Dartmouth author recounts harrowing raft ride in Amazon

Dec 14, 2021

They planned the trip of a lifetime, a year of traveling throughout the world.

But when Dartmouth residents Holly and Fitz Fitzgerald planned their epic trip in 1972 as a young married couple, they didn’t know that the adventure would prove not only life-changing, but life-threatening.

Their adventure was recounted decades later as a book, “Ruthless River: Love & Survival by Raft On the Amazon’s Relentless Madre De Dios.’’ Author Holly FitzGerald spoke about the adventure, and the lessons she hoped it might inspire, during a talk Dec. 9 at UMass Dartmouth.

The trip had been years in the making, with the couple working multiple jobs to save up for the adventure. They eventually made their way south to South America, part of a trip that would take them across the globe. 

Five months into the journey, in an isolated part of Peru, they took a plane to their next destination. But the small older model plane crashed. 

They survived. But they were stranded, with few options in an area so rugged that prisoners were kept in the region, because of its limited opportunities for escape.

The couple decided to build a raft from logs, winding through dangerous waters of the Madre De Dios, a tributary of the Amazon River that leads to the Bolivian border.

The trip was harrowing.

Blown off course by a fierce storm and with much of their food tossed overboard by the rough conditions, they battled starvation and the river’s force as they traversed among dangerous animals, both in and out of the water. 

Her book recounts their daily struggles in diary-like form. Yelling in vain for help, she writes at one point, “I wanted to scream, to crumble and not get up, but I knew that wouldn’t help.’’ 

Instead, they preserved, eventually being rescued, needing nutrition and rest.

Nearly 50 years after they survived the ordeal, Fitzgerald said she hopes readers will find hope and inspiration in their ability to overcome seemingly impossible obstacles.

The trip down an infested river and the ordeal of facing Covid-19, for example, might seem quite different, she said, but she hopes readers will find themes in the book to bring to any challenging situation.

“You’ve got to grab onto anything you can use in a tough situation,’’ she said. “Until hopefully you can get out of the storm.’’

She learned a major lesson through the journey, one she shared in her book. 

“Survival isn’t a choice, it’s instinct,’’ she wrote.

“Ruthless River: Love & Survival by Raft On the Amazon’s Relentless Madre De Dios’’ is published by Vintage Books and is available for purchase on amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.