After going missing for 34 days in a Peruvian jungle, a mother and her three children were found alive by an Indigenous group last week.
According to the Independent, the 40-year-old mom and her kids, ages 10, 12 and 14, disappeared on December 19, when the family got lost while on vacation in Colombia where they went to visit the children’s father.
The relatives walked along the Putumayo River, a tributary of the Amazon River that runs through Colombia, Peru and Ecuador, until they unknowingly crossed into Peru.
Lost in a South American jungle for nearly five weeks, the family survived by eating fruits and wild berries.
Colombian news outlet Noticias Caracol reported that the mother, who has not been identified, told officials, “If we didn’t have water every 30 minutes, we’d faint. We had to keep stopping all the time and the girls couldn’t walk anymore.”
The family was found last week by members of the Secoya Indigenous group near the village of Yubito. The group alerted the Peruvian Navy, which worked with Colombian military personnel to transport the family by hovercraft 110 miles upriver to Puerto Leguizamo, a municipality in southern Colombia.
The family is currently being tested for illnesses and treated for malnourishment, dehydration and minor injuries at the local ESE Hospital Maria Angelines.