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me, and I was forced to repeat, in brief, all that I had been through. The nurse brought tea and rolls, and she and doctor listened attentively to my story. I changed the subject only once.

‘Doctor,’ I asked, ‘would you mind if I ate your roll?’

They burst out laughing.

‘Of course not. Bring him some more rolls,’ he instructed the nurse.

Kevin was waiting for me in the office of the commandante. They had notified the Israeli embassy that I had been found. I felt a lot better knowing that they would inform my parents and put their minds at peace.

We went back to the hotel. I was wearing the snow-white dress uniform of the Bolivian navy but was barefoot. In all of Rurrenabaque, in all of Bolivia, there wasn’t a single pair of shoes to be found in my size, twelve and a half.

We settled into our spacious room. Kevin draped the mosquito nets that the hotel provided over our beds. We sat up all night talking, weighing various hypotheses concerning the failure of Karl and Marcus to turn up in La Paz. We couldn’t wait to unmask Karl. He had taken us into the jungle, feeding us a lot of lies, conjuring up an Indian village. If Marcus hadn’t insisted so stubbornly that we turn back, we certainly would have gone on and run out of food. Karl had also misled us regarding the river, his false information almost costing us our lives.