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Mónica Delgado, head of a pilot school near Cali, Colombia: With her Piper Comanche, a light aircraft built in 1961, she regularly flies missions with doctors
Photo: Felipe Abondano / DER SPIEGEL
Camilo Prieto is broken.
The 43-year-old doctor restored a breast in Bogotá the day before;
Well, one night, two flights and a boat ride later, he's in a church in Bazán, a village in the middle of the rainforest.
No road leads to this place in Nariño, the part of Colombia that borders Ecuador.
In front of Prieto there are three rows of plastic chairs, almost all of them occupied, behind them on the whitewashed wall, in colorful letters "Dios es amor" - "God is love".
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Doctor Camilo Pietro during his relief tour in the Colombian rainforest
Photo: Felipe Abondano / DER SPIEGEL
"The virus is like a bunch of keys," says Prieto to the residents of Bazán, who have come to learn more about the disease, which is now everyone's concern.
"Adults have more locks that the keys fit than children. The face mask prevents the keys from reaching the locks of others."
Hardly anyone in the audience wears mouth and nose protection.
At the end of the lecture, Prieto hands out a mask to everyone.
The fact that people wear them is his very personal victory of the day.
Colombia is one of the countries that has been hardest hit by the corona pandemic so far.
The government relied on strict initial rules - also because there were only 5,346 intensive care beds in the entire country before the pandemic - with around 50 million inhabitants.
In the meantime, the government says it has increased the number of beds to around 10,000.
For comparison: In Germany there are almost 30,000 intensive care beds with around 83 million inhabitants.
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Two young people drive through the La Guajira desert with water cans
Photo: Florian Gaertner / photothek / imago images
The restrictions in Colombia were intended to keep the number of sick people low, but they also had another effect: a supply bottleneck for food and medicines in rural areas.
Among other things, because suppliers no longer wanted to travel through unsafe areas during the pandemic.
Because curfews and the postponement of the peace process in many rural areas have enabled armed groups to expand their positions of power in some areas.
This situation continues to have an impact today, as Camilo Prieto reports.
The already poor supply of the rural population has worsened as a result.
For example in Chocó or Nariño, two of the most conflict-ridden departments in Colombia, or in La Guajira, which has always had to contend with water scarcity.
There were repeated protests across the country: people in poorer districts of the big cities hung out red towels to draw attention to their hunger.
In remote areas, this kind of protest is of little use - it is hardly noticed.
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In Colombia's capital Bogotá, residents have hung red cloths from the windows, they mean: We are hungry
Photo: Luisa Gonzalez / REUTERS
A group of doctors and private pilots then created an airlift.
Since March, they have been supplying remote villages across the country with medicines, food - and knowledge about the virus.
Because in many areas of Colombia, many people still do not know what the disease is all about.
There is a medical supply station right next to the church in Bazán: three treatment rooms, a medicine store.
July Nelly Ramirez is the only nurse for 1,800 people.
There is no doctor here - the nearest hospital is a 25-minute boat ride away.
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Camilo Pietro with a nurse in Bazán
Photo: Felipe Abondano / DER SPIEGEL
Some time ago government officials showed up to renovate the station from the ground up, says Ramirez.
They tore off the roof and the top of the walls - and then never reappeared.
She points upwards: That's why she and some helpers screwed the corrugated iron onto the ward.
Prieto hands Ramirez an inhaler, an ultrasound machine, and dozen packs of antifungal drugs.
Because people work a lot in the water here, women in particular often have problems with skin and vaginal fungus, explains Ramirez.
Although there is a pharmacy in the village, the population there usually cannot afford the drugs.
In the supply station, the funds would normally be free.
It is the third cargo that Prieto is bringing to Bazán together with the private pilots.
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Drug delivery
Photo: Felipe Abondano / DER SPIEGEL
The alliance between doctors and pilots has distributed more than 17 tons of relief supplies in eleven departments of Colombia since the beginning of the pandemic.
They are mostly sponsored by companies that produce medical products, but also by private households.
1612 patients have already been treated, some of whom the doctors have flown to the nearest hospital, for example because they suffered from appendicitis or severe fluctuations in blood pressure.
Corona patients are also found in remote regions, "the fact that they are difficult to reach is a plus for them in terms of infection," said Prieto.
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Doctor Camilo Pietro and pilot Monica Delgado unload the machine
Photo: Felipe Abondano / DER SPIEGEL
Mónica Delgado, head of a pilot school near Cali, sits in the waiting room of the supply station.
With her Piper Comanche, a light aircraft built in 1961, she regularly flies missions with doctors like Camilo Prieto.
This time, too, she is here with her private plane - and has also organized a second pilot in order to be able to transport more cargo.
Delgado feels privileged in Colombia and therefore sees it as her duty to give something back to the people.
Even before the pandemic, she had occasionally done aid flights for an NGO, but since Corona it has become a regular action.
Three fleets of private pilots, the so-called patrullas, have teamed up to jointly supply large parts of Colombia.
One in Bogotá, one in Cali, one in Medellín.
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The people of Bazán are used to military presence
Photo: Felipe Abondano / DER SPIEGEL
But without the help of the Armada, the Colombian Navy, the whole undertaking would be impossible, said Delgado.
"They know the places where no help comes, they sometimes provide protection in dangerous areas."
But it is precisely the escort of the Armada that is often a problem: "We have seen that mayors do not accept our aid supplies because they believe we have come from the government."
The political division in the country is deep.
The current president, Iván Duque, follows the tradition of the former Colombian president Álvaro Uribes, who is controversial because of his tough policies against the guerrilla groups.
This social rift also means that local politicians refuse food and medicine for the population.
At the same time, it is not unusual for the deliveries not to reach the people at all, but rather to disappear into the pockets of local officials, says Prieto.
"That's why we try to ignore local politics and to distribute the relief supplies directly to nurses and those affected."
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The team takes styrofoam boxes with corona tests, they are to be evaluated in Bogotá
Photo: Felipe Abondano / DER SPIEGEL
Behind Delgado, Prieto gets into the small boat with an outboard motor that is supposed to bring her back to the narrow runway at El Charco.
From there it goes back to Cali.
In El Charco the boat stops again: the railing hits the stone steps that extend from the promenade into the water.
A nurse is running down the steps, two styrofoam boxes in hand.
"Corona tests," says Prieto when a helper heaves the boxes into the boat.
The tests come to Bogotá, where they are to be evaluated.
When Delgado's blue and red Piper takes off, it is getting dark.
Shortly after the start, Prieto fell asleep - even when Delgado drove past a thunderstorm and the machine kept sagging, he did not wake up.
It is his tenth flight in one of these old, small machines and many will follow: The project that arose during the pandemic should continue to live afterwards.
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