Siblings Who Survived 40 Days in Amazon Detail Harrowing Ordeal Transcript

This morning, the four siblings who survived 40 days deep in the Amazon jungle are slowly regaining their strength at a military hospital and talking about the moment they were found last Friday by a team of military and Indigenous searchers.

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Eldest girl, 13 year old Lesly, was carrying her one, one-year-old sister and holding her other sister’s hand. They ran to hug me and Lesly said, “I’m hungry,” the searcher says. The Cessna carrying the four siblings and their mother crashed deep in the Amazon Forest May 1st. It took two weeks to locate the wreckage. Searchers found three adult bodies in the plane, but no children.

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The father of the two youngest children says the eldest told him their mother was alive for four days and told her children before she died that they had to leave. Their grandfather says they stayed by the plane surviving on the three pounds of cassava flour. They traveled with, and eventually when no one came to help, the siblings started walking. For weeks searchers found clues, half-eaten fruit, small footprints, a baby bottle, a tiny pair of shoes.

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Their grandfather said Lesly fed her one-year-old sister baby formula until it ran out, then only water. The other siblings surviving on berries and seeds they found in the jungle. Their family says, the kids heard this recorded message in their grandmother’s voice telling them to stop moving.

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The children finally found just in time, their grandfather saying Lesly was too tired to walk. The children now playing with each other, reading and drawing pictures, the hospital director said, including these, thanking the military and Indigenous search teams, one picture with the words, siempre bendecida, always blessed.

I mean, this story is such a miracle when you’re trying to imagine those children watching their mom basically pass away and then having to go 40 days looking for things. The way you talked about how they found berries and other things, what other types of resourcefulness did they use to make it through that?

Well, their relatives say this ancestral knowledge passed down from their grandmother really was key to their survival. But searchers say, Lesly was also really smart about this, that she took camping gear, a towel, an empty water bottle from the wreckage, even a flashlight that was still working, that they stayed by a river or a water source the entire time, and they even managed to make some sort of makeshift shelter with some of that camping gear to protect them a little bit. Guys, it’s just incredible to imagine what they went through. Traumatized, of course, but said to be in good spirits this morning,

God, it’s just remarkable. And so [inaudible 00:02:57]-

It’s a miracle. It really is.

13 year old girl saved her little brothers and sisters lives, incredible.

You can’t believe… Yeah.

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Thank you, Kelly. We appreciate it.

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