Two hikers who got lost in thick jungle in French Guiana survived for seven weeks by consuming turtle meat, big hairy spiders and river water. The men were rescued yesterday, exhausted and dehydrated.
Loic Pillois and Guilhem Nayral disappeared on February 14, having set off from the Grand Kanori rapids bound for the village of Saul. Guilhem's brother Gilles said "they ate palm seeds, insects, tarantulas and two turtles" to survive.
34-year-old Pillois emerged from the jungle outside Saul at 10 am Thursday morning and told authorities that his friend (34-year-old Guilhem) was about six hours' walk away to the south.
A search party eventually found Nayral and airlifted him out by helicopter. According to one of the rescuers, Guilhem was "stretched out on the ground, completely exhausted, very thin, and dehydrated." He added, "When I took him in my arms, he burst into tears."
When examined by doctors, Nayral had lost about 45 pounds and he had lost feeling in his tongue due to the poison from a spider he had eaten without having cooked it enough.
About 40 police and soldiers had searched for the pair for three weeks, on land and by helicopter. The search was suspended in late March. The hikers, who remain hospitalized-- had maps and compasses but no GPS navigation.
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