30 Day Challenge

hallo! Wow day 25 already? wohoo

Day 25 - Someone who fascinates you and why.

Hm, I guess I'll have to say Henri Charrière!

And this is why:

"According to his book, Papillon, Charrière was convicted on 26 October 1931 of the murder of a pimp named Roland Le Petit, a charge that he strenuously denied. He was sentenced to life in prison and ten years of hard labour. After a brief imprisonment at the transit prison of Beaulieu in Caen, France, he was transported in 1933 to the prison of St-Laurent-du-Maroni on the Maroni River, in the penal settlement of mainland French Guiana. According to the book, he made his first escape on 28 November 1933,37 days later, joined by fellow prisoners André Maturette and Joanes Clousiot, who would accompany him throughout much of his time on the run. The trio shipwrecked near the village of Riohacha, northern Caribbean Region of Colombia, and was imprisoned. Charrière subsequently escaped during a rainy night and fled to the La Guajira Peninsula, where he was adopted by an Indian tribe. He spent several months living with the natives, but felt that he had to move on, which was a decision he would ultimately regret. Upon returning to civilization, he was quickly recaptured and sent back to French Guiana to be put into solitary confinement for the next 2 years.

While in French Guiana he spent 11 years in prison, during this period he attempted to escape several more times resulting in increasingly brutal responses from his captors. He stated that he was then confined to Devil's Island, a labor camp that, at the time, was notorious for being inescapable.(French authorities later released penal colony records that contradicted this; amongst other details, Charrière had never been imprisoned on Devil's Island.) However, he finally achieved his permanent liberation in 1941, by using a bag of coconuts as a makeshift raft and riding the tide out from the island. He sailed for miles and eventually arrived in Venezuela, where he was imprisoned for one year then released as a Venezuelan citizen."

Seriously, read this, his story is amazing, and has even inspired a movie. I really want to read his book! They called him Papillon , that means butterfly in english, because he had one tattoed on his chest. Here's the trailer by the way! Enjoy!