Synopsis
Gene Timbault’s life, by all accounts, should be perfect. He’s the CFO of a major Bay Area corporation and enjoys all the spoils of an upper-middle class life. However, his life is increasingly falling apart. The deal of a lifetime is stressing him out to the brink, his increasing tension headaches lead to a diagnosis of a rare degenerative disease, his ex-wife and children despise him and his relations with women are tumultuous at best. In short, the bars on the rat cage that is Gene’s life are closing in. It’s time to make a move.
At the beckoning of several strange and seeming coincidences, Gene decides to take a trip to Central America to get away from the corporate hamster wheel and the hollowness of his personal life. Upon his arrival, he finds himself jarred by the language barrier, cultural differences and his obviousness as a Gringo who sticks out like a sore thumb. Gene propitiously meets a fellow American expat who helps him as he tries to haggle a deal in a marketplace. This man tries to mellow Gene out and tell him that the uptight, constant hustle and bustle of America is not a way of life in the jungle. Thus, adaptation is the key to happiness. He helps Gene to begin eschewing his stress and neurotic baggage – the true cause of his medical condition.
He leads Gene to a beachfront hacienda that he plans to convert into a chain of hostels for adventurers and thrill-seekers. At a party that night, Gene finally lets loose, has fun and experiences erotic thrills with a cute local girl. When he wakes up the next morning, though, his friend is nowhere to be seen.
Gene embarks on a coming of age journey through the jungle where he meets various intriguing people along the way. He becomes closer with nature, experiences waterfalls, splendor and the close-to-the-bone existence of the locals. While their simple happiness initially eludes him, his introduction to Lopez, a local healer, unveils for him how time and energy provides real satisfaction in life – not money or material possessions. Lopez takes Gene on a long journey where Gene finds out that he doesn’t need homeopathic medicine to heal his ailments; in fact, the journey itself was the remedy all along. When Gene returns to his lodgings, he comes across an impetuous, upwardly mobile white man assailing a staff member. Gene smiles and asks the man to come on a journey with him. It’s his way of paying forward the kernels of wisdom that Lopez imparted to him.