Conquering the Amazon

After 3,272 miles of exhaustion, sunburn, delirium and other perils, a 52-year-old Slovenian completed a swim down the Amazon River that if confirmed by Guinness World Records will set a world record for distance -- something he’s done three times before.

After nine weeks, Martin Strel arrived near Belem, the capital of the state of Para in the Brazilian jungle, ending a swim almost as long as the drive from Miami to Seattle. Strel, who began his odyssey at the source of the world’s second-longest river, averaged about 50 miles a day.

In 2000, he completed an 1,866-mile swim in the Danube. He broke that record two years later after swimming 2,360 miles in the Mississippi. In 2004 he broke it again with a 2,487-mile swim in the Yangtze River in China.