A British TikToker has boasted of illegally travelling into a remote region of the Amazon before getting stuck there for 18 days because he ‘didn’t realise’ it was the wet season.
Haplessly unprepared Callan Bole was given a bed, drinks and football on the TV by kindly locals in a remote indigenous town in Brazil – only to dismiss their homes as ‘shacks’ and remark on their lack of English.
The 25-year-old from Stockton-on-Tees in County Durham, told followers he had become trapped in the area because the river was too high – a common issue in the wet season.
He also bragged about entering the area illegally in defiance of a ban to protect local tribes and moaned how Google Translate only ‘understood half’ of what local people were saying.
‘The military are fuming because I’ve illegally entered Brazil and the local fishermen say I’m the first white gringo to be here for five years,’ Bole said.
Filming inside the home of a local fisherman who had given him shelter, he says: ‘We’re now in Brazil inside some fella’s shack – he said we could spend the night in his cabin. There’s my clothes hanging up.’
Moving the camera to a smiling man sitting down on a chair, he continues: ‘My man the fisherman, just in some random crib – he doesn’t speak English.’
Callan Bole was given a bed, drinks and football on the TV by kindly locals in a remote indigenous town in Brazil – only to dismiss their homes as ‘shacks’
Filming inside the home of a local fisherman who had given him shelter, he says: ‘We’re now in Brazil inside some fella’s shack’
Bole, 25, travelled illegally into an area that is reserved for indigenous people
The TikToker boasted of making no preparations before the trip and described feeling ‘starving’ and drinking ‘Amazon water’ – suggesting he had not come with any provisions.
Other social media users criticised his behaviour, with one accusing him of ‘coloniser behaviour’ for describing a man’s home as a ‘shack’.
His ill-advised journey began when he travelled to the rainforest in a small plane from Colombia.
From there, he intended to take a boat across the river to Brazil, a trip he expected would take five days.
After three days of heavy rain, the boat’s motor failed, leaving him stranded in São Gabriel da Cachoeira, a remote municipality on the Colombian-Brazilian border, home to fewer than 3,000 people speaking a little-known language, Tariana.
Bole said: ‘It was never dry. There was never a moment [without rain]. When I needed to sleep, I had to stop off on the riverbed and set up camp.
One day, desperate for some shelter, a man took him in and offered him food and a bed.
He said: ‘A man overheard me and took me to his, where there was a bed and food.
Bole was left stranded in São Gabriel da Cachoeira, a remote municipality on the Colombian-Brazilian border, home to fewer than 3,000 people
The 25-year-old jetted off to Colombia, before taking a small flight to a nearby town and then boarded a four-man charter to his destination
Speaking of his time there, he said: ‘It was a great time overall. I do think it was only a matter of time before I got malaria or yellow fever, though’
Upon arriving in a small town outside the Amazon Rainforest, he had planned to take a boat across the river to Brazil
‘They didn’t speak a word of English, only a local dialect that not even my phone could translate.
‘Luckily, he had a son I could communicate with as he was learning Portuguese.’
Bole was eventually able to leave via a military aircraft to a hospital in Brazil and arrived safely on UK soil last week.
He lost over a stone in weight and his skin is still recovering from various insect bites.
But he claimed to want to repeat a similar trip in the future, adding: ‘The people were absolutely fantastic. I was scared I’d be there for a few more months, but their hospitality was next to nothing.
‘It was a great time overall. I do think it was only a matter of time before I got malaria or yellow fever, though.
‘This is nothing new to me – I’ve been through much worse. It’s only made me hungry for more adventure.’
