-[birds squawking] -[insects buzzing]
[Zac] Although considered repulsive and taboo by most societies...
Feet up.
...human cannibalism still remains a common practice
in a few parts of the world.
Like that. OK.
[Zac] Cannibalism motives vary from ritual to survival,
for conquest...
-or even for purely gourmet reasons. -What?
Do I have a safe word?
[Zac] I do not.
OK.
[Zac] Luckily, this episode has nothing to do with cannibalism.
Wait, does... does it?
[dramatic gong ringing]
[Zac] It doesn't. I swear.
[man] Yeah.
[Zac] In fact, this journey has nothing to do with meat of any kind.
[Zac] Safe word is "ocelot."
[Zac] We're in the heart of the Amazon River,
heading deep into the jungle to study plants.
This rain forest is bursting with plants and trees
that provide nutrition, medicine...
[Darin] This is something you're gonna take if you feel back pain, joint pain.
[Zac] ...and even spiritual powers.
And Darin has never felt more at home.
Camu camu!
-[man laughing] -[Darin] Woo-hoo!
-I have no idea what they're bringing. -Big old thing of moving food.
-[Zac] Maybe I'll try a little meat... -You definitely don't have to.
...of some sort.
No, I have to.
-Traveled all the way out here for this. -This is like your first kill, Zac.
Mmm.
[Zac] This is Iquitos.
[birds singing]
[Zac] Let me start at the beginning.
A few years ago, I met Darin.
-Can't feel my feet or my hands. -Proud of you, bro.
Yeah.
He's a guru of healthy living and superfoods.
Yeah, it's great. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it.
You could say he wrote the book on the subject. Literally.
[Darin] A healthy lifestyle, solid principles.
Darin and I are traveling around the world to find some new perspectives
on some very old problems.
[Darin] That's Mother Earth, bro.
Searching for healthy, sustainable living solutions for the planet...
[Zac] Wow!
...and all who live on it.
Woo-hoo!
Ignore the crazy white guy.
And, hey... you gotta eat, too, right?
You don't have to eat it.
-How does it move like that? -[woman] Oh, my God.
[Zac] It's time to get... Down to Earth.
Trippy.
[man] We're on the southeastern edge of the fires.
[woman 1] Copy. That's us.
-[sirens wailing] -[wildfire crackling]
[man] And it just might skirt the back of these homes, and I don't know if...
[woman 1] Broken. Can you repeat?
[woman 2] 4218 South 290 Street. 11:32.
-[sirens wailing] -[wildfire crackling]
[Zac] Living in Southern California means dealing with fires.
Even so, of course it's weighing heavy on Darin's mind.
But he believes so strongly in this cause that he wants to continue.
-[man] Marker! -[Zac] So that's what we're gonna do.
-[birds chirping] -[insects buzzing]
[mysterious pan pipe music]
[Zac] We've arrived in Iquitos,
a city in Peru on the banks of the Amazon River.
We're here to meet a good friend of Darin's,
who's been working over the last 20 years
to conserve wild palm trees in South American jungles.
I'm excited for you to meet my buddy Tarek.
He's a PhD ecologist,
he's worked in this area in the Amazon for over 30 years.
We're gonna head down to a small village
and... finally hit some medicinal plants and show you around.
[Zac] Darin's wanted to take me here since we first met.
Iquitos is known as Peru's "Jungle City,"
and the gateway to the Amazon.
There's unlimited natural beauty here.
But there's also many dangers.
-It's, like, an hour boat ride. -Is there crocodiles or alligators here?
-Uh... No. Not here, on the Amazon. -Piranhas?
-There's definitely piranhas. Yeah. -Definitely piranhas.
So, swim at your own risk.
Phew. [grunts]
-Tarek. Good to see you, brother. -Darin. How's it going?
-Good to see you. -Meet my buddy Zac.
-Nice to meet you. -Great to meet you.
Nice to meet you too.
So we're gonna jump in the Amazon a little bit and check out some plants.
[Tarek] We're gonna go up the Nanay River.
-Perfect. -About an hour.
-[Darin] We got enough for camping? -Yeah. In case we get lost again.
What happens when you get lost? You just camp on the side?
You just sit there and try to figure out where you are for a while.
-Really? -Yeah.
Yeah, 'cause when you're in a flooded area and everything looks the same...
[traditional Peruvian folk music]
[Darin] Oh, yeah.
[Zac] We've left any semblance of civilization.
Here on the Amazon River, we're surrounded by nature as far as the eye can see.
I can't believe this place exists. It's just a trip.
Sixty thousand plus years we've been using these plants.
And we are in the home of the medicinal plants.
You're in sort of a goldmine out here.
[Zac] Tarek's business is buying fruit upriver from the locals,
bringing it to the processing plant,
and packaging it for sale in the city.
While the palm oil industry is linked to deforestation
and an increase in greenhouse gas,
Tarek is fighting to create a greater demand
for a lesser-known wild palm fruit
that are sustainably harvested
and provide a fair price to the people who gather them.
We're coming up on an opportunity to pick one of Darin's favorites from the Amazon.
[Darin] These are all camu camu trees.
This is where it builds up the Vitamin C and the natural antioxidants
because of the stress of being flooded,
defending itself of living in this situation.
[Tarek] Ten of those fruits, Zac, and you got 1,000 milligrams of C.
Whereas in processing, you lose at least half of that.
[Tarek] This is it.
-There's a few. -Whoa!
Whew!
[Zac] I don't see any more.
[Zac] We're rich. Beautiful.
-[Darin] Woo-hoo! -[Tarek laughing]
Camu camu!
-Woo-hoo! -Ignore the crazy white guy.
[Darin] This is like your first kill, Zac.
Mmm.
It's good.
[Tarek] Now try one of the green ones. It'll be a lot more sour.
That's the highest vitamin C, is green.
-Really? -Yeah.
'Cause it's not fully ripe yet or something?
Yeah. And then it declines.
-Whew! -[Tarek laughing]
-Yeah. -That gets your attention.
[woman] Throw us a few camu.
I have a feeling you're not gonna catch it.
Yeah.
[Darin] It's too valuable.
-I'm right here. I can catch it. -No. I don't trust your catch.
[woman] I played softball.
Get it high.
-I got it. -[bleep]
Yeah!
[man] That is way more sour than I thought.
[Darin and Zac laughing]
[Zac] The next plant is uña de gato, or "Cat's Claw."
It uses little hook-like horns on its vines to climb up the tree
and thrives here in the rain forest.
[Tarek] OK, guys, let's go see some uña de gato.
-[Zac] We're gonna go knee-deep? -[Tarek] Yeah, or thigh.
[Zac] Whew!
[Zac] Bye, shoes!
Whew!
Oh, that's cold and amazing.
[Darin] Hey, Zac, whatever it takes, bro.
[Zac] So there's no electric eels in this section?
[Tarek and Darin laughing]
[Tarek] No, fortunately not.
[Zac] No leeches?
[Tarek] Well, leeches would be fine.
Leeches are fine? [Zac laughs]
-[Tarek] Yeah, leeches would be... -[Zac] Leeches suck.
-[Zac] This one's foaming. -[Darin] There you go. Get it.
[Zac] Uña de gato has been used for centuries
to treat ailments like arthritis,
dysentery, fevers, inflammation, and stomach ulcers.
And while cat's claw has a long history of medicinal use,
there's been very little research conducted on humans.
[traditional Peruvian folk music]
This small village is Mishana,
our home for the night.
Hola. Hey, guys.
-[in Spanish] How are you? Good? -Good.
[Zac] Most of this jungle is uncharted.
But Tarek's been exploring and mapping it for years.
And he's giving us a rundown of where we're headed.
-[Darin laughing] -[Zac] Whoa! Oh.
What the [bleep]?
-[Darin] You stepped in monkey [bleep]. -Is it?
It's like a patty. [chuckles]
Trippy, dude, rain forest.
[Zac grunts, chuckles]
-[Zac] Whoa. -[as Schwarzenegger] You can do it, Zacky!
[Darin] Come on, Zacky!
Come on, Zac!
[Tarek] Hey, guys, watch the roots, here. It's kind of a little trap.
[Zac] I feel like Jumanji.
[Zac] "In the jungle you must wait till someone rolls a five or eight."
[Zac] This is the chuchuhuasi tree.
For hundreds of years,
locals have used the pulp scraped from under the bark
because it boasts, among other benefits,
relief from arthritis pain and from back pain.
[Tarek] There we go. There's our Ziploc bag.
[Darin] Look at that.
See the different phases? He stopped because he was going deeper.
That super red, that's where the medicine is.
[flies buzzing]
[chuckling quietly]
And it's got these interesting compounds that help reduce inflammation,
but then also stop the conduction of pain at the same time.
[Tarek] Chew it a little bit. It's really bitter.
[insects buzzing and chirping]
-[spits] -[Darin] That's the tannins you taste.
Super sharp.
Mmm.
That's medicine.
-Tastes super medicinal. -[Darin] Feel that power? That's a bark.
Some serious power in that.
[Zac] Whoa.
[Darin] So next stop, Zacarino,
Wasai blood-builder.
-[Zac] Where? -Wasai.
-Here. So it's the same genus as acai. -[Zac] Wasai?
[Zac] Whoa, gnarly mosquitoes.
[Tarek] This is where you find snakes too.
They love to live in there.
[Darin] You gotta boil this a lot and then, at the end,
they take a red hot piece of iron,
they throw it in the boiling water,
and it extracts the rest of the medicine out.
-[Zac] Really? -[Darin] Yeah.
[sniffs]
[exhales deeply]
Smells like dirt.
[chuckles]
[Zac] I've heard of some of these plants before.
But I'm amazed at what this rain forest has to offer.
He really is at home here.
So... sangre de grado.
[mumbling incorrectly] Sangre o-gado.
[Zac] San-jay de grado.
[Darin] Sangre de grado.
[Zac] I feel like you make "L"s where your "R"s need to be.
[Darin] This I'm excited to show you.
So, watch this.
[Zac] Whoa!
See that... that bleeding?
[Darin] So, this is a super resin.
Cuts, burns, scrapes...
-Lesions. -You don't eat it?
No. Well, you can eat it.
Wow, I wish I had this when I typically have lesions.
I never know what to put on my lesions.
Yeah. [laughing]
Look at these little ant protectors.
Yeah, they don't want you messing with their tree.
The molecule's so complex that they have to harvest it from the plant.
They can't synthesize it.
[Zac] You use this on your face?
Yeah, absolutely. It interacts with the collagen of the skin
and helps to heal and recreate the collagen in the skin again.
[Zac] So neat this is out here.
[Darin] I don't know why it isn't more used.
Ow, [bleep]. I just got bit.
[Zac laughing]
[man] Fire ants.
[Zac] Fire ants. Ah!
[Darin] They're biting me through my pants.
[all laughing]
[thunderclap]
[Zac] We've ducked into this shelter to meet Doña Lisia
as she prepares bataua milk,
made from palm fruits.
[Tarek] When I first tried this, I climbed this tree,
they told me I could bring that fruit down.
I came back, delivered it,
they made this drink,
and I just couldn't believe we were drinking this out in the forest.
-[Zac] Ho-ho! -[Tarek] It was just amazing.
-[Zac] That's a duck. -[Tarek] Yeah. Some bataua, duck?
-[Zac] How do you say it? -Bataua.
Bataua.
[Zac] It's fun to say.
[Tarek] It's interesting that human milk has a lot less protein than cow's milk.
And so this is actually, nutritionally, is very similar to human milk.
So instead of us eating cow's milk that doesn't really...
-[Zac] Can't digest it. -...equate...
to our digestive system, the ratios are off.
[Zac] Man, I'm excited for this. And where was this gathered at?
[Tarek] In the forest. Someone climbed yesterday.
It's really good.
[Darin] Milky...
forest power, right there.
[Zac] Tarek has a way to make it better:
add coffee.
-Oh, man. -God, that's good.
-Oh, wow. -[Tarek] Let me get a taste.
[Zac] That's so money.
-[Zac] Man, you... That's unreal. -[Darin] Come on. Wow!
It tastes... It's better than almond milk, it's better than...
-Yeah. Any milk. -[Tarek] That's what I think.
There's definitely a flavor profile.
-It's, like, nutty. -[Tarek] Yeah.
[Zac] Traditional tree-climbing is extremely dangerous.
Without a safe way to climb tall palms,
some locals have resorted to simply chopping them down
in order to harvest the fruit.
In an effort to reduce destructive harvesting,
Tarek invented a harness device
that allows the person to safely climb the tree
and easily gather the precious fruit at the top,
all while leaving the tree unharmed.
Doña Lisia took one of our first courses here.
And she climbed.
-Oh, really? Wow. -[Tarek] So, you guys,
the bar is high. Doña Lisia was climbing up and down.
-[all laughing] -[Zac] Mmm.
[Tarek] Gracias.
[traditional Peruvian folk music]
[birds chirping]
[chuckles] You're gonna be right on the palm.
-But where's the safety rope? -[woman laughing]
-Seriously, is there a safety rope? -The safety rope... [Tarek sighs]
...that was a special-order item.
[Tarek] Yeah, this is a one-size-fits-all harness.
[Zac] Money.
-You nice and snug in there? -Pretty snug, yeah.
'Cause that's really important.
-OK? Auto-lock the carabiner. -[Zac] Auto-lock.
This guy's got a funny smile on his face.
Yeah, I see you. You see him? He's like, "Oh, man."
He's like, "Tarek's doing it again."
[Zac laughing]
OK, just for a second, stand up straight.
-[Zac chuckling] -Yeah, see what I mean?
[Zac] Whoa-ho-ho!
-[Zac panting] -[all laughing]
-Yeah, pull that under you. There you go. -Oh, man!
-There you go. -[all laughing]
-You're on the bottom one, right? -Oh, man.
-I'm on the bottom. -Or on the top?
[Zac grunts]
[chuckles] Oh, man. I got, like, two inches off that.
[man] You went up more than you thought you did on that one.
[Tarek] Yeah, go a little bit higher.
Move this one up and just kind of loosen it from here.
-[Zac groans] -[Tarek] There you go.
OK, now, you can lean back.
[Zac gasps]
-Like this? -Yeah.
[Zac panting]
All right. How far, like, three more?
[Zac laughing]
-[Zac] See you guys in an hour. -[all laughing]
[Zac groans]
Oh... Whoa, that was...
[gasps]
[Michael] Zac, is it high up there?
[shouting] I can't hear you.
What?
-We got it. -Yeah.
[all laughing]
[Zac grunts]
[Zac] After a while, I started to catch on.
[Tarek] Get all your weight off. Lift your knee.
Yeah, you're really getting the hang of it.
[Zac grunts]
-[Darin] Yeah! -[clapping]
[man] Woo!
-[Darin] Very impressive. -[Zac] Coming down's gonna be...
a lot easier.
[Tarek] Thanks for coming to the Amazon. Big effort.
[Zac] Thanks for showing us around.
-That was a pretty unreal day. -All right.
All right, man. And we'll see you soon.
-See you. -See you, brother.
[Zac] Today, we're going to explore another ancient tradition here.
[birds squawking]
Ayahuasca is quite possibly the most notorious
and misunderstood plant in the Amazon jungle.
A cooked mixture of the vines and leaves creates a powerful,
vision-inducing hallucinogenic
that takes you on a journey, which can last up to ten to 12 hours.
With a proper facility and when administered by a trained shaman,
guests can experience biographical memories from the past
and have a true spiritual awakening into the future.
-Zac. -Nice to meet you.
Hey, pleasure.
[Zac] This is the founder of the Ayahuasca Foundation,
Carlos.
What made you come here and start this center right next to this village?
Uh... I was in a bad way. I was a heroin addict,
I was pretty much spiraling down.
I woke up one night,
in my car, under water, having driven...
Blacked out behind the wheel and driven it into a river.
And that was kind of my wake-up moment, where I was, like,
"I gotta do something, or I could die."
And, um... luckily I came down, drank Ayahuasca
five times with a shaman and never did heroin again.
But not only that, like, realized the roots of why
I wanted to do heroin.
You know, what the traumas in my life had been
and was able to bring them to the surface and resolve them.
And it was just, like, incredible.
The shaman said, you know, you have the potential to be a healer,
and this is your path.
And, if you want, you can come down and live with me and I'll teach you.
And, my experiences after that were so profound, like...
it sounds crazy, but I had spirits saying,
like, "Yes. This is what you should do."
And so I just said,
"I'm gonna do it."
Epic!
-I'm glad you're here, man. Thank you. -Thanks.
How long ago was that?
That was 15 years ago. Two thousand... January, 2004.
I moved down, I lived with the shaman in his house,
in this, like, dirt floor hut with him and his family...
-Whoa. -...for four years.
No running water.
And I just learned the tradition.
[Zac] Ayahuasca tourism is a huge thing.
People come from all over the world to get special rain forest treatments
from camps in the Amazon jungle, like this one.
[Carlos] This is the ceremony space. It's called a maloka.
[Darin] That's beautiful.
It's such a blessing to have found this place and to work with these guys.
The people that we work with are just incredible.
[Zac] Not everyone comes here for the Ayahuasca ceremony.
There are other plant-based,
non-psychoactive treatments that can be administered also.
[Carlos] Ayahuasca gets so much attention,
but you can't just heal everything with Ayahuasca.
Ayahuasca is an important component.
You could say it's the emotional- psychological-spiritual component,
but there is physical reality to sickness.
-For sure. -And that needs treatment too.
And so what I'd like to show you guys is some of the treatments that we use,
and they're very powerful treatments.
And those plants are just as important in the tradition.
That's why I wanna show you some of them
and maybe you can experience some yourself.
-Awesome, how do we do that? -Let's go down here.
This is what we call our "cooking hut." Or our "vapor bath hut."
-[Zac] Looks like a medieval... -[Carlos] Yeah, right? The stocks.
Well, we've got a pot that's got seven plants boiling in there.
And all of those plants have a specific property.
Who showed you the specific combo? Was it the shaman?
-Yes. Yeah. Right. -Cool.
This is, like, a general healing.
So you put these seven plants in,
some of them for protection, some of them increase your circulation,
some of them purify your blood, some of them open your spirit,
like the Ayahuasca leaves.
So by combining them all you get this full package.
-They're rolling right now. -Yep, they're rolling.
So we've got them boiling, so that they get a really good steam...
-[Darin] Wow. -[Carlos] And then,
you guys are gonna sit in that steam as long as you can,
and then the shaman will come and do a little treatment that...
To close in the healing.
-You up for it? -Yeah, are we just jumping in?
Yeah, let me get the shaman.
[Zac] All treatments are administered by a curandero, or guide.
The ceremonies and procedures are passed down
from generation to generation,
through shaman like him.
[Carlos speaking Spanish]
[Carlos] This is Don Miguel.
[Carlos speaking Spanish]
[Darin speaking Spanish]
And I got something super cool for you lined up outside.
-[Darin] Nice. -[Carlos] Smoke bath.
[Darin] Cool. Let's do it.
Smoke bath. Smoke me out.
The first step is a shower to cleanse the body and open the pores.
-Feet up? -Yeah.
[Zac] Like that? OK.
[chuckles]
-[man] See you in an hour, Zac. -What?
Do I have a safe word?
[Zac] The safe word is "ocelot."
[Zac] How long am I supposed to be under this thing?
[Amazonian drumming and pan pipes]
[Carlos] This is called Palo Santo. It's the wood of a tree.
We burn it, make it into a smoke, and you're gonna take a bath with it.
[Darin] Oh, yeah. Sort of warm on the niblets.
[drumming and pan pipes continue]
[Zac] The last step is a smoke bath,
from a sacred tobacco, to cleanse the spirit.
[Carlos] It's powerful stuff, right?
-Big time. -Yeah.
[Carlos] Especially when you feel you have a dark cloud over you or something.
This helps to relieve that.
[Carlos] Um...
How was the vapor bath?
-Yeah, really cool. -Yeah, cool.
[Carlos] Awesome.
So this is a Kushma.
This is what the curandero wears in ceremonies...
-[birds chirping] -[Peruvian folk music]
[Zac] That was an unforgettable experience.
From the superfoods with Tarek
to the spiritual healing plants with Carlos,
I feel like I've just scratched the surface
of why this amazing jungle needs to be protected.
Now it's time to head downriver and back to the bustling city of Iquitos.
-[engines revving] -[horns honking]
[answer machine beeps]
[Sandra] Hi, Darin. This is Mom calling. I just saw on the news--
[Lauren] We had to evacuate. Our whole neighborhood is destroyed.
-[answer machine beeps] -Darin, it's Tony. Uh... Please call me.
[dramatic music]
-[answer machine beeps] -Hey. It's, uh... Eliza.
I'm so sorry that this has happened.
I'm really, um... I can't stop thinking about...
[sniffling] ...you and, um... what you must be feeling.
This is... so sad.
Just know I'm here and I am just thinking of you.
[hangs up phone]
[Darin] I talked to my ex-wife.
-Really? What'd she say? -Yeah.
-Said... she's... just supporting and... -Good.
I mean, she lived with me on the place, so she was heartbroken too. So...
[Zac] That's hard luck, man.
[Darin] Got a message from Laird
and it's like, he shot some pictures and, like, it's just... black.
[Zac] Who could've imagined our last destination
would be overshadowed by such tragic news?
As Darin put it, at least it was just stuff.
His dog was kenneled and nobody he knew was hurt.
I can't imagine what Darin's feeling right now.
We offered to cancel the rest of the shoot and head home early.
But Darin insisted there's nothing we could do to change the situation,
so we're pressing forward.
-Well... -Best way to travel: tuk-tuk.
Tuk-tuk.
They call it in India "rickshaw."
-We're not in India, Darin. -We're not.
-No. -Where are we?
We're in a tuk-tuk. [laughing]
[horn honking]
[Zac] Sometimes the best thing you can do for a friend is just sit and listen.
Everything I have is with me right now, in suitcases and [bleep].
Surreal.
And in some weird way,
I'm glad I'm on this mission
and I'm glad I'm doing this
because it's purposeful
and it's not so helpless, of just seeing your house burn.
And, you know, the thing that pisses me off,
now that I've been sitting with it a little bit?
How it's in our face that the planet is changing.
It's in our face and it's burning our houses down.
It's not about having an argument about global warming necessarily,
but the truth of the matter is, our planet's different.
We're on the river today,
these guys who are living on the Amazon,
literally are saying,
"In the last few years, so many things are radically different."
-Our planet being affected by us... -[Zac] Yeah.
[Darin] ...living an unsustainable way
is affecting people's lives.
And now, it's directly affected mine.
It's just [bleep].
It's just, uh... brutal, and I don't even know how to process it.
You know what I need? I need a distraction.
Yeah. Yeah.
[Zac] Darin chose this restaurant because his friend Tarek
supplies much of the produce.
Including Darin's favorite:
camu camu juice.
-Beautiful. -[server] It has a lot of C vitamins.
-Cheers. -[Zac] Cheers, brother.
-To new beginnings, apparently. -Thank you.
-It's still pretty good. -It's so good.
[Zac] Oh, this looks amazing.
-This is ceviche. -Oh.
[server] But this ceviche is made with palm heart.
Yes, there's a little... And the juice is made of camu camu.
-[Darin] Beautiful. -[server] This has lemon, onion, and corn.
-[Zac] All right. -[Darin] Bon appétit.
-Whoa. Beautiful. -Yeah.
[Darin] Muy bien.
[Darin] To see these chefs integrating this rain forest,
wonderful fruit that we just saw...
and we're eating it in this beautiful presentation, is pretty amazing.
[Zac] Delicious.
[Zac] There's something special on the menu,
and everybody wants me to try it.
Are we... Are we eating, uh... grubs?
[man] I think at some point, maybe.
-[server] Excuse me? -There are grubs.
-[server] This is to share. -Whoa, whoa, whoa.
[server] This is our suri.
[Darin] Oh... Aye, aye, aye, aye.
[server] I love the suri.
-You love it? -[Darin] I don't.
-Yeah, it's delicious. -It's delicious, right?
-[server] Yeah. -I'm gonna do it.
[server] You have to try this.
[laughing]
[Zac] What do they turn into...
-If they were to not be cooked? -These are like beetles.
Beetles.
[Zac] This is suri...
or "grubs," that are very popular in Peru.
You don't have to eat it.
I've already made the choice, I'm just... lingering.
[all laughing]
[Zac] I hope it has sauce on it.
It's all you, dude.
It's sticky.
Yeah, it's s... slimy worm guts.
[harp playing nostalgic tune]
[dramatic drum bangs]
Yeah.
[server] Excuse me, this is the suri.
-[Darin] Oh, come on. -[Zac] Look at that.
-[Darin] What the hell? -[Zac] How does it move like that.
[server] It's greasy, like butter.
Oh, yeah, it's like butter just moving around.
-Oh! Oh! -[server laughing]
Stay on there, little guy.
-[man] Do some people eat it alive? -Yeah.
Really? It's like a delicacy?
-Put him to rest. -Do I have to eat them all?
-No. -[server] Excuse me.
-[Darin] Jackie! Jackie! -[Zac] Yeah! Jackie!
-[Zac] Go! Go! -I want that little one, though.
[man] Oh, my God.
She went for the tail.
-Mike, do you want heads or tails? -I definitely need water now.
[all laughing]
[Zac laughing hysterically]
Oh, it actually tastes pretty good.
-[Zac] It tastes like teriyaki. -It's a little smoky.
It's the mental block of the texture.
Can I have some of that? [laughing]
-The head is crispy. -Tastes like teriyaki.
-It's way more juicy than I thought. -Yeah.
It's all vegetables, man.
-They live in trees. -You keep telling yourself that...
Nah, they're, like, 100% vegetable.
...as they're squirming around in your stomach.
Something did pinch in my stomach, and I'm wondering if it was the pincer.
Yeah, it was the last little ditch effort. He's like, "I'm gonna get this guy."
We're gonna think he's dead...
He's very happy. He's eaten a lot of them.
[all laughing]
-I'll take that. Thank you. -Ah, perfect.
Thanks, darling.
[Jackie laughing]
[horns honking]
-Hola. -Hey. Hola.
[Zac] This is the Amazon Rescue Center,
a preserve dedicated to healing, rehabilitating, and re-homing
creatures from the Amazon rain forest.
Their main focus of rescue is manatees.
[man 1 speaking Spanish]
-[man 2] So we have two manatees here. -[Zac] Wow!
[man 2] You can see it. They have a good sense--
It looks like a dog. [Zac chuckles]
[man 2] The manatees are very important animals for the nature
-because they are eating these plants. -What is that? What is it that they eat?
It's a water plant. It's called guama.
[man 1 speaking Spanish]
In places where they killed too much of the animals,
the rivers are full of this plant. There are too much right now.
[Zac] These dedicated people
are working hard to return the balance and educate the public.
We have given some gloves. You need to hold his chin up
and feed with your right hand, your strong hand.
[Darin] And is that cow's milk?
-[man 2] Um... It's goat's milk... -[Darin] Oh, OK.
...because they're intolerant of lactose.
[Zac] Oh, you're lactose intolerant? Me too, buddy.
-Yeah. [man 2 laughs] -[Zac] Wow.
[Darin] So, humans are their number one threat?
-Humans are their number one threat. -Wow.
[Zac] Manatees aren't the only animals being held here at the Rescue Center.
There are many creatures that are harmed and displaced due to mankind.
-[Darin] Whoa! Look at that! -[Zac] Look at that thing.
-That's prehistoric. -[man 2] It's like a prehistorical turtle.
That's the weirdest turtle I've ever seen.
Yeah, they're also from the black market, which they were selling illegally.
And the police brung him to us.
In three months, we set 50 of them free.
-Wow, 50? -Amazing.
Fifty of them, yeah.
[Darin] What's this little guy, poking his head up?
-[Darin] Oh-ho-ho-ho. Look at that. -[Zac] What's up?
We have three otters here.
They're enemies with the fishermen because they're very intelligent.
They like to hunt this species for their fur.
They kill their mothers and they hold the little ones like pets.
[tuts] Oh, man.
-Are they endangered because of that? -Uh... Yes.
[Zac] It must be rewarding to work here.
And frustrating,
as they constantly battle against the ravages of poaching,
deforestation,
and all of the other man-made problems that are destroying the rain forest.
It's so important that the people around the world
know that, in the Amazon, exist this species.
The manatee, it's important to take care.
-Absolutely. -Very valuable part of the ecosystem.
-[Darin] Yeah. -You guys are doing amazing work.
This is really amazing. Thank you so much.
Thank you so much for visiting us and to tell our story.
-Thanks so much. -Thank you.
-See you guys. Chao. -Chao.
All right. See you.
Gracias. Thank you.
[Zac] This entire project has been an amazing journey.
Unfortunately, it's come to an end.
Heading to the airport for our flight home...
we're finally able to process the incredibly eye-opening experience.
This journey we're on,
I'm really excited that we've done this...
and I'm also...
just, deeply [bleep] heart-wrenchingly impacted by...
everything we've seen.
It's almost maddening.
The more you learn, the more you realize how...
vulnerable...
this planet is.
And every step we take, we should be conscious of.
-Yeah. -You know?
We don't understand our massive impact on the world.
Hell, we were in Puerto Rico, dude.
They're no different than I am now.
These people just got their [bleep] whacked out.
We're all just as [bleep] exposed to anything happening at any [bleep] moment.
Now, me personally losing my house,
I'm gonna go down swinging, trying to move the needle on this planet
to help the human family and to help Mother Earth
that clearly is showing us
what the [bleep] is wrong.
I agree.
[Zac] It's crazy to think about how all of this started.
I reached out to Darin because I appreciated what he had to say.
I had no idea how far that curiosity would take me.
You have all these people that follow you.
And you said very clearly to me, which impacted me straight in my heart,
and it was, like, "I wanna use it for something good."
That was the moment I was like, "Oh, man,
like, we can actually do something," 'cause it's, like...
it's just so...
[fighting tears]
It's so intense.
And we see all this [bleep],
I mean, you look around and...
so many people don't have much and..
And it's... it's just gutting.
When people actually open their eyes and see the world beyond the United States
and beyond their little communities...
I'm just...
[Darin inhales deeply, sighs]
I don't know why, it's...
[Zac] I feel you, man.
I've taken so many trips, you know, and I just go and experience culture
and I don't [bleep] take pictures or anything,
but, like, there is something that you learn
that's a product of seeing and meeting people,
that you could explain if you did bring a camera and did film something,
there would be a story to tell.
So it's nice to have... Shout-out to our crew. Everybody here...
-[Darin] Oh, my God. -So amazing,
like, going into the trenches with us.
-Getting dirty, getting sick, coughing... -Yeah, fighting through it.
[Darin] Scratching, fighting through jungles,
sweating their [bleep] off, having no sleep.
Like, these guys and girls are awesome.
-Heroes. -They've become family and...
Yeah, we were pretty lucky on this trip.
[all laughing]
[Zac] The more we learn and the more stuff we see,
the more questions are asked.
And I feel like there's endless doorways that have shown themselves to us.
It seems like the more we, kind of, excavate, the more comes out to play.
I am [bleep] so fired up to, like, take it way beyond what we've even done.
[Zac] Absolutely.
Well, it'll be great to see the needle move in some capacity.
Or, at least, foster some attention.
We out here. It's crazy. We're all here.
-Yeah. -And we gotta take care of this place.
We gotta live happy, be healthy,
take care of the planet.
[Zac] This has been the adventure of a lifetime.
I can't help but take these experiences with me everywhere I go, from here on out.
I can't look at a bottle of water
or flip on the light switch like I used to.
When I see a concrete wall, I want it to be a green wall.
When I see an empty roof, I wanna cover it with solar panels.
I suddenly stop...
and want to know everything I can
about every bite of food I'm going to eat.
What is it, really? Where did it come from?
Who grew it?
Are they treated well?
-Are they happy? -[Maria speaking Spanish]
[Zac] It's overwhelming.
But I have to do it.
Our time here is short.
Even if we live to be 100 years old,
it all goes by so fast.
I want to make a difference in whatever time I have.
It's a nice world we've got here.
Let's make it last.
[Darin sighs]
Oh, my God. [Darin sighs]
[groans]
[helicopters whirring]
[increasing volume] Ughhh... Argh!
[bleep]
[Darin groans]
[Darin] Oh, my God.