Airlifted from the Amazon, Our Worst Travel Fears Realized

And then it happened.Our morning river safari started early and we spent it cruising up and down tributaries in search of wildlife. After a couple of hours, we stopped for picnic breakfast before taking a leisurely stroll through the jungle. It was the first jungle hike of our expedition.At the last minute, Dave decided to grab the flash for his camera. It was darker in the jungle than expected and if we were to capture pictures of scorpions or tarantulas, it may come in handy. He ran back to the boat while I waited with the group. Within seconds I heard a shriek.

. But it was less than 10 minutes before the pilot made a sharp turn to land on the river. The sky was black ahead and there was no way this tiny plane would be able to fly through the storm.

I remember the pilot closing the door before take off. He reached back over his shoulder and turned the lever with little regard as to whether it was completely locked or not. I never thought much of it until we banked right in the direction where Dave could have fallen out if the doors happened to open. Luckily, they held tight.The pilot found a sturdy tree to tie up to as we sat out the wind and the rain floating on the Amazon River. It was hot and Dave was in agony. I couldn’t reach his head to give any comfort. I was sitting in the front seat and he was laying on the floor in the back with an assistant from Iquitos taking care of him. All I heard him say was “I can’t take it much longer”About a half hour went by and we were finally back in the air. I was feeling optimistic that we would soon be in Iquitos. We few by some villages below and a half hour later I was sure we’d be coming up to the city.After awhile, the pilot started circling in the sky and I couldn’t figure out what was going on. Was he lost? Did we go off course? But then, he banked right and descended towards the river once again. This time he drove for a while on the river. Dave yelled, “are we there yet?” I had the task of having to tell Dave not to get his hopes up, we were landing again due to bad weather. Dave felt every bump as we crashed over logs and waves. I could hear his faint groans over the engine. My heart broke and I worried that his back was getting worse with every minute that went by.I wasn’t sure where the pilot was driving until he pulled up to a village and hopped out of the plane. He handed a young boy a rope to hold onto our plane to keep us from floating down the river. Then, he and the assistant from Iquitos disappeared. As Dave and I waited in the stifling heat, the entire village came out to stare at us. We weren’t sure what was going on. Were we waiting out another storm? Were they just going to leave us here? Were we anywhere near Iquitos? Our questions were finally answered.

I had no idea how far we were from Iquitos, but I knew Dave couldn’t survive a long ride on this vehicle. It was cramped and it jostled through the streets causing severe pain. He’d never make it!

His ordeal lasted over 10 hours and in that time he didn’t eat, drink or receive any painkillers. He just laid on his side suffering in near silence. It hurt to speak and it hurt to move. His shoulder wasn’t injured in the fall, but it was causing him more discomfort than his back at this point due to the fact that he had been laying on it for nearly eleven hours!It was another 7 days before we’d get back to Canada. The hospital in Iquitos told us that Dave fractured a vertebrae in his spine. (Since returning to Canada we’ve learned that he fractured two!) It was a difficult time that we will tell you all about, but we were grateful for everyone in the community rallying together to help a stranger.The passengers on our Amazon cruise were patient and gracious as we held up the boat waiting for a plane. The villagers came quickly to our rescue when we needed help, the hospital staff did their best to comfort Dave and control his pain and the staff of International Expeditions and Explorama were generous with their time and expertise. We couldn’t have gotten through any of this without them.It’s a trying time for the two of us, but it could have been worse and we are grateful that more harm wasn’t done.