Fortunately, the family did not encounter any poisonous snakes or spiders while driving.
A woman and her children have gone missing in the Peruvian jungle after eating wild berries and fruits for 34 days.
In December, a 40-year-old woman and her children, ages 10, 12 and 14, made a trip to a remote area of Colombia near the border with Peru. They have a desire to meet the children’s father but got lost in the jungle near the Putumayo River, a tributary of the Amazon that flows through Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador.
They learned of her disappearance on December 19. The following month, the mother and children traveled through the jungle along the Putumayo River, passed the Ecuadorian border and emerged in Peru. Along the way they picked and ate wild berries, fruits and seeds. Weary travelers were spotted by the Sequoia Indians. After 34 days in the jungle, the woman and children were weary from hunger and thirst, their legs cut and their bodies covered with insect bites.
“If we didn’t have water every 30 minutes, we would fall down from weakness,” the woman recalls. “Sometimes we had to stop because the girls couldn’t walk anymore.”
The Indians informed the Peruvian military about the woman and children. They contacted their Colombian colleagues. A plane was sent to pick up the family and take them to Puerto Leguizamo, Colombia. There they were treated and tested for mosquito-borne infectious diseases such as malaria and yellow fever.
According to Oliva Perez, when they got lost on a premiere day, she decided to camp under a tree and spend the night in the woods. But the next day and the days after, they continued walking along the Putumayo River and could not find the way. For the first five days they ate nothing but water from streams. Then the children started catching fish from the streams by pulling them out with their hands. They also gathered wild fruits and seeds, although this was quite dangerous.
“Seeds can be poisonous. But I ate them with everyone. Because if the children eat them and I don’t, I will live and they will die. For me, that result would be a living death,” said Oliva Perez.
Oliva Perez recalls that her children made the decision to build a raft out of palm leaves and use it to travel up the Putumayo River. But they had neither the strength nor the ability to do so.
The family moved across the river to their home country. The woman’s father met her in Colombia. The younger was sent to Pasto because he needed more serious help. Fortunately, the family did not encounter any poisonous snakes or spiders while driving. These creatures represent the greatest danger in these areas.