Close X
Monday, December 2, 2024
ADVT 
National

Vancouver Man, Missing For 5 Years, Found Wandering In Brazil After Walking Through 10 Countries

Darpan News Desk IANS, 09 Feb, 2017 01:29 PM
    A Canadian man who has been missing for five years has been found more than 6,500 miles away in the Amazon jungle.
     
    Anton Pilipa trekked across two continents, walking mostly barefoot with just the clothes on his back, after he disappeared from his Vancouver home in 2012.
     
    His family spent years desperately searching for the former humanitarian worker, who suffers from suspected schizophrenia, and had almost given up hope when they got a call out of the blue.
     
    A Canadian-born Brazilian cop spotted Pilipa, who she initially mistook for a beggar, shuffling down a dirt track in bare feet, and dirty, unwashed Bermuda shorts and a vest. He had no passport and any form of identification.
     
    Incredibly, with help of several international agencies and embassies, she was able to track down his family who flew down to be reunited with their lost loved one.
     
    Anton, who has been placed back on his schizophrenia medication, traveled through at least ten countries from Canada, including the United States, Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina and Brazil - all without a passport and with little more than the clothes in his back.
     
    His brother said he had one bizarre mission; to get to the National Library of Buenos Aires in Argentina. 
     
     
    Tragically, when he finally made it to the library, after walking thousands of miles, he was turned away because he didn't have any identification. So he turned around and began his trek into Brazil where he would eventually be found.  
     
     
    He described how he survived by picking fruits and berries, scrounging for food and clothes in the trash, and relied on the generosity of strangers. 
     
    But that's not to say times weren't tough. Anton started off with a small bag of belongings but was robbed of what little he did have on several occasions during his trek.
     
     
    While walking 800km alone through the dangerous Amazon jungle, filled with poisonous spiders, snakes, caiman - which can grow up to 20ft long and jaguar - all his toenails dropped off.
     
    Yet, while he met some 'bad people' on his incredible 10,000 mile journey, he said he had 'received more generosity, especially in recent times.' 
     
    'I've never felt alone,' he said. 'It's been a lot of thinking for years, sleeping in the open. It's very simple to live, we do not need many things.' 
     
    But after years on the road, Stefan said he was shocked by his brother's appearance.
     
    'He looked pretty rough,' he said after flying out to Manaus last month to collect his brother. 'The rigors of his journey took a toll on his body and face. And he had a lot more hair than last time I saw him.'
     
    The married dad said his brother's health was starting to deteriorate in the Brazilian mental institute where he was being held waiting for his family to collect him.
     
    'We got him just in time.'
     
    'I know that I am very lucky to be alive,' Anton told the BBC. 'I am very happy to be able to return to my family.'
     
    While Anton walked most of the 10,000 mile trip, he would occasionally get a ride or stowaway in a truck.
     
    But mostly, he kept himself to himself, barely speaking to another human being in five years. He still speaks almost no Spanish or Portuguese.  
     
    Anton, who was described as an individualist, was diagnosed with schizophrenia several years ago but his family say they struggled to find him the help he required in the two years before his disappearance.
     
    Before his illness, he had worked all over Canada for humanitarian relief organizations.

    MORE National ARTICLES

    B.C. Man Uses A Knife To Puncture One Of The Vehicle's Tires And Stabs Himself

    B.C. Man Uses A Knife To Puncture One Of The Vehicle's Tires And Stabs Himself
    Saanich police say a 37-year-old man from Esquimalt, B.C., was parked at an arena and returned to find a vehicle parked close to his.

    B.C. Man Uses A Knife To Puncture One Of The Vehicle's Tires And Stabs Himself

    Quebec Man Gets 15 Years For Incest, Sex Assault Against Daughters

    Quebec Man Gets 15 Years For Incest, Sex Assault Against Daughters
    Jacques Roger Lesage, 79, was found guilty by a jury one week ago on four of six charges, which included incest, sexual assault and indecent assault.

    Quebec Man Gets 15 Years For Incest, Sex Assault Against Daughters

    B.C. Councillor Resigns After Suing Daughter For Going Public About Alleged Sex Abuse

    B.C. Councillor Resigns After Suing Daughter For Going Public About Alleged Sex Abuse
    Mayor Karl Buhr of Lions Bay confirmed in a statement posted on the village website on Thursday that he had accepted Eileen Wilke's resignation.

    B.C. Councillor Resigns After Suing Daughter For Going Public About Alleged Sex Abuse

    B.C.'s Environment Minister Suspends Permit For Soil Dumping Near Shawnigan Lake

    B.C.'s Environment Minister Suspends Permit For Soil Dumping Near Shawnigan Lake
    VICTORIA — B.C.'s environment ministry is threatening to revoke a permit for the company operating a controversial dumping site for contaminated soil on Vancouver Island.

    B.C.'s Environment Minister Suspends Permit For Soil Dumping Near Shawnigan Lake

    Highway Of Tears Bus Starts Rolling On 30-minute Trips In B.C.'s Northwest

    Highway Of Tears Bus Starts Rolling On 30-minute Trips In B.C.'s Northwest
    The service that starts Monday is along a small section of Highway 16, the route that stretches between Prince George and Prince Rupert where 18 women have disappeared or been murdered since the 1970s.

    Highway Of Tears Bus Starts Rolling On 30-minute Trips In B.C.'s Northwest

    Government Gives More Time To Comment On Nuclear-Waste Bunker

    OTTAWA — The public now has an extra two weeks to comment on a report on a nuclear-waste bunker proposed for near Lake Huron.

    Government Gives More Time To Comment On Nuclear-Waste Bunker