How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
He soon entered grueling adventure contests: once, he hiked for seventy-two hours without sleep and traversed a canyon by shimmying across a rope. (2.10)
James Lynch, who hopes to find Fawcett's whereabouts in 1996, thinks that the key to success is physical strength and endurance, and he conditions his body for it. Failing to find Fawcett, this guy should go on American Ninja Warrior.
Quote #2
[Fawcett] allowed his men only a brief pause for lunch—a snack of a few biscuits—and trekked up to twelve hours a day. (8.27)
Fawcett has superhuman endurance. Maybe this guy is part jungle, because he seems to be able to photosynthesize or something in way we mere mortals can't. We'd never be able to survive on a diet of Bisquick alone, and we don't go anywhere near the jungle.
Quote #3
Fawcett noted that in these parts "the healthy person was regarded as a freak, an exception, extraordinary." (8.40)
It's uncommon for someone to go through the extreme conditions of the Amazon rain forest and not get sick. Modern-day people obsessed with Fawcett are known as Fawcett freaks, but Fawcett is a statistical freak of nature himself.
Quote #4
Several days later, as the group was slipping in an out of consciousness, Fawcett caught sight of a deer, almost out of range. He had one shot, then it would be gone. […] He inhaled and pulled the trigger. The report echoed through the forest. The deer seemed to vanish, as if it had been a figment of their delirium. Then, as they stumbled closer, they saw it on the ground, bleeding. (10.23)
By this point, most men can't even walk straight. But Fawcett is able to aim a rifle and take down a deer in one shot after almost a month of starvation. This guy should take over for Nathan Drake in Uncharted 5.
Quote #5
Incredibly, he rarely, if ever, seemed to get sick. "He was fever-proof," said Thomas Charles Bridges, a popular adventure writer at the time who knew Fawcett. (12.15)
It's too bad Fawcett didn't live longer, because studying his physiology might be more interesting than studying the Amazon itself. The guy seems to be a walking cure for a variety of jungle illnesses. Look out, Zika.
Quote #6
The mind has to deal with the terror of constant siege. (12.25)
Mental strength is necessary for survival in the jungle, too. The constant fear that something is out to get you can be more harmful than the actual beasts out to get you. And with that in mind, we're going to go check that the doors are locked now. Hey, nobody ever asked us to rough it in the jungle.
Quote #7
"We are feeding up now," [Jack] told his mother, "and I hope to put on ten pounds before leaving, as we need extra flesh to carry us over hungry periods during the expedition." (20.21)
Willpower is also necessary to survive the jungle. Jack needs the willpower to put on ten pounds, which is willpower we have three or four times over. However, the willpower to not eat in the jungle is the actual hard part.
Quote #8
"Daddy had gone on ahead at such a speed that we lost sight of him altogether." It was just as Costin had feared: there was no one to stop Fawcett. (20.42)
Fawcett can sometimes let his strength and stamina get the better of him. Charging ahead is bad for group morale, and yet Fawcett does it, anyway. Could this be one reason why Fawcett eventually went missing?
Quote #9
[Dyott] believed, for instance, that diminutive men—men, that is to say, built like himself—were best able to endure in the jungle. "A big man has to exert so much energy to carry his bulk that he has no surplus," Dyott told reporters, and he would be "difficult to stow in a canoe." (23.14)
Dyott, with his Napoleon complex, shows us how narcissistic many of the explorers are. They may be strong in various ways, yes, but they also look for men just like them to go along with their expeditions—which always fail. Perhaps real strength lies in finding diverse groups to handle any situation? Or at least not a group full of narcissists?
Quote #10
The Xinguanos were famous for fishing with bows and arrows, their bodies perched silently on the fronts of canoes—a pose that Jack and Raleigh had excitedly caught on camera, sending the images back to the Museum of the American Indian. Vajuvi and his son, however, took out some fishing lines and baited the hooks. Then they spun the lines over their heads like lassos and sent the hooks sailing into the center of the lagoon. (23.46)
One of the keys to adapting in the jungle is to learn the strengths of the tribes who live there. Fawcett does this well, and his strengths rub off on them, too. With globalization, people will learn strengths from others all over the world (people will also trample all over other people from all over the world, but that's another story); but it's important to not let your unique strengths fade from disuse. Use it or lose it.