Humans have spent thousands of years telling and retelling a handful of stories of extraordinary acts that ignite the spark of wonder within us. Today the world is once again redefining what it means to be a superhero. Thirteen-year-old Lesly Jacobo Bonbaire has captured the world's imagination through her brave act of keeping herself and her three siblings safe in the most inhospitable part of the entire Amazon jungle for 40 arduous days.
Early in the morning of May 1, Lesly helped her mother Magdalena Mucutuy as the family boarded a light plane for a flight out of their Amazon hamlet fearing for their safety after narco crime groups in the area threatened the life of her father, an indigenous leader.
Onboard the plane was Lesly, her mother, sister, brother, and baby sister. The single-engine Cessna C-206 also had a male passenger and a pilot.
An hour into the flight, the pilot first declared an emergency indicating that he was with a reduced engine and was looking for a clearing, but then said the problem resolved itself. About an hour later, it happened again, he radioed he could see a river to his right where he would attempt to put down the plane. Silence. Then "Emergency. Engine failure!"
Air traffic controllers could see the plane veer to the right,
On board, flying near the canopy, the plane was losing altitude. From the technical direction of the accident investigation, it is learnt that the propeller hit the treetops, causing the nose of the plane containing the engine to dive down. The plane fell nearly vertically onto the jungle floor. The engine was found just behind the body of the plane. It had not travelled long.
For air traffic controllers, the plane went off their screens.
From the position of the bodies when the plane was found on May 16, investigators believe the baby was in her mother's lap who was seated in front of the plane on the row behind the pilot. The children's seats in the back remained intact after impact.
Accounts by relatives who have spoken with the children tell us that Lesly gathered her siblings amid the shock and grief and desolation of the moment.
She took a supply of tapioca from the plane along with the baby's bottle and moved the children away from the crash site and their dead mother.
Lesly, at 13, was now the mother and caretaker of her 9-year-old sister, 4-year-old brother, and 11-month-old baby sister. She had no food, no direction, and no adult to help her, just the knowledge of the jungle that an indigenous child can have. They were alone in one of the most hostile parts of the Amazon.
Jaguars, pumas, insects, poisonous snakes and poisonous plants around, the little children followed Lesly on a walk to survive physically and emotionally. Half-eaten fruit on the ground around their footprints told those searching for them that they were alive and feeding themselves.
As more details emerge on how the four survived the crash and their long ordeal alone in the mighty Amazonian jungle, it becomes clear how much of a hero Lesly is.
When they were found by indigenous patrols on June 9, the children had been moving around the jungle hiding from rescuers because they were afraid to be found, unaware they were not the armed gangs after their father.
The helicopters, drones, dogs and the sound of people coming near scared them and they hid from them the various times the rescuers came close, sometimes as close as 10 meters away.
Military personnel unload from a plane one of four indigenous children who were missing after a deadly plane crash at the military air base in Bogota, Colombia | AP
The children would hear the noise but in the thick jungle, they could not see who the men were. There was no way of telling if they were the bad people of their fears. There were as many as 350 people between indigenous groups and the military searching for them.
When they were found, their clothes had rotted onto their flesh, their shoes were gon, and they were exhausted, their grand-uncle Fidencio Valencia told media outside the military hospital in Bogota where the children are receiving medical care.
Early reports described their bodies as full of insect bites and dehydrated, but otherwise conscious, lucid, and well, though deteriorating.
At first, they just responded to questions, said Colombian General Pedro Sanchez. The boy, who was in the most decimated state, did ask for food, said Sanchez, "but the commandos knew they could not give them more than water."
That was so because their bodies may have experienced significant physiological changes and require a careful and gradual reintroduction to food to prevent complications.
Paediatricians and experts recommended reintroducing food slowly to avoid overwhelming their bodies' weakened state.
They are likely to need rehydration, electrolyte rebalance, and gradual reintroduction of nutrition under close supervision, say experts.
Nevertheless, they are now eating, little by little, said Valencia, stressing the emotional and psychological impact of the accident on the young children who saw their mother die. It is something that would overwhelm any human being, he said.
That is one of the reasons why Lesly is becoming a great inspiration for Colombians and the world. The situation required extraordinary bravery, and her courage and actions held her siblings together and safe.
Together they battled devastation, grief, treacherous terrain, wild predators, and their inner fears. Following Lesly, they walked through the dense jungle and its dangers. We may well find out that these children were all heroes protecting each other at their own expense.
But the world has seldom seen a hero quite like Lesly.
According to her grandmother Fátima Valencia speaking to Agence France-Presse, Lesly always took care of the children while her mother worked. She fed them fariñita— which are toasted cassava flour crumbs somewhat similar to Brazilian farofa, a starch added to many meals— and yuca bread, she said. As it turned out, the food kids the military air-dropped for them in the jungle contained fariñita, which Lesly and the children picked up and ate.
In other words, she was a hero and protector to her siblings long before May 1. "Perhaps all their lives. Since very young," said Valencia.
Throughout the 40 days it was Lesly who carried the baby, said her grand-uncle Fidencio.
She possesses the unfathomable wisdom of the indigenous dwellers of the jungle and can navigate the darkened jungle with the slivers of light that filter through the canopy.
She is jungle savvy, says Fidencio, describing how she can read the floor of the jungle with an intelligence innate to the dwellers of the forest. Broken branches and stamped twigs tell her what creatures have trodden that way, discerning one from another so their paths lay bare for her to follow, or to avoid.
She is a child of the jungle, says her father Manuel Ranoque. She knows the forest. She can find seeds, fruits, and edible mushrooms for sustenance and avoid lethal plants, he adds.
Lesly could orient herself, but that only helped avoid danger because though she could tell the dangers of the immediate area, she had no way of knowing where in the great jungle she was in relation to any place she knew.
The scratch of land where she grew up was once a jungle prison for the country's worst and most dangerous criminals. The jungle itself was the walls of the prison, thick bushes, murky swamps infested with alligators and overgrowth so thick that it can trap a man like a carnivorous plant. She is a child of the jungle, but it is clear this is a jungle few imagine.
Lesly has been venturing into the depths of the jungle all her life, says her father. She is acquainted with the wild, predatory animals and the nasty, venomous touch of lethal flora. Her skills and steady devotion to her siblings are part of who she is, said her grand-uncle.
This child did all of it while carrying a baby, barefoot, under the grief of losing their mother and with the emotional burden of their situation, taking on the fears of her siblings, and her own. Armed only with all the knowledge an adolescent can have, her ingenuity, courage, and a motherly love for her siblings, Lesly was their protector and guide for the 40 days of their ordeal.
A poster on rescue dog Wilson doing rounds in Colombia
To know this about Lesly is to know how much respect the indigenous people of the Amazon deserve.
In the dense foliage of the jungle with the haunting noises of wildlife, the rustle of the rescuers who could have been cartel criminals, the humming of drones, barks of dogs, and the continuous whirring of helicopters that she did not know were friendly, she led the children, protecting them, seeking shelter and nourishment, avoiding real and imagined dangers. She kept them safe.
With each passing day, the physical and emotional toll on the group was just one more daunting thing she had to fight against. She was their provider, protector, and mother in moments of terrifying fear and grief.
For Colombians, Lesly embodies the true essence of a superhero, inspiring a country that has yet to know her.
The inspirational impact of her story is real. The country has promised she and her siblings will get an education and will be taken care of for the rest of their lives.
But many Colombians feel that Lesly has the potential to take care of her country as she did for her siblings. "She is our country's symbol of hope, inner strength, and unity. She is our hero," said an emotional Elias Morales, speaking to THE WEEK from Bogota.
"She is already inspiring others to believe in themselves and how Colombians working together can make miracles happen."
"Miracle!" was the code word that the military commands would use to report the finding of the kids. "Miracle, miracle, miracle!" says Sanchez were the words that told him they had found them alive.
A combined cell of indigenous people of the Murui indigenous community and military patrols found the children and then communicated to the high command.
Combat medics connected immediately via satellite with one of Colombia's Air Force's best paediatricians, according to Sanchez. The doctor diagnosed them and instructed their care so they could be airlifted out for more direct care.
The children have reported having met up with Wilson, the search dog that is now lost in the jungle and whose pawprints next to the foursome's footprints let rescuers know he had reached the four.
In this story about a girl superhero, the dog, too, is being touted as a hero member of the rescue forces. Drawings of Wilson, caped with the Colombian flag in the style of Superman's Superdog are circulating in Colombia with the promise "We never abandon our comrades."
Though most of the searchers and logistic apparatus entrusted to care for the search team have left the jungle, the contingent remains searching for Wilson who they fear is emaciated, lost, and without food, according to Sanchez.
The search for Wilson continues as the story of Lesly and her siblings continues to captivate the world.
