Man tells his near death story in Ecuador

My Soul’s Rebirth by Jason Pednault
Jason’s note.In 2011, in Ecuador I had a close encounter with death. This event was followed by an unbelievable, but completely true spiritual encounter that has changed my life. This is my story On July 2nd, 2011, my life was turned literally upside down, but before I go into detail, let me back up a bit. A couple weeks beforehand, I had met up with a gold prospecting acquaintance of mine. He was aware that I was looking for an opportunity to do a little gold prospecting. After we chatted for a couple of hours, he described a beautiful river system that had a lot of potential. Considering he spent many years on this river without any problems, it felt like a great opportunity for a solo traveler like myself. My plan was to head up this lightly traveled trail system, camp in my jungle hammock, and do some sampling for a few days. This region, with its pure, crisp air is extremely wild. Miles upon miles of vibrant, emerald green rainforest with small, meandering waterfalls. Dozens of orchid species inhabit the area adding even more color. Everywhere you look, you see life, and the air is as pure as snow is cold. To my weary soul, this area was paradise. If you study the ground, you will see even more life. Hundreds of species of insects all doing what insects do. From the interesting leaf cutter ant harvesting and carrying away massive leaves multiple times their size, to the busy bees pollinating the dozens of species of colorful flowers flourishing in the region. Tequila, my little white terrier puppy who was given to me by a friend, was my loyal traveling companion. He was an amazing puppy and like myself, he must have felt this little stretch of rainforest was paradise. He was approximately four months old and weighed about three pounds soaking wet. Even though he was tiny in size, he made up for it with his huge heart. He would follow me like my shadow, under, over and around the various obstacles that we frequently encountered. Some of the obstacles included huge trees that had been blown over and fast-flowing streams. If he trailed behind a bit, I would quickly hear a panicky yip reminding me of his presence. When the going got too rough for him, I would pick him up and cradle him in a little pouch I made just for that purpose. He especially loved to cuddle when the weather turned sour. How quickly I grew fond of him and how badly I miss that little guy. The trail system was lightly maintained but still offered numerous challenges. In this region of the world it rains a lot! There is a reason it is called a rainforest. Just about every night you could expect a torrential thunderstorm, combining deafening thunder and dancing lightening. The rain was so dense that it would reduce your visibility to only a few feet, with the rain itself feeling like a thousand tiny needles prickling your skin. The result of these frequent storms would be the massive fallen trees crossing the trails and endless sticky mud. On many occasions the mud was so deep that it came up to my waist.

SAFETY AND SECURITY IN ECUADOR – READ THIS BOOK

My plan was to camp for a few days at a time, followed by a quick trip to town to shower and restock supplies. With two successful, exciting trips under my belt, I felt relatively confident in my jungle survival skills. Both Tequila and I were enjoying ourselves and we even found a little gold to pay our minuscule bills. It wasn’t until my third trip in which things went downhill very, very fast. READ STORY