For all the unpleasant surprises on the trail, Newmark retained a Zen-like calm befitting a former instructor of transcendental meditation and he proclaimed the hike a success.
No one died and the participants had contributed US$190,000 toward preserving more of the rain forest.
"It was altogether too close of a brush with mortality," Newmark said. "I can guarantee that raising that US$10 million will be easy compared to that hike."
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