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.