A pair of rescued cyclists are recovering in hospital following six days lost in the woods.
Friends Gilberto Alves and Carlos Gomes Pereira survived on stream water and hearts of palm during their ordeal.
Gilberto, 62, and Carlos, 56, set off on a cycling trail on 14 January.
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When the men failed to return, one of Gilberto’s children alerted the fire brigade and filed a police report the next day (15 Jan).
In his final audio message before losing signal, Gilberto said: “We came to do the trail here and got lost.
“Now we’re going down the river, you know? I’m not sure we’ll make it today.”
The sound of rushing water could be heard in the background.
The men had only taken water with them on the ride around Juquitiba, in Brazil’s São Paulo state, as reported by Need To Know.
After the pair covered 277km (172 miles) of dense forest, firefighters found them at around 10:50am on Tuesday (20 Jan) near Pedro de Toledo.
They were at a stream roughly 12km (7mi) from the location Gilberto had mentioned in his voice message.
Both men were taken to hospital following the rescue.
Gilberto was discharged on Wednesday (21 Jan), while Carlos remains in hospital, though both are said to be recovering well.
Speaking to local media, Gilberto’s daughter Ana Paula Alves said: “He’s doing well, talking and walking normally.
“They were sitting side by side on IV drips, sharing stories about what they went through and laughing.”
She added: “They were almost losing hope, but my father kept saying, ‘Have faith, they’re going to rescue us.’”
During their time in the forest, the men survived on stream water and, in Gilberto’s case, hearts of palm – the tender inner core of certain palm trees, eaten as a vegetable.
Carlos’s brother-in-law said he is in a more precarious state than Gilberto, though stable.
“He’s talking normally, but he’s still weak,” he said. “Gilberto ate heart of palm, but my brother-in-law was afraid of choking because of the fibres, so he didn’t eat while they were lost.”
Doctors expect Carlos to be discharged in the coming days.
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