"When I see a swimmer, I paint a drowned man." "Jacques Prevert" "Is that OK?" "I am going to do, no man has ever done, swim at the Amazon." "I'm Martin Strel." "I'm going to do..." "FEBRUARY 2, 2006 ...what... what no one has never do." "...what no one has ever done." "...what no man has never do." "...what no one has ever done." "swim at the Amazon." "I'm Martin Strel." "I'm going to do, what... no man has never..." "It's Ok." "It's Ok." "...no man has ever done." "I'm Martin Strel." "I'm going to do, what no man has never do, swim at the Amazon." "This is Martin Strel, the most famous endurance swimmer in the world." "He's the only person to swim the Mississippi and the Yangtze rivers." "Now in 2007, he will be attempt to be the first person, to swim at the Amazon." "My father is not an average world famous athlete." "First of all, he's little bit over weight, maybe even very over weight." "Second, he's a big drinker." "Even while he's swimming, he drinks two bottles of wine a day." "Thirdly, he's accomplished most of his fits over the age of 45." "When he swims at the Amazon, he'll be 53 years old." "How long does he swim without stopping?" "That's a good question." "How long does you swim without stopping?" "Average." "Every day." "Average, every day?" "50, 60 miles." "50, 60 miles?" "50, 60 miles." "Without stopping?" "Yeah, non-stop." "What he say?" "50, 60 miles without stopping." "Without stopping per a day." "Yeah, per a day." "Yes." "What's your name?" "I'm worried for my father's safety but more I worried for my father's health." "When he's swimming in the Yangtze, the world's most polluted river, he became so ill I didn't know if he would survive." "I wanted to make him stop but I couldn't." "Swimming in the world's most polluted rivers is the family business." "BORUT STREL" "My name is Borut Strel," "I am Martin Strel's son but I am also his main assistant." "My main job is helping my father at his swimming adventures." "I am the head of logistic." "I coordinate the whole team." "YANGTZE SWIM 2004 I help incurred him all the time and we trust each other the most." "He swims through this dirty waters hoping to race the illness and the disappearance of clean waters around the world." "But the Amazon is a special problem." "In the river has crocodiles, deadly fish and snakes, parasites and insects, many of which is be hard to avoid." "The deadly can the Candirue fish can swim up your penis and if it does no more penis." "Martin understands this dangerous but he consider this dangerous to the Amazon more serious." "If the global attention is not pay immediately to the rapid destruction of the rain forest then will all be in very serious trouble." "Martin hopes that his swim will inspire people to wake up and care about saving this lands." "I don't know how I feel about this swim." "When he was finishing the Yangtze swim 2004 he was saying, I am not gonna do anything more swims." "It's too hard, too hot, too much infections, too much troubles but then after a couple of months when he recovered, he just came up with another idea over night," "I am going to the Amazon." "SLOVENIA, February 2006" "TRAINING FOR AMAZON BEGINS" "My father Martin is very famous in Slovenia but even when he's going abroad he's very famous too." "Some people say that he's like an Slovenian ambassador." "Slovenia's shape is like a chicken." "Slovenia's shape is like a chicken." "Head...you can see." "Some people say it's no big deal to swim downstream with current." "I say to them trying by self's." "When Martin swims 60 miles per a day downstream means the same as swimming" "15-18 miles per a day on a still water." "Try doing that every day for 75 days when you are 53 years old and you weight over 200 pounds." "Amazon swim publicity campaign Hollywood, California" "Where you swimming to?" "Acapulco?" "It's actually kind of funny." "He's actually gonna swim entire Amazon river." "I don't think he's gonna make it with all that piranha." "Mokronog, Slovenia Martin's home town" "Martin got a free car from his sponsor for the rest of his life." "Mazda was car of the year in 2004." "Mazda was car of the year." "Many Slovenians are drunk and drivers." "We are at the top in Europe by statistics and my father Martin is one of them." "But he does when he drives he eat a lot, drink a lot and we are at the phone all the time." "But he is very good in driving." "He's very good driver and he can make it even if he's drunk." "He has a really good connections with policeman." "They stop him, hey Martin, you're drunk." "You are over dozed." "Ok, just come safe to the home." "We will not give you a ticket." "You are very famous people." "Be safe." "Goodbye." "Martin parks this Mazda 626 where ever he wants and nobody could stop him." "If I park by myself I get a ticket right away." "What you want to order?" "Horse burger." "Horse burger, yes." "Many Slovenians eat horse burgers." "Horse burger is one of the most popular food in our country." "Me and Martin love them too." "The horse burger is like a chicken burger." "The only different is that is made from horse meat." "Horse burger, yeah." "Horse burger." "He will make it all the way through on Amazon?" "No." "VENICE BEACH, CALIFORNIA But how far?" "I don't know." "About is far he made it on Mississippi river." "You mean all the way?" "No." "You not believe it?" "Nobody's ever done that." "Number seven on the countdown." "First is swim." "The mighty Mississippi river it measures over 2000 miles." "In 2002 endurance swimmer Martin Strel took it on." "He swam the entire length from the Minnesota to the gulf of Mexico." "A long the way, Strel battle strong currents deadly whirlpools and wishes storms." "68 exhausting days after starting his record swim" "Strel reach the gulf of Mexico." "Besides be an swimmer my father has a day job is a flamenco guitar teacher." "Before that he was a professional gambler but that was before I was born." "KONGO CASINO, LJUBLJANA, SLOVENIA" "Martin likes to say something over and over again." "One of this is if you work you got money if you not work no money." "I have been professional gambler, yes but for that you must stay here over the night." "6,7 or more hours." "I put here 1000 dollars." "If it will be black 1000 dollars for me." "It's very simple." "Before I was a swimmer" "I was a gambler." "Now I gamble with my life." "Martin was bitten very badly as a child." "He says that's way he is able to endure such an extreme pain." "He promised him self he would never treat me at same." "Instead he battle demons at the rivers." "DANUBE 2000, 58 days" "MISSISSIPPI 2002, 68 days, 3797 km" "YANGTZE 2004, 59 days, 4003 km" "To swim the Amazon is almost 1000 miles further then the Yangtze." "It will be the longest, most dangerous swimming in history." "My father always told me that someday he's going to be somebody." "But he never knew what to call him self that people would remember his name." "I told him you are Martin Strel." "You are the big river man." "Self pictures presents in association with EARTHWORKS FILMS" "MARTIN STREL in" "BIG RIVER MAN" "SLOVENIA" "Lipizzaner horse demonstration in honor of Martin" "7 MONTH UNTIL AMAZON SWIM" "ATLANTIS, WATER PARK SLOVENIA, LJUBLJANA" "This is Atlantis where Martin has a free membership here for the rest of his life." "He's the only person in Slovenia with this and the really in the whole world." "He's like a mascot for them because of his extreme achievements go with the fact that Atlantis is the largest indoor water park in the whole Europe." "This is where you can find Martin always 5 hours every day." "Martin trains every days in a swimming pool for 5 hours." "He swims 4 km one hour in the pool so he's training 20 km a day." "At the end of the day he spends time some tanning and tubing at the Atlantis water slides." "Martin's physical training is very important." "but his mental training is maybe even more important than that." "POSTOJNA CAVE, SLOVENIA" "This is way Martin has been spending the whole summer underground." "He has a special password from the Slovenian government to enter into a giant cave." "He just typed on his PDA and the door just open." "Martin does this it get closer to the underground animals." "And I think he's looking kind of for a passion how how all the animals sleep underground." "that's he's gonna understand in the Amazon all this animals." "Martin believes that if he thinks like an animal while he'll swimming the Amazon he will not be eaten." "Slovenians likes to do many things at the same time." "When the Martin is drunk driving while go in 100 miles an hour but also doing two tabs of training." "He's power breathing which is good for his lungs and he's also learning English." ""You look young."" ""Oh, Mary." "I am your husband Henry."" ""I am good looking in about forty and I wear glasses."" ""Oh, I don't like glasses."" ""And you Jessica?"" ""What do you do?"" ""I am a drug dealer." "What?"" "3 MONTH UNTIL AMAZON SWIM" "Slovenia is one of the cleanest countries on the earth and Martin grows up swimming in only pure waters like a 1000 years ago." "That time was also communism and every one was very depressed." "He was always poor and lived in the tiny house from the government." "So Martin would drink and drink and then shout and say: "Goodbye."" "I am going away for a few days." "When I ask him where he went he would say:" ""I just went to Italy to relax."" "U.S. EMBASSY LJUBLJANA, SLOVENIA" "Martin always says, to be a winner you must be a friend of winner." "He knows a lot of them." "One of Martin's favorite winners is American ambassador in Slovenia." "They likes each other because Martin likes America and America like him too." "People think Martin is rich and powerful like them but it's really me and Martin try to save money for Amazon swim." ""I come and you follow me with the basket."" ""Then bring on that table."" ""OK?" "Go there."" "Mr. ambassador." "Thank you very much." "Good representation." "Bye bye and hope..." "Martin." "We will meet each other again, right?" "Bye bye." "On the web." "He see there all friends in the same fields." "That's helps get better votes and at the end you become a winner." "Besides a guitar teaching" "Martin has to make money by playing in Slovenian movies" "TV promotions promoting his personal wine" "doing TV commercials" ""When I drink Monster it makes me feel totally agrow."" "Judging beauty contest promoting American food chains" ""Martin Strel." "Give him an applause here."" "and speaking at conventions." "You said you sell product?" "We sell water." "A what?" "Water." "Water." "Based vacuum cleaners." "Everything about vacuum cleaners, guys." "Uh, let's go." "Let's go." "Let's go." "Mick." "3 WEEKS UNTIL AMAZON SWIM I'm ready." "You know the project is ready by itself." "We have boats ready." "We have equipment ready." "Of course, we are advertise Martin's projects every time he goes." "To make his big projects we advertise his pictures his web side and in a couple of days in a few days you will see Ljubljana actually the whole Slovenia covered with the billboards huge jumbo banners we call them here" "and it's gonna to be Martin's pictures." "I made a design an art work with the Amazon background." "It's like this." "Hey, his picture look like he's vibing to the whole country." "He's kind of putting vibes on everybody taking the control to the whole country and I'm very proud I designed that." "Martin is very excited about this banners." "because he gets very famous." "NEW YEARS EVE GOING AWAY PARTY" "Martin Strel." "Welcome to Slovenia." "Martin didn't seems scare at all to leave but my mom said he was have nightmares every night and wake in up screaming." "He said he felt like the whole world was waiting for him to jump in the river and die." "SOUTHWESTERN PERUVIAN AMAZON" "Martin Strel is attempting to defeat what is no other human been done yet." "... but he swears by the Slovenian red wine dealing by." "He's already swam the Danube," "Mississippi and the Yangtze." "We have an alligators can be fatalness then very deadly snakes including anacondas." "We have the Candirue which is much fear fish very small fish but it's end up in your rigram." "ATALAYA, PERU" "We are in Atalaya, Peru." "This is just below Machu Picchu and I'm started swimming tomorrow at 8 o'clock in the Amazon river." "People think that because we have big media for swims that also we have big publicists but I'm main Martin's publicist and also perform Martin's voice for all worldwide interviews because I understand what's media likes and appreciates." "FEBRUARY 1st,2007" "3 AM" "Yes, we have a protection we have a machetes, we have guns, we have knives." "We have all kind, you know, weapons on the boat." "Well, for example is somebody badgering you and if you need to kill an animal you use a gun." "... and I never urinate." "I never urinate straight into the water." "I always urinate into my wet suit." "Blood." "Blood, hm?" "If piranha for example start attacking or something like that we will through a bucket of blood over there on the other side and you know, the piranhas will just redirect there." "You must clean have to go." "Mosquitoes." "Mosquitoes." "FEBRUARY 1st, 2007 AMAZON SWIM, DAY 1" "The chances of Martin die on the first day of the swim were pretty high." "It had been raining for a weeks and the river was in the flood stages and since then had been no one that have ever gone in the Amazon in tvoz like this." "No one knew what to expect." "Martin!" "Martin!" "Martin!" "Martin!" "After 1100 days of preparations and training the Martin finally begin the first swimming expedition in history down the river Amazonas." "And even though we were scared, exhausted and totally alone the day ended perfectly." "Seventy days that would follow would be the strangest of my life and also the worst." "DAY 2" "6 AM" "MATT MOHLKE NAVIGATOR" "Martin is pissed we forget the machetes." "This is Mathew Mohlke" "Martin's head river navigator." "It is Matt job to make sure Martin doesn't die or get lost in one of the thousand of channels on Amazon." "He has been with Martin on expeditions for years." "He lived in Fountain city, Wisconsin." "Matt is a professional poker player by night and at day works for Sam Welten's family." "He quit his job with them to come on the Amazon expedition." "Martin trusts him more then anyone on the world except for me even thought his not a professional river navigator." "Matt, you know where we are?" "Yes." "It's difficult to see ahead." "You know?" "Yes." "OK." "Martin is afraid we lost because he can't see shit an far." "The problem is if the river turns quickly we can't see a coming and if there a bad water we are fucked." "We are top on it." "It's too late." "So, it's gonna be a really dangerous day." "The river was extremely high and moving fast." "This creates deadly whirlpools." "This fortacess can suck down entire boats full of people much less a swimmer." "Dangerous, Martin." "More this way." "More this way." "Dangerous." "Sound like fucking death trip today or something." "I am telling him it's dangerous but he swim right into it." "Motherfucker." "50 KM DOWNSTREAM STREL'S CREW BOAT" "This is the Cielito Linda the boat we will be living on for the next three weeks." "People told us it was the worst boat in Peru and they were right." "It was a very bad boat." "ALFREDO CHAVEZ BOAT CAPTAIN" "This is Alfredo Chavez captain of the Cielito Linda." "I was concern that our boat will crushing the banks like a pink pound after only two days but Alfredo said things like this happen a lot in Peru." "No need to worried about." "Alfredo is a very special taboo Amazon to the guy." "Alfred said there are three rules in Peru." "The first is to through away your plan A the second is to through away your plan B and the third is to relax." "Peruvians accept they can not control nature and especially not the Amazon river." "We would have to do the same or the river would break us by the end." "He ask me where we were this morning." "I'm natural guy." "I don't know how to use GPS." "I'm learning." "I just have... first training yesterday." "Borut teach me how." "So, when we have fog like that Martin ask me:" ""Do you know where we are?"" "Look, I don't know where we are." "We are lost in Amazon somewhere but" "I just try to find the best curve and keep him not to hit by a damn log or something." "You know, he cuts right through." "I mean, that tree gonna stick right through his stomach." "There had been so much rain that whole pieces of forest was floating down stream with Martin." "They were as heavy as straight trains and if they hit him he would be dead." "I'm pretty good in the river but I'm just a fisherman from Wisconsin." "I'm doing this for free." "I'm doing this for adventure." "If Martin wants to give a big money he can get the experienced Amazon river guy." "I'll do the best I can." "I learning the GPS," "I learning the maps." "When he ask where we are just tell him like I know where we are." "The doctor said Martin's blood pressure was already dangerously high." "RIFAT LATIFI PHYSICIAN" "I examined Martin Strel briefly and measured the blood pressure." "It was 150\95." "Anybody else with elevated blood pressure probably should be evaluate and not start swim in the Amazon." "He said that Martin needed to stop swimming if he wanted to avoid the stroke" "but Martin wouldn't stop." "PERUVIAN AMAZON 4931 KM TO OCEAN" "On expeditions Martin usually sleep only 4 hours at night." "2.30 AM" "The currents had die down but know he was getting more and more sun burn." "He has second degree burns all over his face." "And he thought that cure for this was more beer." "But doctors told him it only makes him more dehydrating." "I try to convince him to stop drinking so much at night but I couldn't." "DAY 6, SOMEWHERE IN PERUVIAN AMAZON" "Incredible." "What a freak." "Martin expect rain more of the heavy rain in the Amazon." "We haven't much rain in the last of few weeks." "So, it is crazy how the weather is happening." "Will be worm or something is happening down here?" "Completely unusual." "And he has some kind of terrible sun burn." "In this part of the earth the sun can give you a cancer disease on the skin is from the pleasure somebody doing this crazy shit." "In 2005 the Peruvian Amazon experience the worst drought in 40 years." "This was a crises for an indigence people on a massive scale." "People had to be air lifted out and food had to be air lifted in by helicopters just like in New Orleans the same year." "The scientists has blamed for draught a higher ocean temperatures caused by global warming." "Rising air in the Atlantic pushing Amazon clouds away which stops rainfall and kills the forest." "The scientists say the global worming is the biggest single threat to the rain forest because lowest rainfall can easily turn the rain forest into a desert." "Even though it was a middle of rainy season and had rain at the end but hadn't rain for at weeks on a river." "Without a rain sunburn would fry a Martin's skin like a piece of bacon until it melted off his face." "And he was already looking piece of beef jerky." "Finally I couldn't take any more and came up with genius original idea that would change the Amazon swim forever." "The wait mask style which was actually my idea allowed Martin to swim in global worming conditions and created an unique style an Amazon swimming that made headlines around the world." "IQUITOS, PERU" "The wait mask got the sun off and got him back to normal but he was coming down with another worsen problem." "Martin's wetsuit swim smells like a shit." "Probably because he shit inside and all that dirty water all that dust and garbage that flows down the Amazon." "Of course, get inside of his body and that's way is smells really bad." "Bad day for me today." "YANGTZE SWIM" "On the Yangtze" "Martin swimming in the most dangerous rapids that human ever swimming." "In the great gorè with no support services on either side of the river." "Martin swam alone through class 6 rapids on one of the most polluted and dangerous rivers on the world." "The river was so toxic that's Martin's blood had to be washed every day by doctors." "Martin was even swimming pass dead bodies in the water." "DR. MATEJA DE LEONNI STANONIK PHYSICIAN" "This is dr." "Mateja." "Martin's biggest fan and personal doctor." "She is a brain surgeon here to make sure nothing happened to Martin's brain." "She's also looking into his heart and lungs but she wouldn't have a microscope to see all that parasites in the Amazon that entering into Martin's body every day." "4362 KM TO GO" "I was so used to watching Martin's battle polluted rivers that I expected that Amazon would be the same." "But that was shocked to find that Amazon was a clean river with virgin forest along the banks and not a single piece of trash for a hundreds of miles." "It was like a river at the beginning of time before man's kind." "Martin said it was clean enough to drink but I told him to stop drinking it because it will make him sick." "DAY 9" "I don't know what we can do to..." "Well, I think, you know, Martin he's always like you know, very tired but still have some..." "still has some extra power." "Yeah." "You remember him on the Mississippi." "He came out from the water and couldn't walk." "We brought him in the car, in the van you know and he didn't even eat." "You remember some...?" "That was 60. day." "Yeah, it was at the end." "Yeah." "Toda is 9.day." "And he is," "I hate to say but is like his fallen apart." "He's fucking feather." "He shouldn't have a shoulder problems quite yet." "It's too early for that man." "He needs to be absorb this destiruations through curse in this expedition but in 9.days he lost 11 or 12 pounds." "How much is he lost?" "Yeah, something like that." "Yeah, that's nine days." "I mean, he's gonna fall through own bang hole by the end of this trip." "PEBAS, PERU" "If you ask Martin what is the most dangerous thing on the Amazon was he would says people." "Martin only believes and trust completely animals, rivers and Indians." "These are the only living beings I think that truly understands Martin also." "In the town of Pebas" "Martin swam up to an ancient Indian tribe." "They were called the Yagua tribe." "I'm afraid must sad that they are one of the last original tribes on Amazon." "When I was kayaking in escorting him in down the Danube he was telling me the personal stories that I could never hear from him standing on two legs." "One of this was that his father was so unsatisfied with his life that he would take out all his rage on Martin." "When the father had been drinking" "Martin was so scared to come home in the house that he ended up sleeping in the barn." "His mother would set him out the clothes and food each night." "My grandmother said" "Martin actually spend the most of his childhood in that barn." "When in one occasion Martin was been chased and jump in an freezing creek to escape the father waiting for him on the banks so Martin swam downstream." "The father walked alongside him for a long time but Martin swam so far that father gave up and went home." "This was Martin's first endurance swim." "I think he repeat something of this same feeling on every expedition." "There are many myths in creatures lives in Amazon." "One of the myths is about wild man who lives in the underground world beneath the river." "He's call the Pishtakos and if you see him his bringing the apocalypse." "That's way Indians never swim in the main channel." "They were afraid of us because they thought we are demons." "Face peelers." "They use this..." "They skin it the face take the fatness from the humans after they are killed and things like that can actually they call it these people, Pishtakos." "Pishtakos." "And he said in front of us that the captain and myself..." "No, they got to be Pishtakos." "I'm sorry." "Look for another village but we don't want you stay here tonight." "Alfred of said they could just decide to kill us in the night." "So, we slept with machetes but mostly we didn't sleep at all." "The Amazon is almost as largest the 48 united states." "People don't realize that the Amazon the last frontier on earth." "It is still 80% unexplored." "There were rivers that go for 1000 km that are totally uninhabited." "But people who lived here are some of the poorest in the world." "This is the main problem of Amazon destruction." "For example, one single mahogany tree in the Amazon can be worth up to 20.000$ in Europe or America." "People will cut in entire road into the forest just to reach one tree." "This mahogany tree is are made into expensive boats and furniture but mostly musical instruments especially electric guitars." "As of 2006 20% of the Amazon forest has been cut down." "At the current rate of cutting half of the forest will be gone in twenty years." "DAY 23" "Monkeys around." "In the morning..." "In the morning is very... very exciting." "Talking." "So much crying." "Very famous must be in the morning." "Early in the morning." "Now it's... more peace." "More quiet." "Nobody crying, nobody talking." "Peace... ha, peace." "That's not big town, Los Angeles." "24 hours a day..." "Many cars." "No cars here." "People need this but people don't know what is Amazon what is jungle." "I can look around to see some animals." "Must be careful, ok, but..." "I think is not so dangerous." "It's dangerous in the bank." "It's dangerous, yeah but in the water, no." "Every year it's good to stay in the jungle 2-3 weeks." "Be big difference for all the people." "DAY 25, PERU/BRAZIL BORDER" ""Martin Strel, example for the kids."" "When Martin cross the border to Brazil there was a huge party with dancing girls and marching bands all saying how Martin was an example to children and all human race." "My father was the first person that anyone had ever seen that swam to Brazil from Peru." "2777 km in 22 days." "All of this people wanted to hear what this man had to say but instead of speaking" "Martin swam away from the reception with only the Brazilian chase boat driver and left us at the port not have even a clue how to find him." "This was for expedition into the dangerous night time search." "When we finally picked up the boat signal at 3.AM and found him about 100 km away he had no explanation." "I had seen this irrational behavior before and he never had an explanation." "The news that there was a man swimming the Amazon was spreading fast through out the Brazil." "We were told that crowds in the thousands will be waiting for Martin downstream." "We did not yet realize how big this thing was going to get." "SAN PABLO DE OLIVENCIA, BRAZIL" "2881 KM TO OCEAN" "His blood pressure has gone up tremendously and that's quite worried." "I've been monitoring this very closely because diastolic heart failure is very serious problem and it could be a stroke for example which could kill him." "Martin confessed to me that he had been hallucinating and hearing a voices in his mind." "He hadn't told anyone else because he thought they would put him immediately in the hospital and still he kept swimming and drinking." "Must be a little different sometimes." "Matt!" "I'm tired, Matt." "Ha?" "Maybe you have something to drink?" "Yeah, I have some drinks." "You have maybe some whisky?" "Whisky?" "Whisky." "The doctor said you should be drink more fluid because you are dehydrated." "This is for doctor not for me." "This guy is not understood by anybody." "Who's that guy in mediaeval and mythological stuff that they changed him a rock or something and the birds pecked on his head until..." "Is that Hercules or some athletes' lady?" "Piece like..." "He's like this except." "He's got to swim all those rivers" "What's he doing here is almost self sacrificial for the world." "It's almost Christ like in a way if I can say that." "It's almost Christ like." "It's bigger then I can comprehend." "and I'm just darting the essence after been in all that expeditions how great is thing is." "Yeah, he might be a little fat he might be a little drunk but OK, he can... sometimes yell on us a little but he's the last super hero in the world." "Look, what's he doing here." "He's connecting all of the greatest rivers on the world by swimming them giving hope to people all over the world." "Everyone in the world is on there edgeter fiv right now hoping, praying some of them probably morbidlier kind of just waiting for him to get killed in actuality because, yeah, this is dangerous." "He's 52 years old." "He swimming in the most dangerous place in the world." "He's the last American super hero." "He's the last super hero on the world." "He's the world's last super hero." "Here's the world's last super hero." "That's it." "This is the last five minutes to midnight and we got one super hero left to save us all bring us all down into the eternity." "SAN ANTONIO DE ICA, BRAZIL 5000 people came out to see Martin in the small town of San Antonio de Ica." "There was a near map scene as people try to get near to the "homem peixe"" "in English, the fish man." "The crowd got so big that it held like the Martin was going to be the most famous man in the world if he made it somehow." "The TV talk shows were calling non-stop." "They all wanted to speak with Martin but no one could rich him not even me." "The media kept asking why Martin doing this." "Martin only said it was protect the rain forest but no one knew exactly what the hell he meant by that." "TWO WEEKS LATER" "MANAUS, BRAZIL" "This is first city we seen it in two months." "I don't wanna go, man." "I just stay in the boat." "Matt was starting to get very affected after so many hours and days besides Martin." "He was talking about God, the rain forest, the river and Martin's as they were all the same thing." "You see this river?" "That river is between heaven and hell, man." "This is river purgatory." "And Martin..." "All of us." "We are all here." "We are all stuck right here." "We are on the river, man." "There's a heaven." "We can almost reach it." "You see that." "We can almost reach it." "And there's a hell." "There's were we live, man." "We lived there in hell but now we are somewhere in the middle." "You can see that." "That's heaven." "That's so close it is." "It's right there." "It's right there, man." "I can grab it." "I can grab heaven." "I can grab it." "I can grab it." "But then I go there." "I go there." "I go to hell." "I go to hell." "It's five seconds to midnight right there." "Manau was a the city the size of New York but in the heart of Amazon." "It felt like just in United States." "They had a Mc Donald's there they had a Burger's King they had a shopping malls and lot of money." "Our boat even duck at the high five star hotel and the managers booked us all three rooms." "But Martin and Matt has gone at 5." "AM before we woke and swam away without telling us." "Slovenian's endurance swimmer" "Martin Strel has gone missing well attempting to brake the world record the longest swim in history." "I still don't understand why Martin did this." "He put not only himself but but entire expedition at failure because our Brazilian boat was not equipped to navigate the river at night and could easily have sun." "At the midnight they were still lost." "Matt had left his GPS and radio behind so we have no idea how to find them and we were force to do another dangerous night time search scanning the banks with flood lights." "We finally found Martin and Matt on the stretch of sandy bank in a very white channel." "Martin was totally naked and unresponsive." "Matt was also in a strange state of mind." "It was as if they hade seen or a heard experience something that had transform them." "At this point" "Martin had exceeded his previous world record but this no longer seems like a world record expedition at all." "I was very scared because he had over 1000 miles to swim and he was obviously going insane." "PARINTINS, BRAZIL 1093 TO GO" "DAY 47" "At the 47. day" "Matt stays up for three days and he was scribbling poems about Martin and Jesus." "That shoe's jacked, man." "Mad had been ranting and raving for days and he was getting on everyone nerves." "It was like Matt was infected by how Martin felt and was that enough comprehend how crazy he was going." "...as like third dog in the slay." "I was by now use to this seeing my father goes crazy." "I had spent half of my life watching him go to this point." "But only he knew what is was about." "The areas east and south of Amazonas are the worst example of forest station in the Amazon." "The state of Rondonia is big like England has been 70% deforested and in the state of Para and Mato Grosso and the area of jungle the size of small country disappears each year." "Most of this is do the cattle ranches." "Each year the sky turns black which smokes for months as priest in forest is burn to make way for a new car fits." "Countless species of animals and plants become extinguish each burn season." "This is all simply because of the world demands to eat beef." "Even though the UN relist a reports saying that cattle production has more humfer environment impact then all the cars in the planet." "The fast food companies are spending millions to promote even more cosumshen and bigger burgers." "At the current rate half of Amazon will be cattle funds by the year 2030 and by the end of the century not only the Amazon but all the world's rainforest will have to be cut down to accommodate the needs of planet with 14 billion people." "ILHA DO PATACHO 852 KM TO GO" "DAY 52" "At the day 52." "Martin scowlen was flame dought by Amazon and the doctor said the swim was over but Martin said, no." "I will find another way to swim." "DAY 55" "Now I cross... fourth dimension." "DAY 60" "On April 1." "we found out from the doctor that Martin has been haven subcontineus larva infection in his brain for nearly two weeks." "She hid this fact from us on Martin's request that we not stop the swim." "But her official diagnoses was that Martin's problems were the mostly mental." "What's happening?" "What do you think what's happening?" "I think he's at the low, low, lowest level, lowest level with the energy." "Probably his head wants to like explode." "So, it's a really weird reaction" "I didn't expect that." "Clocking batteries, wires..." "You guys just get let him swim?" "What else we suppose to do?" "What can I do?" "What we can do?" "I mean, what can I tell Martin Strel?" "Martin, I think you have fucking mental problems." "Do you think..." "Think you can please stop yours world record expeditions for so maybe you can go to see the fucking shrink." "DAY 63" "Martin had become so insane by this point in the swim that we even didn't look on him like a person anymore." "It was like he had taken on the stado of an animal or a monster." "He was like Frankenstein or The elephant man but in the Amazon." "DAY 64" "By the 64. day" "Martin didn't want to spent energy on anything that wasn't swimming." "He stops feeding himself." "He only want to spent the physical energy on swimming and he wanted to swim day and night." "This was also nothing new to me." "I fed him the same way on the Yangtze and Mississippi." "It was like keeping a baby alive but one that your father swimming the Amazon." "The doctor advise that Martin stand down for at least a week to avoid a heart attack but he wouldn't listen." "I not allowed you." "I must swim tonight." "At this point if you are going to the water" "I would recommend against it because he's too weak" "he has some experiences in delirium and we can't have him swimming like that." "The doctor made Martin sign a paper saying that she was not responsible for anything that happen to him if he swam at night." "There were also a big concerns about firevits at night." "Not even crazy Matt want it to take the risk and try to talk to Martin out of it." "Finally I decided to lead him myself." "I had been in this situation of swimming with him at night before in the Danube and we are run over by a barge and we are almost die." "All of us felt like we are doing something incredibly pointless and stupid but I knew it if we didn't go with him he would swim out at night alone." "We get one life jacket." "One life jacket on the boat for six men and one gun." "One gun, one life jacket and the swimmer that can barely stand up." "A little bit to the end." "Go." "Go." "A little bit." "Martin all of the sudden jump out of the river." "We thought that might he seen the shark." "But he said that he saw a little girl under the water and it hororfright him." "We got you." "We got you." "You just need to lay down." "Give him a bucket or something." "DAY 66, EASTER SUNDAY APRIL 7, 2007" "Martin got to with in 3 miles to the finish line." "His body was in such state of shock that he could have an heart attack every second." "Even though he had already bitten his previous world record by nearly 1000 miles he swam the last three which was still water just like a lake." "BELEM, BRAZIL" "There was media from 20 countries waiting for us at the finish line." "It was the hugest moment in Martin's life and I felt like I should write a statement for him to read to the world explaining why he did it." ""I like it to drink... and I'm a simple man."" ""There are many people like me."" "But the things was so chaotic that I lost my original and I had to rewrite it on the boat we us approached." "Please." "Please, give as some room." "What's your name?" "What's your name?" "We'll write a fish man." "You are OK, fish man." "Fish man." "No, no, no!" "No, no." "Do you remember what we must tell?" "How many can..." "Excuse me, no." "They are many people like me?" "...they realized that even impossible to save the world." "I hope the people will remember me I am very tired..." "I just want that..." "A,B,C, D, E, F, N..." "Martin was visited by many people in the next days who try to helped him out from of his fourth dimensional state." "One of this was the hotel preacher who prayed for him and even practice English." "Another was a Brazilian band." "Finally, Martin refuse to see anyone and only allowed the Brazilian preacher to stay with him who's also been a papito." "He was in there with Martin for days." "A person, who apparently took his own life." "That would be the shooter." "That's right." "Now to rezavnig question why wasn't the alarm sound it in between those two shootings." "Why was that first shooting see in the morning." "APRIL 7, 2007 BELEM, BRAZIL" "FIVE MONTHS LATER" "In a few months Martin gambled away all over sponsorship money and had to return to his day job." "I waited for the talk show to call back." "Leather man, Conor o'Brain and Jai Lenno had all promise to help him on but they never called." "Martin Strel." "Who is this guy?" "Some people describe him like a dare devil." "Fish man, human fish even craziest man on the world." "Take a long time to writing that statement." "Are you sad that didn't get read to the world?" "Yeah, it took a lot of time, energy and creativity." "Well, we would try to present it to the world by internet, over the book." "It was really bad that he couldn't make it but what we could do." "Nothing else." "You know, is only a human and was not able to do it." "Do you have the statement here still?" "I have." "I think I have." "You had it right there." "Should I read?" "Yeah." "My name is Martin." "You can see I'm not Lance Armstrong." "I'm a little fat and a little old." "I like to drink a little." "I'm a simple man." "There are many people like me." "I hope they see this swim and realize they can do impossibly things even save the world." "I hope people remember this rainforest is our friend and stop destroying it." "Now I am very tired." "Please, excuse me." "I just swam the Amazon." "But he couldn't do it." "Now, I finally read it and I hope you realized it's worth now than never." "I set down with Martin and told him ours finished helping with him ultra American swimming." "I going to college." "From the looking his eye" "I realize that meant he was finished too." "This is one horizontal." "And have more." "Very special picture." "Borut!" "You have another one?" "After Amazon," "Martin had the same dream over and over." "He was swimming the Amazon again." "He had to start over from the beginning." "When he started swimming the Amazon picked him up and let him fly over it." "And show him the way it was in the beginning before man kinds." "And the Amazon said this is the way is was, Martin" "and will be again for you." "No more distraction no more suffering and no one will ever die." "PREVEDEL IN PRIREDIL:" "REŠO"