"Miracle, miracle, miracle" is how a Colombian general involved in the search for four missing siblings described their survival over 40 days in the Amazon jungle. The Indigenous children, ages 1 to 13, were found Friday by searchers hunting for them ever since their small plane crashed on May 1, killing their mother and two pilots. So how did they survive? Three factors helped: flour from the plane wreckage, fruit and seeds from the jungle, and having an extraordinarily capable 13-year-old leading them.
- The children's grandfather told reporters they found cassava flour, or farina, in the wreckage, reports the Guardian. “After the farina ran out, they began to eat seeds,” said Fidencio Valencia.
- “There’s a fruit, similar to passionfruit, called avichure,” said Edwin Paki, an Indigenous leader who helped in the search. “They were looking for seeds to eat from an avichure tree about a (mile and a half) from the site of the plane crash.” A key factor in their favor: "The jungle was in harvest," says the head of the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare.