo.

All the fish go in the bamboo stuff, the top with a bamboo leaf around the fire.

And there's actually bamboo flavor that gets infused into the fish as they cook it, so it's fascinating.

- [Host] Life in the jungle is a perpetual state of living or surviving in the moment, the fisher caught here and now.

And so they're eating here and now, - oh wow.

Gracias.

I'm gonna let that cool down.

That's hot, but it looks delicious.

Delicioso.

Si, si, of course the lobster Delicioso.

Mother here wants her children to learn the technology, of the computers and so on.

She also wants them to maintain the connection to the land and know the land skills as well.

My question is, can you have both?

- [Host] Watchpaede believed that the glue that will keep this culture together is the sacred medicinal plants ceremonies.

After establishing my honest desire to learn their way of life, I'm about to take part in a very powerful, Watchpaede ceremony.

The medicine we need for the next ceremony is this vine.

So we're just harvesting.

It was very important that he wanted me to be part of the harvesting (foreign language) shaman.

And I have gone off to collect medicinal plants before the next ceremony, the ceremony, essentially for nine months in division.

and, it's very important, the time of day, that the plants are collected.

It's very important that I be part of the collecting.

it's for them, it's all connected all the way through the energy of the class.

My energy, the earths energy altogether is actually in medicinal plantation.

Alberto the shaman has cultivated 216 medicinal plants here in this little tiny section of the jungle and have at least 12 to maybe 14 different medicines that have to be prepared for tonight's ceremony.

All combined to create powerful medicine.

These people can prove in jungles have taken the knowledge of medicinal plants just completely and entirely to the next level.

- [Host] And it's to that next level where Alberto, the shaman wants me to go, a level of complete purification and cleansing.

And for this cleansing, a concoction of more than 14 leaves, roots stems and flowers is necessary.

Some of these plants could be harmful to the point of being deadly if mixed wrong, or it could simply be too weak to do anything at all.

None of this has done haphazardly.

All actions are to be done mindfully with good intentions or it's feared that wrong intentions and motives will actually affect the medicine itself.

Or at least my reaction to the medicine.

This combination is meant to show me a path to answers and to understanding, Alberto has practice all his life.

And it's the skill of combining all these ingredients that is quite possibly either being lost or in danger of being lost.

If the young members of the tribe don't take up the skill - after a full day of fasting and resting, just headed my way now to the hut, this goes deep in the jungle as they say.

To have the ceremony and take the medicine.

This is an overnight ordeal.

It's asked me to bring along some blankets pad to sleep on and to be prepared, to spend the entire night within ceremony and within the influence of the medicine.

I'll take another shot at hunting.

Heading out on night hunt.

you don't actually have to go all that from the village because there's spot where there they know, there's been a lot of armadillos hanging around, armadillos extremely difficult to hunt.

You say, when you're driving on the road, you see an armadillo moving and you try not to hit it because you're either gonna damage your vehicle or it's going to send you off the road, tough little creatures, we're going up, bows and arrows, to do the hunt so, Let's see what we can come up with, it's gonna be gnarly.

Okay, lets cross the rapids now at night time.

(river flowing) I just use a flashlight to try to spot the shining eyes of the armadillo if there's one thing more dangerous than being in the jungle.

It's being in the jungle at night.

Of course, the worst part about hunting at night is that, the snakes are out.

Spiders are out.

Everything's out.

(suspenseful music) These are the tracks right here, for sure.

All right, we found an armadillo hole.

No dogs to flush them out.

Just walking through the dark, hoping to stumble upon an armadillo.

(suspenseful music) I think we are done.

I think we've gone through this jungle for a while.

I don't think we are gonna find what we are looking for.

(suspenseful music) (foreign language) That was the main area where they were striking out.

Still looking all the way back in the jungle trail was still watching for eyes, (indistinct) flashlight.

(suspenseful music) - [Host] And that is indeed how the Watchpaede look at it all.

It's all medicine, plants to align my spirit with other spirits plants to purge me sickness, of ailments, of congestion, even of evil.

plants and ceremonies meant to align my spirit and bring it into harmony with the earth, energy and the spirits of the natural world.

- So far, all first part of the ceremony has revolved around relaxing in the cocoa leaves and preparation putting all of us into a state of openness and acceptance.

- [Host] The shaman summons, the plant spirits to come and help him during the ritual.

This is a healing ritual called Laferga in which all physically purge all my demons and all that I don't need in my life.

Physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually, I'll drink two times more relaxed until I feel the effects begin to take whole.

This medicine is strong, causes me to wretch flushing, toxins and jungle parasites from my body.

My vision goes white, like the static of a TV set without a channel tuned in.

Metaphysically, a journey beyond the fast roof huts, releasing that, which I no longer need.

In this way, the Watchpaede rid themselves of disease in both the body and the mind coming into balance with their surrounding environment and harmony with their fellow tribe members.

in this cockroach infested hut.

I sit and wait for what I'm not sure.

It's simply meant to be a cleansing.

The clearing of my body, mind and soul sitting quietly with the shaman and his apprentice.

I'm acting out a journey that thousands of Watchpaede, take many, many times in their life to reconnect to the elements that surround them to become well, to become strong.

And most importantly, to get answers.

More in touch with the medicinal and viable plants of the jungle than most people on the planet.

These Watchpaede are holding onto a skillset that in some eyes could be the future key to curing diseases and sickness worldwide.

And they don't want to lose these skills.

They're proud of them.

Hopefully they'll be able to keep their knowledge and share it with people beyond their diminishing jungle borders and take this great spiritual and physical knowledge beyond survival.