Chel is the love interest of Tulio and only female major character and the deuteragonist of "The Road to El Dorado". Chel’s was obviously unhappy as Tulio and Miguel meet Chel when she is fleeing El Dorado after stealing the golden head of a statue. She is purposefully vague when ask why she would want to leave, stating only "You've got your reasons... and I've got mine." As many of the villagers wear gold jewelry and none of Chel's original jewelry is gold, this could mean that she was poor or in a low societal position.
After overhear Miguel and Tulio celebrating too early over their scam, Chel quickly strikes a deal with the two: She will use her local knowledge to help make the scam work in exchange for leaving El Dorado with them. Later Tulio and Chel argue over what her cut of the treasure should be.
Tulio lead Miguel to the realization that mixing the younger Chel into their plan could be troublesome and they both agree that "Chel is off limits." Regardless of this, Chel successfully initiate a relationship with Tulio. She sees that in a moment that he is stress and, takes advantage of it. She starts massaging him, and he is able to initially resist, but is lure into massaging her, when realizing her actual intentions. Soon afterwards, Chel's pursuit of Tulio, though likely initially to be an attempt to con herself into a better and more secure position to escape, rather evolves as she develops genuine feelings for Tulio and begin to love him, and the duo share a kiss and become a couple.
When Miguel finds out about Chel and Tulio's relationship, it tears a rift between him and Tulio as Miguel presumably think Tulio was double-crossing him when he insisted Chel was off limits and cheat him out so he could have her for himself. However, throughout the film, Chel is mainly friendly with Miguel throughout the film, but she is shown to be very vexing towards Tulio, wanting him romantically unlike with Miguel. Miguel decide to stay in the city while Tulio and Chel choose to leave. But during Tulio and Chel's own departure from El Dorado, they ran into trouble with their ship. Miguel step in to help and decide to go with them. The trio escape El Dorado, and head back to Spain, much to the satisfaction of all members though most predominantly with Chel & Tulio.