Out of Captivity : Surviving 1,967 Days in the Colombian Jungle

Running on Empty311encampment. Even though we’d been with the FARC for more thanthree years, I never got used to one particular sight. Like all the otherFARC leaders, César shared his quarters with a young woman. He hadto be in his midforties and this woman was no more than eighteen ornineteen. I tried to tell myself that given what we knew about the FARCand the sheer drudgery of their life, she was probably wise to pair offwith someone of his rank, but it still bothered me that these youngwomen were wasting their lives.From that point on, we moved on the river. Including all the FARC,there must have been about forty of us plus all our supplies. The FARConly had two of the smaller river-running canoes. As a result, we wouldtravel for a couple of hours downstream and stop. The boats wouldhead back upstream to pick up those left behind and then return. In themeantime, we set up camp and generally took it easy.In this manner, we gradually made our way downriver, and thoughwe continued to be on the move, it was far less rigorous than it hadbeen with Milton. Our diet was much better thanks to the abundantcaribe fish. I’d enjoyed eating them from the beginning and Marc andKeith started to nibble at them. For the first time in a while, there weremeasured stretches of leisure time that gave me the opportunity to takein my surroundings. Even though I’d been held captive in the place,the beauty of Colombia still lured me. At one point, we’d stopped tocamp at a bend in the river. We were in what seemed to me to be virginterritory. This enormous elbow of river was spread out in front of usand it opened onto a vast vista of valleys and tree-covered hillsides thatstood in row after row until they bumped up against the horizon.As it turned out, that vista was more than just a pretty sight. It signaleda change in the river. Instead of thick jungle on either side, weentered an area with sheer rock-face walls and enormous bouldersstrewn haphazardly across the river. The FARC had traveled these watersfrequently and had names for some of the rock outcroppings—the Elephant, the Window, etc. We could hear the distinctive sound of