In 1987, I had this idea that a great way to teach wilderness survival would be to head out into the woods and do exactly that.

Survive.

Now I need the skills because I'd be filming myself alone.

And you, the viewer, would be made aware of that.

And I thought, what a great way to make these skills more relatable to you.

Problem was, the technology was not available for me to film myself beyond the old grainy camcorders as we used to call them.

Well, fast forward to the year 2000, 13 years and indeed the technology became available.

the take home information.

And the skills that you would learn from this series would make you more confident in nature.

You'd stay warm, dry and safe, and therefore you'd be able to reconnect to the natural world.

What you're about to watch is raw and real, and not to be confused with reality television.

These are my journeys into the world of survival and around the planet.

These are the skills that can keep you alive and open the doors to nature.

The only reality that matters.

- Everything comes alive.

(crickets chirping) Argh, damn it.

This is horrible.

(crickets chirping) I gotta do the fire bow tomorrow night for sure.

Everything moves, everything's crawling.

I think there's a army ants on the tree, 'cause I'm starting to get bitten all over.

And it wasn't mosquitoes, I can tell you that much.

And scorpions, tarantulas this big.

(dramatic music) (dramatic music) (native american war cry) - Costa Rica lies on the Pacific coast of Central America.

A region known for its radical dictators, beach resorts, and dense jungle.

Few places in the world exist with such incredible biological variety.

285 species of birds, 139 mammals, 116 reptiles and amphibians, and more than 6,000 species of insects.

(waves crashing) It was minus 40 degrees Celsius, with four feet of snow, when I left my Ontario home, and boarded a plane to Central America, and it was plus 40 degrees Celsius when I landed.

(waves crashing) There are still many miles of uninhabited coastline, and many thousand hectares of deep impenetrable jungle.

I've got seven days to survive here, and this time I have to find my own way to safety.

The crew isn't coming for me, but first I have to find a good source of fresh water, or I could collapse of dehydration in the heat.

There is a fine line between a land of paradise, and a land of nightmares.

And so it happens, and so easily too.

You borrow a kayak from a beach resort for the day, head out a little unprepared, (waves crashing) maybe the ocean pushes you farther than you thought it would, and you stop at a beach to explore a nice cove.

When you're not watching?

The tide takes away your only link to survival.

So that's it then.

My camera crew will leave me behind with just my gear, and I'm alone for seven days of survival.

(island drum music) (bird chirping) All right let's get a grip on my situation here.

I'm many, many miles from the resort that I paddled from.

I've got dense, thick, (bird cackling) thick jungle in behind me, thousands of miles of ocean in front of me, trapping me in here.

The beach is a, it's a nice beach.

It's, you know, by all standards, it's a little tropical paradise.

Not necessarily so, when you don't have food or water.

So let's see what the camera crew left me with this time.

(exhales sharply) My long pair of pants.

Which is gonna help me at night.

My swimming goggles, they were actually on me as I kayaked in, (chuckles) and three pens, (scoffs) for whatever.

Write down my sorrows or something.

And I always carry with me good multi tool.

(suspenseful music) (waves crashing) First, I wanna have a look around.

I'm a frost bitten Canadian boy, and this is all very new to me.

Right now it's in high tide, but I can see that as the water goes down, I'll have a whole set of tidal pools here.

I'll be able to hopefully trap some fish in.

Well, I found a number of things just scrounging along the beach.

Man-made and natural things I can use.

It's a good, big piece of bamboo, and there's a bit more of this around.

There's a lot of these four by four's that are worn down.

Found this little broom handle, and just now a toilet float.

I don't know what I can use that for.

Argh.

I've also been able to find a number of these green coconuts.

It is the tropics, and these are gonna come in handy.

Let me show you right now what I mean.

(exhales sharply) These coconuts are a great way to quench your thirst.

You wanna just cut in, maybe somewhere around the top.

(knife scratching) (grunts) Pure, fresh, oops, clean, coconut milk.

Oh, that's good.

That was tough to get through.

These are lying around all over the place.

So, at least they'll quench my thirst for a while, but I still need to find some fresh water.

(island drum music) (rocks banging) (island drum music) (bird chirping) (waves crashing) In this heat I'm not thinking about shelter at all, but I know that weather can turn ugly on me very fast.

Well that's about all I can do for tonight.

Make this platform, keep me up off the sand.

Sand is a real irritant, it gets into everything, including this infected toe that I have.

The week before this, I did a lot of hiking, and I've got a badly infected toe, and the worst thing for it, is to get sand in it.

It'll get more infected and more irritated.

Top of that of course is these, hundreds of these little hermit crabs crawling around on the sand.

I don't want them nibbling at my toes all night either.

Maybe tomorrow I'll try to increase my food supply, find a better source for water if possible, and, try to make a fire.

(eerie music) Coves and beaches of Costa Rica are an idyllic paradise, but like a massive green wall, the thick crawling jungle has been trapped between it and the ocean.

I'm alone here for seven days without matches, water, food, or equipment.

And I've got a feeling that my version of Gilligan's Island, is gonna be far more difficult to survive.

(eerie music) Well that was a rough night.

Not only was this wood a little back breaking to try and sleep on, the Herman crabs pretty much left me alone, but there was a whole host of crawling things and sand fleas, and cockroaches and creepy crawlies.

They wanted to expect me all night, inspect me all night long.

I need some water.

Well there's a little bit of trickling in behind me and amongst this rack of caves here.

It's just amazing.

Crabs running all over the place.

More tide pools with fish.

I must have walked right over this.

I didn't even notice it the first time.

This is promising.

The water, there's like a stream coming just right out of the sand at the bottom end.

So I'm gonna see what comes out, if there's any coming out at the top end, it looks like a substantial amount.

Should be fresh water.

Oh yeah.

Yeah, perfect.

Excellent.

It's fresh water all right.

And I would love to just gorge on it right now, but jungle water makes me nervous.

It can be full of the meanest of parasites.

So really I should take this back and find a way to get a fire and boil it so I can kill any parasites.

What a lot of people don't know is that on the inside of these sprouted coconuts, there's a nice edible treat.

(pounding) It's just a little tough to get to.

(exhales sharply) The coconut is a lifesaver in all of its stages, even after it's sprouted.

(pounding) (birds chirping) This inside of the sprouted coconut shell, I guess it's the liquid solidified, anyway, mmm, is a juicy delectable treat.

Mmm.

Crap.

Flavorful.

And you know what?

Trust me.

Mmm.

At home, I actually don't really like coconut.

Nice place for me to be.

(chuckles) I don't like coconut.

But this is delicious, and, you can almost, and sometimes a little bit even drink the oils that drip out of this.

All the pure, pure coconut oil.

Wow.

That's delicious.

Oh man.

This is energy I need.

I better take the time to make my shelter better, in case bad weather comes in quick.

(suspenseful music) Hee haw!

(suspenseful music) (rocks banging) I've gathered a few things from the beach.

This curled stick, picked up baseboard along the beach, and I've already cut my notch into it, so that you know, all the ash can fall out there into my tinder bundle, which is just a bit of dried grass.

And I'm gonna use that broom handle.

Makes a perfect spindle.

And this very cool rock I found on the beach has got perfect holes in it.

Gimme my bearing block.

Well, all I can do is give this a shot.

(squeaking) That's smoke, that's good.

(grunts) Good, good, good, good, good.

Let's close this in.

I figure I can find a big enough shell to boil water in.

There's a lot of conch shells along the ocean floor, and this one is just the right size.

(grunts) There we go.

Isn't that beautiful?

(waves crashing) Something I can boil water in now.

Huh.

With this beautiful fire behind me, I've got the opportunity now, ooh, a little bit of sand, that I've got this conch shell, and the water that I brought back from the stream over there.

Now I've been drinking coconut water all day, maybe five or six of them.

So I'm still extremely thirsty.

That's not enough in this heat.

So I can... Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

There we go.

So I can boil this up, bring it to a boil and kill any parasites that are in there.

I can find all kinds of food in a tide pool.

Nerites are edible snails that cling to the rocks, but they're only edible if the water that comes out of them is clear.

If it's a green liquid, eating just one of these little guys could kill me.

Crack these guys open.

(thumping) Wow.

Kinda, pretty strong.

And, pull out the snail.

Not a moment too late I should add, 'cause the sun's setting pretty quickly here.

Thing is I could only go in and get these tide pool critters, once the tide went down, 'cause the water was up high.

I just couldn't get in there and get them.

See there, there's that and there's this hard, (grunts) little bone on there.

All right, I'm gonna pop that in and let it boil for a while.

Let them cook.

It boiled up pretty quick for me, which means that from here on in, I can keep gathering water from that stream and just boil it, let it cool, boil it, let it cool, and I'll have purified water.

Argh.

Getting the smoke in my face here.

Ugh.

Well they don't taste all that great but, argh, those little guys I pulled out of the tide pool but, it's meat.

It's gonna gimme a little bit of food strength anyway.

It's good to get fresh water.

(suspenseful music) Well, another morning.

Man.

You don't sleep much.

I'm not sleeping much.

You know the tide, the waves, they come to within like three feet of this platform, and it really freaks you out at night, 'cause it's just thundering in like a big monster.

I don't know what's worse, that fear, or the fact that you've got sand fleas and mosquitoes, they just bite you all night long.

I'm not really sleeping.

I've got my long pants on to protect my legs.

The crabs crawl up on me every once in a while too, but they don't do, they're just, you just flip 'em off.

Still they keep you awake.

Yeah, it's great to have the fire, but you know, it's 80 degrees at night, 85 at night, waves of humidity coming and going, 90, 95 during the day, and the only way to quench my thirst, other than the odd coconut, is to boil up a little bit of water in that conch shell, and drink it down, lukewarm.

Crabs of the tide pools are elusive and move very fast.

This part of the ocean is full of fish.

So it's simple really, find a way to catch them.

I'm laying all my stuff out, and I'm just standing back and trying to figure out what else I could make or do with the clothing that I've got.

Well I still got laces from my boots, if I need 'em, my pants, my Scooby-Doo underwear, and shirt.

Check this out.

I would grab the stick, come out in the jungle, and just starting to thinking about, like sort of projectile.

Take the elastic band from Scooby-Doo.

Let's try this.

Aha!

That could be a fish.

(upbeat guitar music) (upbeat guitar music) (water plopping) (water plopping) It seems so likely that I could spear a fish right from the rock's edge, but I have never done this before, and the timing of it is tricky.

I think I stand a much better chance of getting a fish if I get right in the water with them.

All right, I got my underwater camera, and I got some cameras set up to try and show you where I'm gonna be fishing.

With any luck, I'll come out victorious.

I'm keeping my clothes on.

I'm gonna sacrifice getting 'em wet.

They're soaked all the time anyway, because it'll help to protect me from jellyfish, and if I get thrashed up against any rough core, it'll help protect.

Wish me luck.

I'm really nervous about this.

I've already spotted sharks, big ones coming in for the same fish I was going after.

It's going to take patience and effort to be successful at this.

The whole school of fish right below me here.

(water burbling) (water burbling) Who hoo!

(waves crashing) Look at that baby.

Not sure what it's called.

I think it's called some kind of porgy, or something like that.

I'm gonna clean this guy.

I was taking a bit of a chance going out spear fishing, but hey, I don't have a fishing line and, (chuckles) it's certainly paid off.

Being out spear fishing like that on, and you know the blood that happens when you catch a fish, attracts a lot of sharks.

So taking a little bit of a chance but, wooh, it was worth it.

Have myself a real good dinner.

Argh.

Oh man that's good.

And a full moon to eat by too.

This is gonna bring back a lot of food energy to me.

After three days without food, you really start to lose your energy level.

I mean, I've had tidbits here and there.

The coconut's been amazing, that's actually what's kept me going.

But having good fresh fish like this is incredible.

God, perfect.

More people have been stung by scorpions, by simply not checking their boots in the morning, than just about any other way.

The little critters like to crawl up inside there, even when you leave 'em hanging upside down like this on a stick, they still can get in there.

You gotta give 'em a good whomp, and check 'em, and make sure.

Because man, oh man, slipping your foot into a boot and having a scorpion down at the toes?

That's not good.

I have two options this week.

Wait for the crew to come and get me, or dare to find my own way back to civilization, through the jungle.

Understand this, many, if not most survival victims ignore common sense, and out of desperation, even refuse to believe their compasses.

And in so doing, try to self rescue.

Often placing themselves in more harm.

The smartest thing in a case like this would be to stay on the beach.

But hey, then we wouldn't have a survival show.

The jungle's there but maybe there's a road, maybe there's a trail, just up in behind me here.

I mean, I could be literally hours maybe from being rescued.

That's what I'm gonna do.

Head into the jungle and, see if I can find a trail out.

If I'm gonna take off and leave this beach, I'm gonna need to somehow bring the fire with me.

I'm certainly gonna bring my fire bow materials, I█m just pouring with sweat.

Oh, you have monkeys right above me here.

I do not have the energy or the will to start a fire.

Everything comes alive.

Argh, damn it.

This is horrible.

I'm gonna do the fire bow tomorrow night for sure.

I hardly slept at all last night.

Got myself, a little lizard to eat tonight.

All right.

Here he is.

Hmm?

Not bad.

just sliced my finger open, and it wasn't even worth it, 'cause this vine's too thin to drip for me.

Directly inspired by his own survival expeditions, journeys and challenges.

World renowned survival instructor Les Stroud brings you survival, essential skills and tactics to get you out of anywhere alive.

Available for 19.99.

In addition, the book will to live Dispatches from the Edge of Survival is available, featuring Les Stroud's own top ten survival stories of all time.

Just 21.99.

To order, please go to lesstroud.ca, and click on shop or go to the Les Stroud YouTube channel.

Survivorman Les Stroud.