From her teenage years, her life was an adventure. She lived in the Amazon with her scientific parents, who took care to teach her all the secrets of survival in the tropical climate of the jungle. Julian Koepcke, a 17-year-old Peruvian schoolgirl, could not have imagined that these life lessons would save her at a critical moment.
“The games of fate”
December 1971. Julian was getting ready for the Christmas holidays with her parents in Pucalpa. Her mother insisted that they leave earlier, but the young girl asked her to go with them to the school party. The prayers finally took place and the family left on December 24. At the airport it became inseparable. Several flights had been canceled in the previous days due to bad weather and people at the box office were trying to get a new ticket.
The 17-year-old girl sat at the window from the first moment of boarding. In the middle was her mother sitting next to a frightened passenger, who kept saying that it was unnatural for a metal bird to take off in the air. The first half hour of the flight passed calmly. Suddenly the plane was trapped in a strong storm. The day became night and lightning pounded the aircraft relentlessly. Most passengers lost their temper and screamed in every commotion.
Julian’s mother remained calm for the sake of her daughter. “Everything will be fine,” he kept saying. A bright white light from the right wing blinded the passengers and the plane began to lose altitude. The cockpit of the plane shook so loudly that she could feel it in her chest. As 61-year-old Juliane Koepcke confessed to the Daily Mail, the last word her mother said was “Now it all ends here”. Then absolute silence prevailed. She fell into the void quickly and in a few seconds she had lost consciousness….
She fell into the void of 10 thousand feet, tied to her seat. When she met, the first thing she realized was that her mother was no longer by her side. Her eyes were swollen and her vertigo unbearable. When he managed to recover, he realized that he was in the middle of the jungle.
She crawled a few meters shouting her mother’s name. All she heard was the echo of her voice in the forest. I will never forget the first image, as soon as I opened my eyes. Giant trees bathed in bright light. I felt abandoned and completely helpless. The right key was broken. I had a deep wound in my left leg that strangely did not bleed.
Insects, ants, beetles, large mosquitoes and locusts followed her every step of the way. But she recognized every sound and rustle she heard. To quench his thirst, he licked the wet leaves of the trees. Next to the spot where it fell, there was no sign of a crash. Just a bag of sweets and some more personal belongings of the passengers of the fatal plane.
She ate one of the sweets she found, while at the same time she saw a plane flying over her head. The dense trees, however, left her no room to react. After she was overcome by a strong weakness, she started her attempt to get out of the dense forest….
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She found a stream nearby, which followed, but the large tree trunks that had fallen in made it very difficult for her. Slowly the stream widened and Juliane began to walk to the side, by the water. It was getting dark and he had to find a place to sleep. The first day of her adventure was over. The next morning he continued to follow the stream, which turned into a small river. Her biggest difficulty was that she could not find a single fruit to eat. She drank plenty of water, but her hunger was out of control.
“Six days without food”
The days passed without hope. Suddenly, in the silence, the cry of an “oasis” stood out. A tropical bird that nests exclusively near open areas of water, where there are usually settlements. At home, she often listened to oasis. With a revived morale, he started walking as fast as he could. The sound of an airplane caught her eye, but as she approached the sound faded away. Her anger turned to despair. Once again its dense vegetation deprived her of her freedom. “Then I made the big decision: I had to swim to get even faster through the forest. I had to let go of the river. The icy water was bothering my body even more, while at night things were unbearable. I should not have given up. I had to be saved. ” One morning, she felt a sharp pain in her upper back. When she touched the spot with her hand, she realized that the sun had burned her back. There were times when she thought she saw houses and people around her.
“Six days without food”
The days passed without hope. Suddenly, in the silence, the cry of an “oasis” stood out. A tropical bird that nests exclusively near open areas of water, where there are usually settlements. At home, she often listened to oasis. With a revived morale, he started walking as fast as he could. The sound of an airplane caught her eye, but as she approached the sound faded away. Her anger turned to despair. Once again its dense vegetation deprived her of her freedom. “Then I made the big decision: I had to swim to get even faster through the forest. I had to let go of the river. The icy water was bothering my body even more, while at night things were unbearable. I should not have given up. I had to be saved. ” One morning, she felt a sharp pain in her upper back. When she touched the spot with her hand, she realized that the sun had burned her back. There were times when she thought she saw houses and people around her.
