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

Changes in Altitude53we were back on our march, this time riding the same horses that hadannoyed us the night before. It became clear as that day progressed thatthe FARC’s efforts were more coordinated than we’d first thought. Aftera few hours, we would stop and dismount. Whoever had been guidingwould head back down the trail in the direction he’d come from.Another guide, sometimes a civilian, sometimes a guerrilla, wouldshow up. He’d take the lead down the trail. At times we felt like we werethe batons that runners in a relay race were handing off to one another.It went on like this for days. Guides arriving and departing, rests comingat intervals of multiple hours, collapsing from exhaustion for thenight, and waking up the next morning to do it all over again. With eachpassing day, we held out hope that we’d meet a FARC member of someimportance or in possession of information who could at least give us abetter sense of where we were headed, but none arrived.Finally, several days into our march, we found one FARC whoseemed to have some real intelligence. We were stopped at the headof another trail that climbed even higher than the previous ones. TheFARC had spread out a sheet of plastic for us to lie down on. Thatseemed unusual, and we weren’t sure what it meant. Briefly, I thoughtthat the sheet would make it easier for them to wrap up our bodiesafter they’d shot us up. We were lying there when a new FARC guerrillashowed up.“Hola, me llamo Johnny. Yo soy un médico.”His Spanish was more precise and formal than the campesino Spanishthe rest of the Colombians spoke and I didn’t have to slash my waythrough a jungle accent. I assumed that as a medic, Johnny had moreformal education than the others.“Were any of you taking any medication before?”“I’d been taking medication for my blood pressure,” I said.Johnny nodded and jotted something down in his notebook.“I will be sure that you get what you need.” He actually smiled andwasn’t being sarcastic or cruel. “Let me see your head wound.” He