Lesly was 13 years old. Her sister Soleiny, 9. Tien, just 4. And Cristin, the youngest, 11 months.
On May 1, 2023, the small plane they were traveling in crashed in the Amazon jungle, between Caquetá and Guaviare. All three adults on board died, including the children’s mother, 33-year-old Magdalena Mucutuy.
The four siblings, from the Huitoto Indigenous community, were left alone in the middle of the jungle.
Lesly remembered what her family had taught her: which fruits to eat, how to collect rainwater, how to build a shelter with branches. She carried the baby, cared for her siblings, and kept them alive one day after another.
Outside, eleven aircraft flew over the area for 236 hours. Soldiers and Indigenous trackers followed every footprint, every diaper, every trace of bitten fruit.
On June 9, 40 days later, they found them alive. Thin, exhausted, but alive.
In the middle of the jungle, Cristin had turned one.
A 13-year-old girl held up what seemed impossible to hold up.
