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

78 OUT OF CAPTIVITYMarc was absolutely right. CNN could have really helped us cutthrough some of the FARC bullshit and let us know if there was anytruth about their words that our release was just around the corner.Knowing anything for certain would have eliminated ¿Quién sabe?As it turned out, Sonia did have a clue. We had nothing better to dothan to watch the movie, and after that, we watched something calledMurder of a Wizard until Sonia came over and told them to shut thething off. She was clearly pissed that they were letting us watch TV. Sheordered a few guerrillas to lead us away from the main camp to a kindof annex, much older and more run-down. There were a few magazinesthere, old ones, and Tom started leafing through a book.“This is all about the FARC. Here’s some pictures of the topbrass—”He stopped midsentence; we all did.Suddenly the room filled with the unmistakable sounds of heloscoming our way fast and low. The FARC went into scramble mode, andwe were in Full Metal Jacket. The helos came in right over the top of ourcamp, and we were once again beatin’ feet. So much for our rest period;we were back on the march, trekking through the jungle in the dark.Just when we thought things couldn’t get any worse, the sky opened upand a gather-the-critters-two-by-two deluge soaked us. Living in SouthGeorgia and spending a bunch of time in various tropical-like climates,I was used to big rainstorms, but this one was epic.We marched on for another three days, setting up temporary campsand spending the last night of those three sleeping under a derelictdump truck that was sitting up on concrete blocks. We were freezingour asses off and huddled together for warmth, but the smell of dieselfuel and motor oil made it hard to get a decent night’s sleep. The nextmorning, we could see that we’d stopped just outside a tiny village. Onone exterior wall of the little school building was a mural of the mostexotic and beautifully colored fish I’d ever seen. The rest of the build-