A missing fisherman’s wife escaped vultures while floating for a week with the body of her husband, who died of a reported heart attack.
José Nilson de Souza Bernardo, 68, died on March 29 at the start of his wife Maria das Graças Mota Bernardo’s first fishing trip in the Amazon.
The elderly couple planned to sail down the Rio Negro, also known as the Guainía, in northwestern Brazil before heading home.
They had brought two boats: a motorized fishing boat and a smaller canoe to explore flooded forests.
But Maria had to live for days on raw fish and paddle to escape waves of caimans – reptiles that can grow up to eight feet long – when Jose died.
Maria told her concerned family, who found her a week later, that she tied the canoe to a tree and ventured onto the motorboat to get help.
However, the engine failed and she was stranded in the middle of the river.
When they failed to return home, a search was launched. Authorities found the couple’s canoe tied to a tree containing rotting fish.
Her daughter Cristiane told reporters: “After dinner (José) lay down in the hammock, but the rope broke and he was startled.
He got up and fell to his knees. He sat back down and began to cool down, telling my mom he was hot.
She said he then got up, screamed and fell. She caught him, lifted his head and he took his last breath.”
After boarding the boat, Maria “went to the bow and started paddling,” Christine added.
“She’s been paddling all these days.”
Maria was very afraid of falling into the river because she cannot swim.
On the third day, a man in a rabeta, a motorized canoe, raced past her, but despite her pleas, “he just kept going”.
All she needed to give her the energy she needed to bang pots and pans to get people’s attention was the raw fish and flour on board the boat.
“One day she only drank water. Another day she only ate flour with water and drank pure lemon juice,” says Christiane.
Maria had to defend not only herself but also her husband’s body against the harsh elements of the Amazon.
“She couldn’t sleep anymore. She did everything she could to bring his body home so the family could give him a dignified burial,” her daughter said.
“My mother said there were vultures on the ship. She hit them and they screamed.
“She took the tarpaulin off the awning and put it over his body because there were already bees and mosquitoes on his body.”
It would take nearly a week after they left for the Brazilian Navy to see Maria adrift in Iranduba, about 100 miles from where they started.
A Navy helicopter rescued the grieving woman on April 4, prompting the agency to launch an investigation.
An autopsy will be performed to determine Jose’s exact cause of death.
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Source: Subway
Source: Metro
I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.
