Juliane Koepcke: flight or fight?

Juliane Koepcke is a 17 year old girl falling two miles down out of the sky. The days that follow are limited but she has courage and a wealth of knowledge at her  disposal. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:07

Ready? Hey guys, welcome back to Buy a Fred, a true survival podcast. I'm Natalie. I'm Tara. And we have a really cool story today. I'm very excited. Also, sorry it took so long to get an episode out. I work full-time. We're also moving.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

I travel for work, so I'm not even ever in the same state, city, country.

SPEAKER_02 0:31

Yeah, so we are gonna do our absolute best to get on a schedule. So today we're gonna be talking about Juliana Kepka. Yuliana was born October 10th, 1954, in Lima, Peru. Her parents, Maria and Hans Kepke, were both German biologists working at Lima's Museum of Natural History. And they had deep roots tied to ornithology, which, um, if you don't know, is the study of birds. And that's also how her parents met, so very cute. At the age of 14, her parents moved her to Panguana, where they had founded a rainforest research station research station. Um I lost my place. At the age of 14, her parents moved her to Panguana, where they had founded a rainforest research station in the Amazon to further research in their respective careers. Huge biology people. That sounds like a lot of people. Loved animals. Yeah. I would love to move to a rainforest at 14. It was an ad indigenous camp, and they totally just like lived off of the land and researched. At the age of 17, Juliana was required to finish high school because it was they lived in like a rural jungle basically. Um, and so she did schoolwork from there, but they her her high school required her to travel back and actually go to prom and graduate, like walk with her class. So at the age of 17, Juliana was required to finish high school and flew back to Lima with her mother Maria so that she could graduate. Juliana graduated December 23rd, 1971, and the next day they headed off to the airport to book a flight back to Panguana before Christmas. Um, the next day they wake up early and they arrive at the airport, which was bustling in a frenzy with other people trying to get home for the holidays. Several flights had been canceled the day prior, and guests were crowding the ticket counter trying to get a flight out of Lima. So these are back in the day when like weather or like just canceled because it's holidays. Yeah, like weather, holidays, just shit like that. But um, this is back in the day where you had to actually go to the airport and buy your tickets. Oh shit. So it was mass chaos. Dude, I would die. Yeah. Oh my god. Yeah. Could you imagine my job trying to do that? Dude, no. So um, yes, so several flights have been canceled the day prior. Um, so the ticket counter was insane. Um, they didn't think that they were gonna be able to even get a flight back. But finally, both Maria and Juliana are able to obtain tickets for the last remaining airline, Lanza Flight 508. So let's talk about this flight a little bit. Let's talk about the aircraft. Um, this aircraft is known as a Lockhead L 188 Electra turboprop, typically used for desert regions and had been long removed from operating commercial flights in the United States.

SPEAKER_01 3:36

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 3:37

This is a jungle.

SPEAKER_01 3:38

Yeah. They're gonna be flying over the Andes. Oh, like this already sounds terrible. Yeah. It really does. And then just a quick reminder: I have no idea what these stories are. She just tells me these stories, so this is all as new to me as it is anyone listening.

SPEAKER_02 3:54

Yes. This model was built af uh with a shorter flight wingspan and two very large turbine engines, making it not suitable to withstand standing turbulence, which means the wave turbulence when flying over mountains. This is a type of airflow disturbance that forms when strong winds hit a barrier such as mountains and creates waves in the air that stay fixed in place. Um, therefore, making this particular aircraft not suitable to fly over the Andes Mountains. In fact, Juliana's father, Hans, had pleaded with Maria, his wife, like begged her, please do not take this flight. Do not take this flight. In the last couple of years, there had been two crashes with the same exact airline, same exact flight, sorry, model, I should say. Um, so he begged her, please don't take this. And also, let's just hearken back to when we went to Colorado Springs.

unknown 4:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:54

We took the flight from Denver to Colorado Springs.

SPEAKER_01 4:57

That shit was so bumpy.

SPEAKER_02 4:58

And you're going over the mountains.

SPEAKER_01 4:59

You're going like the standing turbulence. Yeah. And it the I have never had worse turbulence than on this short, it was like 30, 20, 30 minutes tops, but it was the bumpiest ride just from Denver to Colorado Springs. Guys, it's it's absolutely fucking terrifying.

SPEAKER_02 5:17

Like it doesn't matter what airline, what model you're taking, when you're flying over mountains, you will be hitting waves of air pockets. And kudos to pilots who don't shit themselves when they're doing that. So as they boarded their flight shortly after 11 a.m., December 24th, 1971, Juliana couldn't help but admire admire how magnificent and seemingly new the aircraft looked with its name scrawled across the side, Mateo Pumakawa. This is a rebel leader and hero in the fight for independence. She even made um some jokes with a couple of other teenage boys that they were like waiting in line with that with a name like that, how could this flight possibly have any issues?

SPEAKER_01 6:06

You don't say shit like that. You jinxed yourself. Oh every literally everything is a red flag.

SPEAKER_02 6:12

Yeah. Oh my god. Although Maria was elated that they were able to find a flight that would reunite their family just in time for Christmas, she herself had worries about flying this particular aircraft, especially after her discussion with Hans, who had tried to talk her out of it. Maria herself actually didn't like to fly. Um, being an ornithologist, she didn't believe that a giant metal bird taking off into the air was natural. She thought that was weird. She one time had a really bad scare with an airplane dipping and rising, which kind of gave her like a complex in her head when she'd fly now. So she was kind of afraid to fly after that. Also, she had a really good friend, like a best friend, who was so scared of flying. Like he would absolutely, above all cost, never, ever fly. One time he needs to take a fucking flight. No. Yeah. No. Nope. I'm not kidding. You're fucking lying. He it crashed and he passed away.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

Are you fucking dude? So she felt like this is stressing me out.

SPEAKER_02 7:18

I know.

SPEAKER_01 7:18

I just got goosebumps.

SPEAKER_02 7:20

I was like, it's Merced. Isn't it ironic? Don't you think? No? Isn't isn't that song where she's like he waited his whole damn life to take that flight? And as the plane crashed down, he thought, well, isn't this nice? Don't tell me I just sang that fucking song. So embarrassing. You don't know that? You mean it fucking rocked in these comments? Ohana's more sets the shit. Come on. Alright, anyway, that's what it reminded me of is that song. I'm stressed. Um, okay, so nonetheless, the flight was booked, and Juliana and her mother Maria were on their way, seated on the right side of the aircraft, second to the last row, number 19, side by side. Maria was in the middle seat. Juliana was seated by the window where she could visibly see the right wing of the plane. And then there was like a fairly larger dude sitting in the aisle seat. He immediately goes to sleep and he doesn't like ever wake up. He doesn't really. I mean he, I guess technically. Yeah. So um the flight from Lima was about an hour. The plan was to arrive in Pucalpa, uh, then travel by boat or a smaller airplane to Panguana, which is where the station was, the research station was. Um that's where the Indian village research station is, guys. Twenty-five minutes into the trip went smoothly. The flight attendants passed out some snacks and drinks, and we're just about to start cleaning up when Juliana noticed dark, billowing clouds forming in the distance. The pilots seemed to fly directly into it. And soon the cabin is filled with darkness where light had once been, and the dark black clouds wrap themselves all around the aircraft. It happens pretty fast. Big flashes of lightning start to briefly light the sky and the cabin and nearly zip past the airplane, flying and slicing in all different directions, causing thunderous turbulence. Items start flying around from the overhead compartments, Christmas gifts, wrapped parcels, toys, flowers, and clothing, as well as food trays and drinks. Passengers begin to frantically scream and beg for help because the turbulence is really bad. Can you imagine? I mean, you have like black clouds all around you and thunder and lightning and stuff.

SPEAKER_01 9:45

Yeah, it makes me really stoked to get on a flight tomorrow at like 6 a.m. Yeah, I know. I'm so I'm pumped, actually. I know. I thought about that. Really I'm sorry. I thought about that. It's cool.

SPEAKER_00 9:55

But this is a really cool story. I love this story. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02 9:59

I this is one of those survival stories.

SPEAKER_01 10:01

I think about this woman all the time. She's so cool. Well, now I'll think about it every time I get on a flight, which is literally every single week.

SPEAKER_02 10:10

So Christmas gifts, drinks, food, everything's flying everywhere, passengers are starting to freak out. Doesn't really seem like normal turbulence. Um, and Juliana can hear her mother say calmly, I hope this goes okay. And then in a split second, a flash so bright it blinds Juliana, a lightning bolt has just struck the right wing. It almost looks as if there's been an explosion, and in this moment, she can hear her mother exclaim with calmness, now it's all over. And those are the last words she hears from her mother. Oh my god. Yeah. Juliana, blinded by the light and deafened at the sound of the roaring airplane, she notices that they are now nosediving towards the ground with great speed. It seemed to only last a blink of an eye, and she notices she can no longer hear the cries of the other passengers, and the roar of the plane is filling her head and her ears with great force as they're diving towards the ground. Um she says from one moment to the next, it's happening so fast that she can't remember between the split seconds and the flashes exactly what's going on. But she knows that she is no longer in the airplane, and her mother's no longer next to her in the row of seats, and neither is the man in the aisle seat. They're gone.

SPEAKER_01 11:27

But the is she's still like in the seat? In the seat. Juliana is strapped with seat belted into the seat. And the other two are just not in the row. They're gone. And they're no longer in the plane. That seat, that row of seats is not in the fucking plane. Nope.

SPEAKER_02 11:42

So here's how this is a quote from the from the book, which by the way is so good, you guys. Um, she's alone in a row of empty seats, plummeting. And this is the quote: She did not leave the airplane, the airplane left her. So, like, the airplane falls away from her, and she is in a row of seats falling to the ground.

SPEAKER_01 12:02

Free falling. Free falling. Dude. Yeah. My hands are sweaty and it's not because it's hot in here.

SPEAKER_02 12:07

Yeah. The sounds of the plane are lessened now by the whooshing of air filling her ears as she plummets towards what looks like a cluster of tightly packed broccoli heads, because those are the trees. The seat belt digs painfully into her belly, and the last thing she remembers is spinning upside down towards the ground, and then she loses consciousness. So she's now spiraling headfirst, round and round like a helicopter wing, traveling 10,000 feet or 3,000 meters down to the ground. This is two miles to put it into perspective.

SPEAKER_01 12:40

In to that death trap.

SPEAKER_02 12:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:42

She's falling two miles. Head first. Yeah. I would shit myself. Uh she passes out.

SPEAKER_02 12:50

Yeah. So she she loses consciousness, she passes out, and in her in her unconscious state of mind, Juliana can remember having two dreams. The first dream, I assume this is while she's falling. The first dream she has is she's like flying low to the ground against a cement wall, hyper speed fast, and she can hear the rushing of air and an engine. So she thinks like in her dreams, an engine is attached to her, and she's like narrowly flying past a wall. Very weird. I'm sure her brain was trying to make sense of what was happening to her at that moment. And then the second dream, she feels an uncontrollable desire to take a bath. She feels wet, grimy, sticky, gross, like in her dream, in her unconscious, like dream state mind. She's like, I really need to go take a shower. Like, I am disgusting right now. And so she thinks, Well, that's so easy. Just get up and go to the bathroom and take a shower. And with that, she opens her eyes and she sees that she is on the jungle floor underneath her row of seats, laying on her side. Like at one point, either she opened, undid her seat belt and is was just laying underneath the row of seats. What the f on the on the forest floor. I'm sorry, jungle floor.

SPEAKER_01 14:15

I guess this couldn't be a forest. What the hell? How did she survive? Like, did they oh my gosh, I gotta know how she survived.

SPEAKER_02 14:22

They think that um during the storm there was like a rush of swirling wind that like naturally it happens um during storms, and it was rushing wind coming up from the bottom and spiraling up. So as she spiraled down into that wind gust, they think it slowed her down. I hope I describe that. Yeah, like I can picture it. Yeah, and there were trees, I'm sure the trees, there were vines wrapped in the in the chairs. So they think she the trees slowed her down and like the vines caught her a little bit because jungles are like extremely overgrown. You sometimes you they're so dense you can't even you absolutely have to whack like bushwhack your way through it. What dude, that's fucking crazy.

SPEAKER_01 15:07

She yeah to like to be strapped into a chair, fall through all of that, and and not die. Not die, but also not be like seriously gravely dang uh injured.

SPEAKER_02 15:20

The first thing she notices is the row of three seats, likely the seats she fell from in the sky, of course. So she's underneath the set of three seats. She stays there throughout the rest of the evening, throughout the rest of the night and into the next morning. When she finally wakes up, she notices that she is drenched in water and mud, signaling that it rained all night. Unbeknownst to her, it rained. Damn. Um, when she wakes up, she remembers what has happened. She looks out at the glowing jungle and in its many different shades of green, a beauty she knows very well growing up in the jungle of Penguana. The lush green hues almost glowing in the daylight creates a fantastic image of colors against the greenery of plant life. And she doesn't feel fear immediately, just an overwhelming feeling of loneliness because she remembers that her mom is gone. Um, several times she tries to stand up but continues to black out over and over and over again. She cannot stand up. Her blood pressure is so low. Oh my God. And then she's in shock. Uh, she can't see straight. And although she can hear her watch ticking, her vision is too fuzzy, so she can't read the time. Finally, after a while, she's able to stand up and she knows she has fallen from the sky and that she has has a severe concussion. Her body is in shock, which she describes as being like feeling like you're wrapped in cotton, which I think is a really good way to put it. Um, this sensation would last for days before finally subsiding, which hell is helpful because at the same time she didn't feel any pain. Um at this point, she did she starts to take into account her injuries. So her left eye is swollen shut and the other eye is just a slit. Her glasses, which she's worn most of her life, have fallen off, they're gone. Uh, she can see that her clavicle is broken. So the two pieces.

SPEAKER_01 17:12

I know. And like it's not like she has a mirror, so she can see that her clavicle is broken. Yeah. Do me a favor, put your chin to your chest and try and see your collarbone. Yeah. You can't.

unknown 17:22

No.

SPEAKER_01 17:23

But she knows it is because she said that she can see the two bones are snapped and laying on top of each other. No, absolutely not.

SPEAKER_02 17:29

But like the skin's not broken.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

But yeah, I I don't care. I know. You shouldn't be able first of all, the fact that you can see your collarbone is one thing, but the fact that you can see that it's clearly busted, I would vomit.

SPEAKER_02 17:42

Yes. She has a gash on her left calf that is about one and a half inches long and it's so deep, she likens it to a canyon, and it's not bleeding. Um she also has one on the back of her arm. What we'll get to that. Juliana's parents, Hans and Maria, had instilled at a young age the importance of being level-headed and calm when faced with difficulty. So from this point, she never doubted that she would make it out of the jungle alive. She is ever grateful for the life her parents had provided her, allowing her the advantage of getting to know the jungle on an intimate level a few, you know, the several years that she lived in Panguana. So that's it's good for her. The jungle might look intimidating, intimidating to any normal person, but to her, it was home. And although she couldn't have known this, she was actually only 30 miles from the um small Indian village where they had their research station in Panguana. So the terrain looked and felt very familiar to her. She was used to the enormous dampness of the jungle, the smell of musty, rotting plant life that lay in piles on the floor, decaying and regrowing, intertwined as one. Snakes can be found at any point, tangled in the vines of trees or slithering quietly past your feet, but they didn't bother Juliana one bit. The true kings and queens of the forests, um, in her words, were the insects, a tremendous amount of them buzzing at all times. Beetles, spiders, ants, grasshoppers, flies, and butterflies of various magnificent colors, mosquitoes, and they have stingless wild bees there, in case you're wondering. Oh, that's cute. I know. After some time, Juliana's vision starts to clear up. She can now read her watch, which says nine o'clock in the morning. She begins crawling around on all fours, calling out for her mother. She thinks to herself, there must be a pathway carved into the landscape where the plane went down, but she cannot hear any other human voices or cries, and she sees very little airplane debris. All she can see is the three-person seat she fell from. Then she takes notice of her one white sandal she was still wearing. Her dress is still mostly intact, a thin sleeveless mini dress printed with colorful patchwork and a double furled seam. A wound on her upper right arm, a gash the size of a dime, and is about one inch one inch deep, is also not bleeding on the back of her arm. Um, then suddenly she is overcome by extreme thirst. She sees large droplets of rainwater glistening in the sunlight on leaves and drinks furiously from them, from the rain the night before. Ooh, smart. Yeah. Everything looks the same. She knows from experience it's easy to get lost in the jungle. Um, when forging through Penguin or rainforests, you she usually makes her way using a machete. So having no machete, she decides to take note of striking features so as to not get lost. So she can immediately explore the surrounding area and she just like keeps track of the things around her so she's just not walking in circles. This whole time she's still crying out, like for anybody, mostly her mom. She at this point she can't believe, like, how can I be the only survivor?

SPEAKER_00 21:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:04

There have my mom has to be somewhere nearby. It's not clicking for her that her mom, like everyone else died. Like she, yeah, the people that were in her row fell from the sky, not strapped into anything. So she hopes that her mom's still alive. She's still calling out for her. She stays there at the crash site for like her own personal crash site for most of the day and afternoon, coming across a bag of candy, debris from the crash, and a Peruvian Christmas pastry. She nibbles a small bite from the pastry and decides it's too deplorable because it had been like completely mudlogged from the night before because it had rained all night. Yeah. So she left it behind, but she's grateful for that bag of candy. That afternoon, she continues to cry out for her mother in hopes that maybe, just maybe, she's just injured or nearby. Um, and then she starts to hear a familiar sound the sound of an air. Aircraft above the dense trees blocking her view. But due to the um due to the thickness, she can't see them. So she can't make herself be seen. So she decides to abandon the idea of getting attention from the airplane and decides, I'm just gonna make myself be seen. She sees like a bit of babbling water and decides, well, I can follow this water to larger civilization, which we've talked before in the San Diecinto podcast, where like it's not always work. But her father had taught her at a young age to follow water. And in the Amazon, it is likely you might come across some people. There's like huts that they set up where hunters uh camp overnight and then fish the next morning or go hunting the next morning. So she's you know, she that's what she does. She finds the babbling of water and she follows it. So she follows the sound and finds a spring to which she's elated, so now she can drink readily available water and follow the river towards civilization. After being certain there is no one else alive, she begins her journey and she starts to follow the stream of water, which grows at times from a trickle into a 20-inch channel as she comes around each bend. She has high hopes this river would lead to an open clearing where the airplanes can at least see her.

SPEAKER_01 23:24

Yeah. Yeah, trying to get anyone to notice you. I mean, honestly, even if you were to start a fire, which would also be difficult with everything being damp. Oh, yeah, she does mention that. She can't start a fire. Yeah, well, it won't even the smoke won't even go straight up because the canopy, it might like disperse and they won't even see it. Everything's a small fire.

SPEAKER_02 23:42

Everything's waterlogged, too. Yeah. Uh it wasn't easy to make her way through the water. There were many trees blocking her way that she had to climb over without further injuring herself. Eventually, the trickle of a stream transformed into a larger flow of water, and she could see a dried-up riverbed, which carved a pathway she could follow until the water flow picked back up. By 6 p.m., it's rapidly getting darker, so she decides to choose a spot to lay down for the night. Although she knows how to light a fire by rubbing two sticks together or banging rocks together, everything is soggy from the rain, so she lays on the cold rainforest floor. The darkness is so pitch black you cannot see your hand in front of your face. Oh my god. And she is plagued by the insects, crawling into her ears, into her nose. Oh. As well as the howling wind and rain chilling her. Oh, poor girl. I know. The following morning on December 26, 1971, she continues following the river flow, climbing over tree trunks, trying to follow the disorganized pattern of the water flow each bend provides. After some time, the water begins to slope downward slightly and she struggles. She struggles along the rocky shallow stream bed, which eventually widens and becomes a proper yet small river. She carefully wades through, making sure to put her foot with the sandalon forward first before bringing her barefoot forward in case any unwanted like water creatures. She knows the waters are filled with unwanted animal friends that would happily take a bite out of her toes. They have um stingrays too. So like I guess In the rivers? I guess in the co yeah, isn't that weird? We're not used to that. No. Although Fiesta Island. Wait, is that salt? Yeah, it's salt water. Okay, yeah, yeah. But still, like in a river. They have piranhas and stingrays, and they like to be in the quieter spots of the river, like the calm water area. So she avoids those spots because she knows that that's where they want they live. Shit, dude. She only has one sandal on. Oh, she's still like in a teeny tiny 70s little dress. Meanwhile, this entire time she can hear the planes all day long. So, which keeps her going. It gives her hope. She's like, okay, they're still looking, they're looking for people, they're looking for the plane, obviously. So she follows the river, hoping that like they'll keep looking for her. After coming around a corner, Juliana stops in her tracks. She can see the first piece of debris from the crash, a large turbine laying on its side, shiny on one side and blackened on the other side. She thinks to herself that this is probably the right side of the wing that got hit because it's blackened. Like an explosion had happened. After making her way a little bit further down, additionally, since it's been a few days since the accident, she can now hear flapping of large wings. Her parents, both being ornithologists, she knows exactly what these are. King vultures will always come when the forest floor is home to carry on. So she knows they've come to feast on the dead and praise her mom's not one of them. Oh. After making her way a bit further down the river, she can see exactly where the birds have been circling. Laying ahead of her was a row of seats, deeply embedded, three feet into the ground, head first, with three people in them. Oh God. Their legs are jutting awkwardly up into the air. She sees two men and one woman. She knows it cannot possibly be her mother, but still she's compelled to check, anyways. So she grabs a stick and she approaches the bodies and pulls the woman's foot a little bit towards her so she can see her toenails. Because her mother never painted her toenails, and this body had painted toenails. So she feels like an immense, like overwhelming relief from it, but like immediately feels guilty after because she walks away from them knowing like the birds are about to feast, and it's just super sad.

SPEAKER_01 27:45

I can't believe they went head, dude. They fell head first. I hope that they passed out before they moved out of the body. Oh, absolutely, dude. Oh, I'm sure they did. That's yeah. That's so incredible.

SPEAKER_02 27:55

The whole the whole row of seats head first, like heads are gone. It's horrible. So bad. She said that she this is her, she'd actually seen a dead body once a child had gotten sick, and she that was the first time she ever saw a body. And this is the second time she's ever seen bodies in person. Times three. Yeah. Uh each day to Juliana feels like the same. She was having difficulty keeping track of the days, but knew that around 6 a.m. it got light, and by 6 p.m., very dark. So she had already eaten her last piece of candy and was pretty hungry. She knew not to eat from the jungle, as many things are poisonous. Um, she wished she had a knife to cut the hearts of palm from the stems. Being that it was rainy season, she also knew that there would be no fruit. Uh she cannot cook roots, she can't catch fish. So to combat her hunger, she drank copious amounts of like dirty river water. She would just drink, drink, drink. Like she knew that was the only way she was going to survive if she just kept drinking water. Also, last yesterday, Tara and I watched a documentary on Netflix about Yeah, the Lost Children. It's called The Lost Children, and these uh four kids in 2023 their plane crashed and they were the only survivors, and they survived 40 days in the jungle.

SPEAKER_01 29:14

40. Okay, it was a 14-year-old, a seven-year-old, four-year-old, and an 11-month-old baby. They all survived.

SPEAKER_02 29:23

Everybody survived. It's so cool. We highly recommend you going and watching the documentary. It's so good. It reminded me so much of Juliana's situation. Like it was rainy season. They couldn't find any food. We're not gonna blow it for you, but it just reminded me. Very interesting. It was, yeah, so interesting. Amazing. Um, yeah, so finally by the fifth or sixth day, she makes her way into a large clearing, and there is a beautiful stretch of glistening water, and the airplanes can still be heard flying overhead. A small plane finally makes its way over to her, elated. She fever feverishly waves and hollers to try to get their attention. Her efforts were in vain as they flow right over her and disappeared into the skyline. This is the last time she will hear planes flying overhead. At this point, they abandoned their rescue mission. I think it's by the sixth or eighth day.

SPEAKER_00 30:17

Damn.

SPEAKER_02 30:18

They they abandoned the mission. Frisk frustrated but not willing to give up, she continues down the river. The knights are miserable as she recalls spending the nights freezing from the rain, tortured by insects. After the eighth day or so, the flesh on her calf is bright white, and the wound on her arm now has maggots. Actually, I both the leg and the arm eventually have maggots in them, but the arm develops maggots first. So they've made a nest and burrowed deeply into her arm. In the book, she talks about how like they poke their little heads out of the wound, like little sea cucumbers. Ugh. And she knows about maggots, like their dog in the f in the jungle at one point had gotten them. And the I guess maggots just like they just keep burrowing and burrowing and burrowing tunnels into your body.

SPEAKER_01 31:03

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 31:03

Yeah. Yeah, dude. Ugh. Um fucking foul. She tries to scoop several of them out and decides for now just to ignore them. If she was home, she would know she could pour gasoline on them. Ugh. And that, I guess that like they don't like it.

SPEAKER_01 31:19

So they just fall out. Dude, that would hurt so fucking bad. Could you imagine pouring gasoline in an opener?

SPEAKER_02 31:24

I would happily pour gasoline on a fucking pile of maggots on my arm. Ugh. Bite a leather belt.

SPEAKER_01 31:32

Give me a fucking bottle of whiskey.

SPEAKER_02 31:34

I don't give a shit. I do not want maggots brewing into my body. Yeah, they just like so. The river currents begin to pick up, and for the next couple of days, she flows downstream, dodging Cayman. Yeah, there's like Cayman and piranhas and shit. Um and she avoids them. Uh by the tenth day, she sees something floating on top of the water. And at first she's like, she thinks to herself, no way, she must be hallucinating. And as she gets closer, she sees it's a freaking boat. It's a freaking boat. A boat by itself. It's a newly fresh painted operational boat. And she cannot believe that it's real, and she actually walks up to it and touches it with her own hands. And up on the bank, she can see a small pathway leading up just like a few yards. She's so weak that it takes her like three hours to climb, first of all, to like get to the boat and then climb up this pathway. And she walks, um, she walks up and she finds like a little shelter, like a hunter's shelter. Um she sees a gas can and uses that to pour on her arm where the maggots are living. And she manages to scoop out like 30 or so out of her arm. And she knows it's not all of them, but for now she's really happy with her work. She knows the shelter could be left unattended for days or weeks, too. Uh, but she's too weak to leave and decides she's just gonna stay the night there at least. And the next day she waits by the river hoping someone will come soon. She tries desperately to catch frogs to eat, but is unsuccessful. And just as she just as doubt starts to creep into her mind that rescue would come soon, she can hear men's voices in the distance. She thinks she might be hearing things, but the voices get closer and closer until three men walk into the campsite. With the look of horror on their faces, they stop dead in their tracks and stare at her for a moment. The men are in disbelief. They cannot believe what they're seeing. To them, she looks like a jungle spirit called Yakumama, meaning water mother. Often described as a giant serpent or spirit of the river. Amazonian folklore describes the spirit as powerful and a dangerous protector of the water, and that pregnant women have to avoid looking at her, or else she will come later and take her baby. Oh my god. Remember in the documentary yesterday they were talking about like four spirits. Like four spirits. Yeah. Juliana, a blonde white woman with light eyes and bloody scleras. Scleras the white part of your eye. They're bloodshot. It seemed as if to them she was a spirit monster who had come up from the river. That first the men are hesitant, they avoid approaching her right away. She's disheveled, injured. She looks completely unreal. They didn't recognize her as human. She speaks Spanish to them and says, I am Juliana, and I was in the Lanza crash. They give her water, sugar, and a small amount of food, and even try to remove more maggots from her arm one by one. The next day, the men take her to the nearest town where a doctor can care for her. She learns she is the only survivor. Oh. She also learns that the three men who found her the day prior originally had not planned on going to the shelter that day. The rain was so bad, they thought, oh, it might not be worth it. But because like rainforests' rain is like so unpredictable, they thought, eh, let's just go anyway. It'll be fine.

SPEAKER_01 35:08

Were they going to hunt or were they actually looking for her? They were just out hunting. They were out hunting. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 35:13

And they weren't gonna go. But they did. Dude, she got so lucky. Divine intervention. So crazy. Also, when she goes into the village to the first doctor to like get help, all the villagers are terrified of her. She looks so scary. Oh, not used to it. Yeah. These are indigenous people. They're just like, um, you good? Oh, yeah. Well, you said she's blonde too. And she's blonde and light-eyed. Yeah, so she looks not like everyone else. Bloody eyes and maggots coming out of her arm. Like, she looks crazy.

SPEAKER_01 35:43

Did you guys see that fucking weird maggot lady? She's so white. Dude.

SPEAKER_02 35:47

Yeah, they were like gasping and like moving away from her, like, ah, get away from me. After hearing there was a survivor, Hans, her dad, immediately makes his way to Pocalba. He doesn't even know it's her. He just hopes it's her. Or he hopes it's one of his people. He immediately makes his way to Pocalba where he was finally reunited with his daughter. He believed, like everyone else, that both Maria and Juliana had perished in the crash. He had already been trying to uh locate the crash site, so he'd been going out and searching for them also.

SPEAKER_01 36:17

Oh man.

SPEAKER_02 36:17

And he just wanted to recover their bodies to bring them home. Um, but instead he's reunited with one of them. It's not a very dramatic reunion. He's pretty um res conservative, and it's she's in like major shock, so you know, it's a quiet reunion. They're just happy to have each other. Good. Yeah. Yeah. Also, um, I didn't mention this, but like to Hans, the dad, at first when he heard the plane crashed, he absolutely refused to believe that his wife and daughter were on the flight. The reason being is because he begged his wife not to take the flight, and he genuinely thought that she would listen to him and not take that flight. But I guess New Year's was so important to her to be with Hans for New Year's. Like New Year's was their thing. She was she was desperate to get home in time. So she booked the flight, you know, innocently, hoping that sucks so bad. Yeah. So, like, he at first he was like, There's no way that they're on that flight. I told her not to take it. She there she wouldn't have taken it. Oh man. Yeah. Juliana went on to study biology in Germany following her parents' footsteps. She earned her PhD in zoology.

SPEAKER_01 37:35

Did she fly back to Germany or did she fucking take a train?

SPEAKER_02 37:37

Did she take flights?

SPEAKER_01 37:38

No.

SPEAKER_02 37:38

Did she take flights? Absolutely not. In a documentary later on, they actually make her fly the same exact flight back. No, no. Again. Absolutely not. Yeah. I know. They make her do that. And it's uh what's that guy's name? If Matt was here, he would tell me immediately. He documentary is by Werner Herzog. That guy's badass. I immediately recognized his voice from Rick and Morty, but obviously he's done like uh 1,000 more uh memorable things in Rick and Morty. Please don't judge me for that. Who who is he in Rick and Morty? Is he a bird person? Do you remember the episode where they want Jerry's penis to replace the heart? Yes. He's that guy. He's like one of the aliens. He's like, I've met, he's like, what does he say? He says something like, I've met the human race, and their whole lives revolve around their penises. They he's not going to release his penis. Okay, I'm sorry, now I'm starting to sound trumpy, but you get the anyway. So that's the story of Juliana Kepka. Wow. It's badass. She's badass. She was 17 years old.

SPEAKER_01 39:00

That's still fucking crazy. It's so freaking cool. And like, good on her for just continuing life and not being, you know, I imagine I can't say how I would be. I feel like I would not move on very quickly.

SPEAKER_02 39:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:12

But she moved on, she did something and is happy still studying and being a part of the land that she grew up in. Totally. Like she loves it. She's not afraid to go back.

SPEAKER_02 39:22

She stands up for it. She's absolutely that's where she lives now. Like she um so cool. And she always knew the entire time, too. She thought, I'm gonna make it through this. She's comfortable in the jungle. Yeah. She knew how to survive it. She's like, um, so she goes on to study mammalogy, especially bats. She actually, her dad talks her into like getting into bats. So she'd want she's one of the first women to like have access to vampire bats in the Amazon and is able to do like extensive research on them. Bats, bat research has gone on for many, many years, but she just had an advantage over other people, and I think that's cool for her. Bats are fucking rad. Yeah, they're so cool. She worked as a researcher uh later at the Bavarian State Collection of zoology. So she specifically studies vampire bats. Uh, interesting facts about vampire bats, they don't bite, they slice. So they have like razor-sharp teeth. Uh, makes it like a painless incision. They're able to like tear into your flash, like drink without being noticed. Their saliva contains an anticoagulant, which just means like it does not clot your blood, so that they have a steady flow of blood. Uh, they sense heat by finding blood vessels using infrared, like built-in thermal cameras. Uh, they have memory and are highly sociable creatures. So they can starve after a couple of days or so. Some bats are able to regurgitate the blood and share it with other starving bats. And in return, those bats will remember that you helped them out, and in return, they'll help their other bat friends out.

SPEAKER_00 40:55

Right? That's so sweet.

SPEAKER_01 40:57

I'd regurgitate blood for you.

SPEAKER_00 40:59

Oh, that's so nice of you.

SPEAKER_01 41:01

I know.

SPEAKER_00 41:02

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01 41:06

Gross. Do you like some regurgitated blood?

SPEAKER_02 41:09

I'll just eat a banana. So it's like a reciprocal survival program, which I think is pretty cool. Uh, her life becomes less about the crash and more about like preservation of Panguana, which is now a protective conservation area, supporting biodiversity research in the Amazon at her parents' original research station. Uh, Juliana has remained connected to its preservation and legacy. Juliana, she didn't just survive by like some insane miracle in the traditional way. She was saved by something more quiet, something more built over time. Um, a childhood spent in the rainforest, parents who taught her how to move through it, how to read it, how to respect the jungle, knowledge that didn't feel extraordinary until it was all she had left to rely on. And sometimes survival is about what you carry with you long before everything falls apart. And in the end, Juliana didn't just survive in the jungle, she walked out of it.

SPEAKER_01 42:04

That's so fucking cool. It's really cool, right? That's really cool. I mean, it's really, really sad that her mom died. Yeah. And that, like, to have the memory of looking over and seeing the seats empty as it's all happening, like, dude, that fucking sucks. But also, like, she didn't die in vain. She taught, she taught her well to be able to survive in an in an environment like that. That's so cool. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:29

Um, I'm so sorry, you guys, if you can hear the rooster in the background, he's our neighbors.

SPEAKER_01 42:35

Sriracha. We thought our blanket fort would handle it. It didn't handle it. We're in the room furthest away from the backyard. You can still hear Sriracha crying out. Next next episode will for sure be from our new home in some roosters next door.