Six Days in Machete Heaven

[Pict]

This past week Giuliano Toniolo and I took off for six days in the Mata Atlantica. Mata Atlantica is the east coast rainforest of Brazil. The area we were in was about an hour south of where we live in Belo Horizonte.

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Giuliano is starting up his own survival school here in Central Brazil and it was great to get out to the bush with someone who not only has the passion to chop where few will go but also contribute a solid base of experience to the adventure. This guy rides for the brand.

I have to say we got our butts kicked on this trip. The Mata Atlantica is a very beautiful, but inhospitable place, the kind of terrain that most people only ever view from a prepared trail near the hotel. We were scouting out a possible location for future survival training both for ourselves and for the groups we take to the bush. I doubt we will get back to this place with a group because it was just too brutal to take people who are untrained. If you push into this terrain it pushes back hard.

The place was basically a very isolated ridge surrounded on three sides by very deep ravines which practically guarantee there is nobody there. Just getting in and out was an ordeal and the mountain itself is covered by very thick bush.

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I really do feel privileged to be able to do a trip like this for the cost of two hours’ drive time and a week’s rations of Ramen noodles and instant oatmeal. This was a challenging trip for us both. We shot ALOT of video on the trip. I have it edited into 12 videos that I’ll be putting up on my channel in the coming weeks. The videos are a mix of tutorial info and the chronology of the trip.

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I have the first video up now; it’s an introduction to the area and the video series. This was the kind of trip in which you strap on the machete in the morning and peel your fingers off it at night. It was six days of chopping, hot days, chilly nights, ants, mosquitoes, sweat bees, blazing sun, and rain.

YouTube - Machete Heaven Intro

I hope you guys enjoy these videos as much as we did shooting them. Some of the time we were too involved with the business of getting through to shoot video. Did I mention we got our butts kicked?

Mac

[crashdive123]

Looking forward to seeing the rest of the trip.

[brunoorz]

looks like a great time cant wait to see the rest of the videos

[Rick]

Mac, I have to ask. How did the months you spent in PA impact you when you got to Brazil. I would think that trek a little harder since you've been off the path for a bit.

[Pict]

Rick,

I was gone for 18 months and it had been a while since I had stayed in the Mata Atlantica before that. The Mata Atlantica teaches liek a Nun with a ruler. If you forget something or get sloppy you get whacked pretty hard and fast. It's not a place you can let things slide or get lazy. I learned and re-learned alot on this trip. I also need to get in better shape but I was satisfied that I'm not totally disgusting.

Mac

[Rick]

I was satisfied that I'm not totally disgusting

Thanks!! That's pretty funny. I know the impact just a few months of winter has on me so I was curious about having been away as long as you have been. Thanks!! Nice video as usual!!

[pgvoutdoors]

PICT - Great pictures it looks beautiful and rugged. I've spent my fair share of time on the working end of a machete, not as fun as it looks on the TV and in the movies. It's real work!!!

Good luck with your endeavors down there, and be safe...

[Pict]

PICT - Great pictures it looks beautiful and rugged. I've spent my fair share of time on the working end of a machete, not as fun as it looks on the TV and in the movies. It's real work!!!

Good luck with your endeavors down there, and be safe...

Isn't that the truth. The glamour of real machete use rubs off in the second straight hour of chopping. Mac

[Pict]

The second video is up...

The Hack In

This one covers the chop job we had to get into our campsite on Monday. Extend what you see here for several hours and you get an idea.

Mac

[crashdive123]

You may not want to take your students there for survival training, but you could certainly start up a weight loss and exercise class that would rival Richard Simmons.

[Sourdough]

Thank You for the photos.......I wish I could do video.

[Rick]

Good stuff, Mac. Do the larger animals have established trails? That stuff is pretty thick. How do they travel from place to place?

[Batch]

Good stuff, Mac. Do the larger animals have established trails? That stuff is pretty thick. How do they travel from place to place?

That's what I was wondering.

cool videos. I look forward to seeing the rest.

[Pict]

Good stuff, Mac. Do the larger animals have established trails? That stuff is pretty thick. How do they travel from place to place?

Yes, the waterways. The largest species we have here are Tapir and Capibara and both stick to the water.

Mac

[Batch]

Mac, what are the key predators in that area?

I tried to find a link that covered the animals of the region and didn't find any. At least not in English.

[Beo]

Damn Pict I envy you. You ever want a 44 year old divorced tagalong let me know.
There's Les as survivorman, Bear (Burp) Grylls doing his fake Man vs. Wild, but we are lucky enough to have
the real thing here on WSF with PICT!!!
I wanna show with Pict leading the way!!!! Come on networks where are you!!!

As always Pict great stuff keep it coming.

Beo,

[Beo]

Oh yeah, and bro watch out for that dreaded Chupacabra!!!

[Pict]

Mac, what are the key predators in that area?

I tried to find a link that covered the animals of the region and didn't find any. At least not in English.

The most common big cat in our area is the ocelot (jaguatirica) but we do have mountain lions as well. We also have boas (jiboia) and anacondas (sucuri). The rivers, swamps, and lakes have alligators (jacare). The most common bird of prey is the Cara Cara, a large hawk. The largest canine is the Maned Wolf (Lobo Guara) but they hang out in the mountains and cerrado mostly.

Other animals of note would be the tapir, capibara, paca, armadillo, possum, large and small ant eaters, and several kinds of monkey. Mac

[Pict]

YouTube - Chopping It Up

Day two (Tuesday) video is up. This day started out as a continuation of Plan "A" which had been to camp on top of the mountain and explore down the ridge.

We broke camp and packed everything for the move to the top. A few hundred meters into the ordeal we quickly determined we couldn't do it with packs on. We switched to hacking forward and then moving the packs up the newly cut trail.

This decision gave way to leaving the packs behind and cutting to the top to make sure it was worth moving the packs up there. We were running out of time and running through the water very quickly. Our only water source was down below our first nights camp. That meant that we would have to chop to the top, move the packs to the top, chop out a camp and set up, then make the trip down yet again to get water.

By the time we got back down to our packs we realized we didn't have enough daylight left to get it all done without walking our trail in the dark. It was a hard day. Anyone who wants to say we wimped out can chop a few km and tell me afterwards. We made the right choice, pushing beyond it would have been unsafe.

Our objective for the week in terms of scouting was to explore the top of the ridge and see if we could locate a trail up there we had spotted in the satellite photos. The only info we had to go on was a short section of trail that crossed an area of sparse tree cover about 3 km down the ridge from where we arrived on the top. We were just guessing that the trail would extend the length of the ridge and come down where we planned to go up, it was the only place it could go given conditions. As long as we got that job done it didn't matter to us how it got done.

Sometimes plan "B" is the best option.

Mac

[rwc1969]

It sounds like hacking thru and staying hydrated are the hardest parts of this.

I can't remember if you mentioned it here, but how are you treating the water? Are you treating it?

Nice vids, thanks for posting em up.