It was hot. And humid. I’d been walking in the jungle for an undefined number of hours and was getting tired and dehydrated.
The little water left in my backpack was a loud alert that I should get out of that place quickly.
I knew, when I planned this adventure, it could be dangerous and very hard, but I strongly wanted to organise this solo photographic trip.
I saw it as a way to be intimate with myself and nature. I wanted to live and capture the world as if human presence hadn’t almost completely destroyed it yet.
Now that I was taking my body to its limits, I was starting to think I had made a mistake. I decided to stop and catch my breath for a moment before trying to find my way out of this nightmare.
Of course, there was no signal. My smartphone had stopped being connected with the rest of mankind a few kilometres after I entered this impressive intrigue of trees, roots and branches. It was weird, living in a society where you could just ask Siri to take you wherever you wanted, to be forced to rely only on a map and a compass. I felt like I had been thrown back to the beginning of the 20th century.
Suddenly, somewhere to my left, I heard the leaves swish lightly. I instinctively leaned my hand on the gun secured at my leg. I didn’t want to become the meal of whatever predator was smelling me from behind a bush.
I moved as slowly as I could, trying to be very silent, and hid myself behind the giant trunk of a tree. I took the gun up and waited to see what was threatening me.
I was sweating, this time not for the climate.
After a few seconds that seemed to be eternal, I started to perceive the lowest branches move and shake, and to clearly hear the noise of the dry, crisp leaves breaking beneath the talons of the beast.
I aimed from behind the tree in that direction…
And never pulled the trigger…
What I saw from behind my hideaway left me with no words. I started to think if this was the beginning of the end, if my mind started to confuse reality with my deepest desires.
I lingered a few moments, to be sure my eyes weren’t tricking me.
When I thought I could be reasonably safe, I put my gun back into place and moved a few steps to reveal myself.
She screamed. Loudly.
I expected that reaction. I mean, imagine seeing a man (in terrible shape) jump out of the jungle looking straight at you. That’s not nice.
I raised my hands to show her I was not a danger and asked her to calm down and stop shouting.
“Can you understand me?” I asked her.
“Yes, but who are you? What are you doing here?” she replied when she seemed to understand I was not a threat.
“I could ask you the same, actually.” I told her. “I’m just a tourist, I think I got lost in this jungle and I’m running out of water”.
“A tourist? You definitely lost your way”.
“Yep. Can I ask you for some water, please? I really need to drink”.
She nodded and poured some water into my water bottle.
I immediately felt refreshed.
“So, I suppose you live somewhere here in the jungle. How’s that possible?” I asked her again.
“I was born here, it’s no surprise to me”.
“Ok, but you don’t look like a native of the jungle”.
“I’ll tell the story while we walk back to the village” she said. “Come on”.
I was now invigorated by this encounter (and of course by having had a rest) and, at the same time, I was curious to know the origins of this mysterious young girl and the rest of the population. I tried to make the point on the map, and I was sure there were no villages or any other human trace in the deep of the jungle.
“So the village is now nearly 100 years old” she started. “I know because my granny told me everything about it. It was in 1931 when my grand-grandparents took a flight from Miami to South America. That was the very beginning of the long-range flights, and their plane had a problem when flying over this jungle. There was no way for the pilots to either turn back or try to reach the destination, so they had to try to land in the middle of this nowhere.”
“Oh my God!” I said, astonished by the story she was telling. “This sounds like the TV series ‘Lost’”
“What is a TV series?” she asked.
“Oh, yes, clear. You can’t know what I’m talking about…please go on.” I said, realising she probably didn’t even know what a TV was.
“Ok. So, the pilots managed to take the plane to the ground, however, they didn’t survive the impact. There were 40 passengers plus the crew. Only 27 survived. My grand-grandparents were among them”.
“Wow, that’s bad. How come you all didn’t leave this place?”
She smiled at me like someone would smile at a very naive question.
“We tried. Or, better, some of the original survivors tried. Now, remind me why you are here?” she said.
“I got lost…” and everything became clear.
“Exactly” she was still smiling. “The people that left the remains of the plane in the first days, attempting to find the way out of the jungle, never came back. All the instruments of the plane were broken. They could only walk hoping to find the end of it.”
This was the plot of a movie. I couldn’t believe I was the first “stranger” she met in her entire life.
While she was talking I started to see the trees become less thick and soon we arrived at a large clearing.
On the other side of it, a river was calmly flowing just beside a bunch of small houses. I guessed we had reached the village.
“The other survivors realised there was no way to get out of here, so decided to settle down and build their houses” she continued the story. “Years passed, and we became aware that we will never leave this place.”
“Really? Nobody ever thought about finding a way out?”
“I tell you: why should we do that? I mean, nature gives us everything we need. We are happy and we live in peace. We are a community.”
When we arrived, she introduced me to the rest of the people. She was right. They were kind and warm. Not the type of people I was used to in the city.
They welcomed me and offered me food and a place to rest.
I spent the following days trying to realise on my map where I was, but I wasn’t able to place the village in the vastity of the jungle.
At the same time, the people were so gentle and life was so quiet that I started to wonder whether I really wanted to escape from there.
No.
I think Destiny planned everything way better than I did. The goal of this solo adventure was to find my inner balance.
I suddenly realised it was there with Lorelai and her people.
Take care and talk soon!