In February 2017, 25-year-old Chilean citizen Michael Coroseo Akuña decided to visit Madidi National Park in Bolivia and walk along the Tuychi River (Amazon basin) along the route offered by the Max Adventures travel company. However, something went wrong and he got lost in the jungle.
People were looking for a guy for several days, but to no avail. Nine days later, they accidentally heard him screaming on the bank of the river a mile from the camp. The rescued said that he survived only because "he followed a flock of monkeys."
The story of the guy is told by the National Geographic website.
According to the representative of the travel agency, the group, which included Maykul, went to the jungle for a day. Michael, after his first introductory visit to the jungle, was clearly agitated and behaved "a little strange."
After that, a group of tourists were to visit a forest hut, where a ceremonial ritual of reverence for Mother Nature - Pachamama was performed. The ritual used coca leaves, candles and cigarettes. According to signs, without this ritual, the "spirits of nature" will not let people into their forest.
Michael for some reason refused to go with everyone to the hut. After the ceremony was over and the people followed the route into the forest, the guide noticed Michael's disappearance. It seemed that he seemed to disappear into thin air, as people saw him only five minutes ago, and then no one saw him.
The group members searched all around, but did not find him. Later, local shamans were even involved to search for him, who were supposed to "talk to his soul", using for this his sock, which was found in the thickets.
The head of Max Adventures travel agency Faizar Nava is convinced that Akunya was punished for his disrespect for the spirit of Mother Nature, for refusing to attend the ceremony. According to Nava, the evil spirit of the duende attacked Akunya and hid him in another dimension.
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“This is our culture and we believe in these things,” Nava told a National Geographic spokesman. “We believe that the duende is real.
Duende are characters from Spanish and Portuguese folklore. In many ways they are similar to the fairy-tale characters of other countries: gnomes, goblins, brownies. They are supernatural beings. They can become invisible and also change shape. Bolivia was conquered by the Spanish conquistadors and it is not surprising that characters from Spanish folk tales are popular here
National Park Rangers searched for the missing tourist for six days. But all they found was his dirty sock, which was used in their ritual by the invited local shamans. The shamans performed several ceremonies to "pull Akunya out of another dimension," where he was allegedly held captive.
Meanwhile, Michael's chances of survival in the jungle were diminishing. He had only a small supply of food and water with him, and locals, but not tourists, are good at finding food and suitable water in the jungle.
But finally, nine days after the disappearance, the rangers heard the screams of a man from the other side of the river, just a mile from their camp, and discovered that it was the missing Michael Akunya.
The guy was badly bitten by insects and scratched with thorns, and his legs were swollen. He was weak, but conscious and even joked that he "missed Coca-Cola." He told that he followed a flock of monkeys and thus survived in the jungle. According to him, the monkeys threw him fruits from the trees, and when he followed them, they brought him to drinking water and shelter for the night.
Akunya spoke about everything else very indistinctly. He was able to tell that he was running, then took off his sandals, then for some reason threw away his mobile phone and flashlight.
That night, when he was found on the bank of the river, Akunya prayed to God and he believes that it was God who saved him, but does not believe in any jungle spirits. And the rangers of the park still remained in their opinion that the duende had worked here and lured Akunya into another dimension. Moreover, Akunya could not confidently tell how he got lost.
Madidi National Park in Bolivia is famous for the fact that you can easily pick up a dangerous infection and deadly intestinal parasites there, but no one has gone missing for a long time. Therefore, it is easy to imagine what kind of noise was going on there after the disappearance of Akunya.
The last time a tourist got lost in Madidi was in 1981. It was an Israelite who had been deceived by his fellow traveler and left alone in the jungle. For three weeks the tourist survived among biting insects and impenetrable thickets. His adventures were even featured in the film Back from Tuichi.
