"I lived a week in the jungle in Costa Rica"

The paradox is there: if everything can be used for your survival, everything can also cause your worst nightmare.

Far from the Greek mythology, Wanderlix tells you today the Odyssey of modern times. The history of Ulysses, 27, which pushes its mental and physical barriers through challenges across the world. An Odyssey leading him to the most complete adventure: living a week of immersion in the jungle Costa Rica .

Prologue

Ulysse, a 22-year-old engineering graduate, started a first entrepreneurial experience, which ended two years later, with the company not able to resist the harsh market laws. If for many, this experience would have been synonymous with failure, Ulysses sees it as an opportunity to take backwards.

Far from falling apart, he was exile for some time in Latin America to take stock of his past mistakes and future plans. Then begins a long period of introspection.

It’s in a colectivo lost in the middle of the mountains Peru , let him scratch some notes on his phone. It is then far from imagined that they would become the premises of a much more crazy project...

Let's explain. To begin with, it is necessary to draw up a list of errors that have cost the life of its business, with the aim of not reproducing them. Learn from his mistakes to better accept them, in short.

Then, he needs to get in the grip of the subject and define the contours of his future. For this, what better than to fall back into his childhood memories? He then notes the professions that make him dream, oscillating between astronauts, journalist, secret agent, adventurer or explorer...

Then, in conclusion, he puts a few challenges that inspire him, such as learning the capitals and flags of all countries of the world. ambitions that meet a need always present in him: the quest for learning.

Relever 100 challenges around the world

When he returns France , he writes an article in order to definitely turn the page concerning the failure of his start-up. He publishes it on LinkedIn, and then everything gets busy. A new chapter begins, the true beginning of Ulysses’ Odyssey.

Contacted by many companies following this post that became viral, Ulysse receives dozens of job proposals. Here he is pushed back into the world of work to the point of forgetting his phase of introspection. But a few months are enough for him to realize his mistake: where did his childhood dreams go?

He finally becomes aware of one thing: the secret is to build a business around his lifestyle and not the opposite.

What makes him vibrate? Explore new ideas, new disciplines, new places and share its discoveries. It was then born its plan to meet 100 challenges around the world.

From Europe to Latin America and Africa, Ulysses is left to bear by the wind and grasps all the opportunities presented to him. Nothing is predefined or planned, only follows his instinct and becomes the main actor of his life. It is only after he acts that he draws the lessons of his actions.

Ulysses finds himself in Costa Rica, where he meets with Kasho, a British tribe costumer. A decisive meeting, which he is not ready to forget.

Costa Rica: meeting with Kasho

Indeed, it is at the heart of a bribribribri reserve, where he learns to make cocoa, that the paths of Ulysses and Kasho cross. From drying to making cocoa paste to roasting, it’s a great moment of sharing and learning for Ulysses.

Kasho also transmits her knowledge of plants and virtues and initiation to the handling of the bow and sarbacan. A day’s time, bonds are created and confidence is quickly established.

For Ulysses, it’s an aubaine. Aventurous, always in search of learning and discoveries, he has just met his alter ego Costa Rican. Our hero then grasps his chance and embarks Kasho with him for his next challenges.

At the top of the list? Swing by an antball gun... Just that.

Influencing the most painful insect bite in the world, Ulysses wants to overcome a new mental barrier and lower its threshold of appreciation for its future challenges (at the same time, difficult to do worse, right?).

Finally, its ultimate motivation is to try to understand what people with chronic pain can feel, the time of a day.

If Kasho is in the first instance somewhat disarmed by this request (which would not?), he finds in Ulysses a real search for adventures. As early as the next day, the two companions are taking action.

But the story between Ulysses and Kasho is only beginning. Indeed, the Costa Rican knows the tropical jungle, its rules and its dangers on the fingertips, as it causes soldiers to survive. Ulysse then sees an opportunity to challenge himself.

Neither one nor two, he makes his whip and like a little boy going on adventure with his great brother, he takes the direction of the jungle alongside Kasho (and not without bad, it climbs!).

But if the first hours are difficult, it is years of light to imagine what awaits it afterwards.

Survive in the Costa Rican jungle

"Mizzishka"

That’s how they say “it’s gone” in breeze! It’s gone to confront discomfort, to face its fears. It’s gone for pure magical moments and difficult moments. It’s gone for adventure, for a total immersion in the jungle.

Ulysses leaves the mind quiet, for as he says himself, “we are so bad to predict the future that it is useless to stress, to anguish”. Come on! And it was without counting on Kasho’s wisdom and know-how, which will allow him to withdraw only the positive from such an experience.

Kasho gives him a lot of advice, starting with places where it is possible to find drinking water, especially in rapids, not in stagnant waters.

He also teaches him simple gestures, like that of recovering large leaves to drop his belongings. They will then be protected from moisture from the ground, but they will mainly make visible the possible ants bullets and other insects that could go there.

In short, Kasho teaches him never to be too careful, and never to forget that they are only strangers in this hostile environment.

The installation of the camp continues and with it, the time to make a fire, essential to both mental and physical survival. But the jungle wood is very wet, too wet. Not for Kasho, who split the small wood in half, to find the drought inside the branches.

Once the fire is caught, the hammocks hung and the first “meal” swallowed, Ulysses only dream of one thing: falling into the arms of Morpheus.

Yet, this first night at the end of the jungle seems to be soaked with confusion...

The first night

Penible, short and restless. This was Ulysses’ first night at the edge of the Costa Rican jungle.

Penible, already, by the freshness of the surrounding nature... Her teeth are slamming, her body's ruby. Without a pull or down, Ulysses struggles to find sleep as the cold gets felt.

Short, then, because the rain comes into the hammock of our adventurer. The tarpaulin placed above his head turns out to be pierced, and drops slowly flow to his face. The clothes are wet, the body tends, and the feeling of cold intensifies to the least breeze.

Agitate, finally, like the surrounding wildlife. Imagine, one night in the middle of the jungle, with only protection a fire shaking under the showers...

Black is total, and every noise becomes a threat when the brain is boiling. Only once, Ulysse tries to light his frontal lamp. He then finds himself nose-nosed with a spider, squeezing a canvas just above him.

Indeed, Ulysses sleeps in the open air, in a hammock and without mosquito net to feel protected. Without this little cocoon, it is extremely vulnerable that he spent this first night at the star.

Also acts, like his thoughts. But faithful to himself, Ulysses clings to his only goal: the quest for discoveries and the constant urge to push back his mental barriers. Without a question, therefore, to abandon the adventure. Its objectives in mind, it is more determined than ever to go to the end, costs than costs.

A painful, short and agitated night, but a night full of moral teachings, when the sun is coming...

The sunrise

Ulysses was never so happy to see the day rise. From now on, he knows where to put his hands. He slowly regains consciousness of the world around him and realizes that the worst is certainly behind him. The night was rough, of course, but a new day filled with emotions and discoveries awaits it.

The second day is dedicated to the construction of a shelter to protect the fire, it is no longer a question of getting caught by the rain at nightfall... Along with Kasho, Ulysses learns to observe, touch and understand the nature surrounding her.

He learns to choose the most appropriate foliage, to bind each other. Alone, he tries to build a small cocoon to finally protect himself from the cold, and improve his survival conditions during the night.

Unfortunately just as glacial as the first, this second night is a new test to be overcome...

Dompt a hostile land

The following days are transmitted: that of knowledge. Kasho teaches Ulysses to feed, and especially not to poison. He teaches him the colors and odors, to recognize the footsteps and the remains of foods nicked by animals...

Like Simba in the thick jungle of Oakuna Matata, Ulysses finds an appetite for termites that stir on the trees of this wet and tropical jungle. Every minute, every second spent at the heart of this stifling yet breathtaking nature is a learning for our hero.

It forms for example to the different types of lianas that can be found in the jungle. The lianas of water, recognizable as they fade away, allow to moisturize in the absence of a river in the surroundings.

The lianas "a monkey stair" have medicinal virtues. Others, which gain in flexibility once spicy, are used to make arcs. The little advice of Kasho’s grandmother is to go smoothly to avoid stiffening them.

But that’s not all. To feed in the jungle, you must also learn to fish and hunt. For this, and always under the wise advice of Kasho, Ulysses learns to make traps, spears, a bow and arrows.

Every day, Ulysses learns to sharpen his sight, and to detect possible traces on the ground, synonymous with a regular animal passage. Looking around yourself, where you put your feet, where you put your hands is absolutely vital in the jungle... You never know what you can fall (serpents, ants bullets...).

The paradox is there: if everything can be used for your survival, everything can also cause your worst nightmare. This is why Kasho teaches Ulysses the panoply of the good gestures to have if someone gets hurt, gets bitten or sting in the jungle.

Quiet after the storm

Over the days, Ulysses wins serenity and autonomy. The fears of the first night fade as he learns to recognize the noise of the animals around him. Sometimes it even manages to distinguish between the different bird songs and to identify their species.

According to him, "fear is inversely proportional to understanding." Understanding its environment and learning to know it greatly reduces this feeling of anxiety, this fear of the unknown.

The anguish, fear and loneliness of the beginning finally left room for curiosity and the pleasure of learning the jungle.

An intense week for Ulysses, which would never have learned so much survival techniques without this total immersion in the heart of Costa Rican nature. He could never even adapt to these hostile lands without the precious help of Kasho...

The Mother Earth

The relationship to the environment is a very important aspect of British civilization. This people live in total harmony with nature, the jungle and everything around it. This is the mantra transmitted by Kasho to our young adventurer throughout this journey.

For the British tribe, it is never too much to take in the jungle. This is the reason why, before leaving, Ulysses and Kasho flew the land around them in order to replant tree bulbs.

Following Kasho's teachings about the British cosmogony, Ulysses changed her gaze to the relationship we have with nature, which the Bribris nominates Irìria .

Ulysses’ Odyssey continues

Finally, learning to manage his fears, to push his own limits and mental barriers, such is the secret. By widening its comfort zone, Ulysses was able to remove the eyelids through which he saw the world. He went beyond his limits and springs stronger from this exceptional experience in the Costa Rican jungle.

It’s at Mexico that Ulysses continues its path, always with the same objective: to push back its mental barriers. We leave you the pleasure of discovering the continuation of his adventures through the many challenges that await her...