Pod Insights National Park After Dark Honeymoon From Hell: Manuripi-Heath National Amazonian Wildlife Reserve About this episode In March of 1973, Holly and Gerald Fitzgerald were lost, starving and on the brink of death in the middle of Bolivia. The first leg of their planned honeymoon around the world was almost their last as they fought for their lives atop of raft amongst a flooded jungle. Their love for one another and desire for a shared future kept them alive for 26 days until, of all things, a monkey led to their rescue. For a full list of our sources, visit npadpodcast.com/episodesFor the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials:Instagram: @nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page! Thank you to this week’s partners! Zocdoc: Use our link to download the Zocdoc app for free. MasterClass: Use our link to access the current offer.
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Transcript 13,717 words · 6 speakers
Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
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1:00 Danielle LaRock? The medieval ages are ones that have gone down in history for being notoriously rough. Between violent crusades, dangerous medical treatments, sweeping famines, gruesome torture methods, and bizarre customs, just to name a few, it was a gnarly time to be alive. It was also the period of time where the term honeymoon was coined, but it was a far, far cry from what we enjoy today. The custom we regard today as romantic began in many cases as a quite literal kidnapping, when a groom would hold his bride captive until the family would give up on retrieving her or the bride would become pregnant. In 5th century Europe, guests would give the couple a month, measured by one moon cycle,
1:45 Danielle LaRock? worth of mead, which is fermented honey. The couple were expected to drink for 30 days, the line of thinking being it would improve the chances of conceiving a child, hence honeymoon. Thankfully for everyone involved, the custom evolved with time to involve a variety of less violent traditions. In the early 1900s, Niagara Falls dubbed itself the honeymoon capital of the world, and throughout the globe honeymoon resorts emerged, serving as romantic getaways for the newly married. The destination, duration, and itinerary can be as unique as each couple. But there is a reason many revolve around a tropical getaway. They just ooze relaxation.
2:30 Danielle LaRock? But some newlyweds don't want relaxation. They want to kick off their next chapter with a bang, with a grand adventure. But that appetite for adventure can be a bit too tempting to indulge. And for some, they bite off a bit more than they can chew.
2:48 Danielle LaRock? Welcome to National Park After Dark.
3:11 Danielle LaRock? Wow, I learned a lot in that intro. Isn't it kind of nuts? I never knew that. I know. I couldn't. Honey, one seems so romantic, but now. The origins are really scary and not at all romantic. So I'm glad to be alive today and not in 5th century Europe or whenever that was. I also had a positive, I had a positive view of mead, which now I don't know if I'll ever look at the same again. I will say, I love mead. I know you do. Oh God, it is so good. It's so good. The Moonlight Meadery in Londonderry, New Hampshire. If you are around there, you should definitely go.
3:48 Danielle LaRock? They have the best meads and you can go for tastings and they just, they're just, they have like chili mead and banana mead and all these different like, obviously the mead is different depending on the honey and the bees that that honey is produced from, depending on where they are in the world and what those bees are, what flowers they're pollinating. Anyways, this isn't a show about mead, but that's a shout out to them.
4:14 Cassandra Yahnian? Around we can go sometime.
4:16 Danielle LaRock? Cause that sounds nice. Well, hello everyone. This is National Park After Dark.
4:21 Cassandra Yahnian? Welcome.
4:22 Danielle LaRock? Welcome. My name is Danielle.
4:24 Cassandra Yahnian? And I'm Cassie and Danielle is telling the story.
4:26 Danielle LaRock? Yes.
4:27 Cassandra Yahnian? And I will be listening.
4:29 Danielle LaRock? I will barely be talking. Okay, well, today we have a really exciting story that is based in South America. And once again, I have failed on writing down the person's name who suggested this, but just know whoever you are for sending in this book titled Ruthless River, I paid attention and here is the episode on it. So let's begin.
4:53 Cassandra Yahnian? Love a book rec.
4:54 Danielle LaRock? Holly and Fitz were in love and they wanted to see the world. That's how they found themselves battling it out for plane tickets, almost quite literally in a tiny airport in Pucalpa, Peru. It was February of 1973 and Holly and her husband Gerald, who went by his nickname Fitz, were on a delayed honeymoon. Forgoing a sandals vacation or cruise to the Bahamas, the young couple elected for a year of travel, albeit on a budget. The pair had met four years earlier at Holly's 24th birthday party. A mutual friend had invited her former college buddy to join. He had just returned from Vietnam and was a great storyteller, Holly was told. They were drawn to each other from the start and her friend's description of Fitz was accurate.
5:36 Danielle LaRock? He was charismatic, kind and chivalrous and regaled the group with stories of Southeast Asia. And of the three times he hitchhiked across America, all with shining blue eyes, a mop of curly hair and glasses that constantly slipped down his nose. After their initial meeting in Holly's Boston apartment, it didn't take long for the two to forego group hangouts for some one-on-one time. They were both enrolled in Suffolk University. Fitz was catching up with classes while Holly finished her master's program. They spent their days hand in hand, strolling through their Beacon Hill neighborhood and watching the sunset over the Charles River on fold out lawn chairs set atop rooftops. Within the year, Holly had graduated with her master's in education and counseling
6:18 Danielle LaRock? and Fitz was hired as a reporter for the News Times in Danbury, Connecticut. And Fitz had proposed. Not being able to afford much, a traditional diamond ring was replaced with an enamel coral bracelet and a puppy named Zelda.
6:32 Cassandra Yahnian? Oh, a puppy is a good one.
6:34 Danielle LaRock? Yeah, it's like, no diamond ring, but I do have this dog.
6:38 Cassandra Yahnian? Yes. Sold.
6:39 Danielle LaRock? Travel was really important to both of them. It was one of the many things that they initially shared a passion for and bonded over early into their relationship and they would daydream about while gazing out over Boston. They loved their home and being with their families who were rooted in that area, but the world was beckoning them. There was just too much to see, too much to experience to stay home forever.
7:01 Cassandra Yahnian? Talking to my soul, kindred spirits.
7:04 Danielle LaRock? Yep. And that's why they were elated when Fitz struck up a deal with his editor. He could keep his job at the newspaper if he wrote weekly columns during their year of travel during their honeymoon.
7:15 Cassandra Yahnian? What a deal.
7:16 Danielle LaRock? So he happily agreed. He added his typewriter to the packing list, this big hunking, like
7:24 Cassandra Yahnian? Like I'll carry it around for a year off.
7:26 Danielle LaRock? Yeah, I'll lug it around. And Holly was actually in on it, too. She packed her 35mm Pentax camera to supply the columns with photographs of their adventures. So kind of like a little package deal, working while they were traveling for a year on their delayed and extended honeymoon. They had carefully planned their itinerary using guidebooks, laying out a plan of what stops to make and when, keeping in touch with family back home via letters and sending out those weekly columns to Fitz's employers. But that was all when communication was relatively easy, or at least, at the very least, accessible. But now, four months into their journey, they were about to embark on a leg of their journey that they knew would be unlike anywhere they
8:09 Danielle LaRock? had been before. They were headed deep into the Amazon. So back to the beginning of the story, when they're almost in physical fights over tickets, they had been fighting for a pair of tickets from Pucolpa to Maldonado, their next step that would provide them passage via a chartered riverboat to Brazil, which was a really important next stop on their journey, which their ultimate destination was the Amazon while in South America for this part of their year-long journey. So to get into, deep into the Amazon, that's the route they needed to take.
8:42 Cassandra Yahnian? Gotcha.
8:43 Danielle LaRock? They had shown up at the airport and were fought off by locals day after day for these tickets. Not only was there no real official way of selling the tickets, passengers were literally shoving each other out of line to, to purchase them, but Holly and Fitz needed them and badly. If they missed their boat departing Maldonado, another one wouldn't be scheduled for another three months and it would have really thrown off their entire timeline.
9:09 Cassandra Yahnian? Wow. So it really takes a long time to get these.
9:13 Danielle LaRock? Yes.
9:13 Cassandra Yahnian? For this transit to happen.
9:15 Danielle LaRock? And this is in the seventies. I don't know if I.
9:18 Cassandra Yahnian? You did at the beginning.
9:19 Danielle LaRock? Okay.
9:19 Cassandra Yahnian? There's no, there's not online services and cell phones and all that good stuff.
9:24 Danielle LaRock? Right. Running out of time to make their boat, Fitz, using his tall frame, planted himself firmly in line and blocked the smaller locals from passing him by. His tactic worked and the tickets were purchased, but to their surprise, that didn't mean that their seats were guaranteed. They literally had to run, bags and all, across the dirt runway to their plane, which was an Army surplus DC3. Managing to be two of the 13 passengers, they settled onto one of the benches that was bolted into the side of the plane and strapped their seat belts.
9:58 Danielle LaRock? Like what a whirlwind.
9:59 Cassandra Yahnian? Adventure.
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10:33 Danielle LaRock? Exchanging glances of relief, they squeezed hands and looked out of the window as the plane rumbled and jerked into the sky. As they climbed, Holly glanced down at the sea of seemingly endless green jungle cut only by the large, brown, snake-like waters of the Madre de Dios River, a tributary of the mighty Amazon, a pang of. Worry struck her. They had never been this far away from any sort of civilization before. The night prior, they had sent word to their families and Fitz's employer to not expect to hear from them for the next several weeks, as there would likely be no place to post letters along their route, or make any sort of phone call or communication.
11:12 Danielle LaRock? Worry quickly dissolved into excitement. After all, this is exactly what they had signed up for, an adventure. About an hour into their flight, the plane suddenly shuddered and began a rapid descent. Chaos ensued. The little boy across from Holly started vomiting, while the elderly woman next to her clutched her rosary and began praying. Unsecured baggage went flying throughout the cabin. The plane lurched as the treetops came into sight. Fitz and Holly held each other as a wheel flew by their window, and the plane wobbled as it tumbled further towards the ground.
11:46 Cassandra Yahnian? You did not tell me this was a plane crash episode.
11:49 Danielle LaRock? It's kind of not, which is really surprising.
11:53 Cassandra Yahnian? That's not even the biggest part of the story, this plane crash?
11:56 Danielle LaRock? Perfect. Yeah, we just gotta get past it, and then worse things will happen.
11:59 Cassandra Yahnian? Perfect.
12:00 Danielle LaRock? With no signs of slowing, it slammed into the jungle, ripping the entire right wing and engine off. Miraculously, the plane came to a halt with every passenger alive. Some were injured, everyone was shocked, but alive.
12:14 Cassandra Yahnian? That's incredible.
12:16 Danielle LaRock? It truly is. Like, yeah, especially for the the condition of the plane to begin with, already not.
12:23 Cassandra Yahnian? Fall from the sky into the Amazon. In the seventies, I can only imagine the planes were not the way that they are today.
12:30 Danielle LaRock? And this is like a decommissioned old army plane.
12:35 Cassandra Yahnian? Decommissioned? No wonder why it crashed.
12:38 Danielle LaRock? Jumping out of the side door, Holly and Fitz scrambled away from the mangled mess of metal and leaking fuel lines and took in their surroundings. They had crash-landed in the jungle, directly adjacent to a small, grassy landing strip running alongside of a river. Almost immediately, several khaki-uniformed men arrived and began running around the plane. Unsure of what to do, and only speaking broken Spanish and very little of the native language of Quechua, they followed the other passengers. Toting behind them through thick muck onto muddy paths in the jungle, they came upon a man in baggy clothing hacking the jungle away with a machete. Communication, again, was very limited, so Holly and Fitz pulled out their small Spanish dictionary to try and interpret,
13:21 Danielle LaRock? but words weren't needed to understand what he was offering, which was to take their luggage. Thinking that he was a local farmer who saw the crash and had come to help, the couple handed over their belongings and followed him through the thick jungle, the other passengers no longer in sight ahead of them. They tried to ask him a couple of questions, but what they understood in return didn't make much sense. "Sepa, I live here, sister, tree, seven arrows," he said with a toothless smile. Still unsure of the translation, if they were getting the words right and understanding him correctly, they followed him, sloshing through the swampy path through the thick jungle, the man hacking back vines and thick vegetation as they went, until suddenly, the jungle opened into a large rectangular swath
14:06 Danielle LaRock? of open, sunlit land with a smattering of cement structures and corrugated metal shacks. Squinting at the sign at the edge of the opening, they read, "Welcome to Sepa, National Penal Colony of Peru." Turns out, they had crash-landed on the grass airstrip of a federal prison, and that farmer was an inmate that did in fact live there and did in fact tie his sister to a tree and shot her with seven arrows.
14:32 Cassandra Yahnian? That is the worst person to come across, I feel like.
14:37 Danielle LaRock? It's just so funny that he was like trying to explain to them.
14:40 Cassandra Yahnian? That was how he introduced himself?
14:42 Danielle LaRock? Yeah.
14:42 Cassandra Yahnian? He's like, "Hi, I'm so-and-so and I'm here because I killed my sister with seven arrows."
14:46 Danielle LaRock? And they're, "Great, nice to meet you here. You can take my roller bag." They were led to awaiting guards and ushered into a building with a couple of cots. They quickly learned that Sepa was an open-air prison for criminals whose crimes ran the gamut from political opponents, sex offenders, drug traffickers, thieves, and murderers. Inhabitants called it "green hell" as it was so removed from any form of civilization and the jungle was so- So dense and so dangerous, there was no need for walls. Inmates were allowed to wander free and were armed with machetes to work the grounds. Hence, how they ran into that guy.
15:23 Cassandra Yahnian? Right. I forgot he's armed with a machete.
15:26 Danielle LaRock? And just out, like in a bow.
15:27 Cassandra Yahnian? What a place to land.
15:29 Danielle LaRock? For three days, Fitz, Holly, and the rest of the passengers anxiously awaited another plane, dragging their belongings out through the jungle to the grassy airstrip every afternoon in hopes a plane could land. But the rainy season had other plans, making the makeshift runway nearly impossible to use. They spent their days dodging the inmates, playing cards with guards, and avoiding the jungle surrounding the buildings, which roared with jaguars every night. Finally, a plane managed to successfully land, and, holding their breath, the couple climbed aboard, silently prayed to stay in the air this time, and took off. Waving goodbye and good riddance to the penal colony, they reached their destination, the small town of Puerto Maldondo, Peru,
16:14 Danielle LaRock? which lay just a mile from the Rio Madre de Dios, the river that their commercial boat would take to their next destination of River Alta, which is that boat they needed to catch, the three-month one. I know there's like a lot of destinations.
16:28 Cassandra Yahnian? There's a lot of transits and layovers, so to speak.
16:33 Danielle LaRock? Yeah, and I'm trying to condense it a little bit to make it a little smoother to follow, but even I'm confused and I wrote this, so, sorry.
16:41 Danielle LaRock? They gathered their bags and booked it to the port office as soon as they got there. They had barely made it in time to catch the boat, or so they thought. Explaining their desire for passage on the next departing commercial boat, the chief port officer leaned back in his chair and plainly informed them that there would be no boats for another three months. As a small frontier town, there was only one man with relatives in their desired destination, and he went to visit every few months, but had just left days prior. And as for commercial boats, there was no such thing. Confused, Fitz handed the officer their guidebook, complete with boat departure dates and routes, leaving from that port town to their next destination.
17:23 Danielle LaRock? Like, what do you mean? There's no, there's no boats. There's only one guy that has a boat here and he already left. Like, what? Look at this book.
17:29 Cassandra Yahnian? What about all this information I found?
17:31 Danielle LaRock? Yes. Shrugging, the officer looked it over and simply said, hmm, must be a mistake. There are no boats. Frustration turned to deflation when they were then informed that not only were there no boats, there were no flights scheduled to Riberalta either, like at all, in or out of their town for at least three weeks.
17:54 Cassandra Yahnian? What?
17:55 Danielle LaRock? So after four months of traveling throughout South America, they were both heartbroken. Their dream of seeing the Amazon River felt completely dashed. They felt really trapped and just like they had no way forward. Later that night, the couple was going over their options over a meal at the local restaurant when a man dressed in a crisp white suit approached their table and introduced himself as Juan. He had overheard their conversation and offered a suggestion. Pulling up a chair, Juan explained that he was a mining engineer and had spent a lot of time up and down the Madre de Dios River and echoed what the other locals had been telling them all day. There would be no boats or planes for quite some time,
18:34 Danielle LaRock? especially going to Riberalta, as it just wasn't a popular place to go and was an almost non-existent stop for foreigners. Like, not only was it not popular within the local community to go, especially not for tourists of any kind, but he suggested, puffing on his tobacco pipe, they could take a raft.
18:52 Cassandra Yahnian? A raft?
18:53 Danielle LaRock? Yeah. So they're like, look at each other and like, what are you, what are you saying to us?
18:59 Cassandra Yahnian? What do you mean a raft? Like, one that they build?
19:03 Danielle LaRock? Yeah. So he said, we call them balces and they, the couple immediately peppers Juan with questions, but he answered them all with an ease that made them consider this wild possibility. Juan went on to explain the following. Traveling the river downstream only, of course, by raft was much more popular than boats in this part of the country. The locals constructed them by lashing together large logs and made them as big or as small as they needed. Juan suggested that they use one, put on a small platform. With a tent on top, along with a small cook stove and float it down the river, the 800 kilometers or roughly 500 miles to River Alta, guessing it would take roughly 10 days with the current river conditions, which were running high and fast.
19:48 Danielle LaRock? There's nothing to it, he continued, explaining there were no tributaries or other rivers flowing off of the Madre de Dios between where they were in Puerto Maldonado and their destination of River Alta.
20:00 Cassandra Yahnian? So what about rapids?
20:02 Danielle LaRock? Therefore, there would be no worries on getting lost. They just had to simply flow down the river.
20:08 Cassandra Yahnian? Seems way too good to be true.
20:10 Danielle LaRock? Oh, but it gets even better. There would also need minimal supplies in the means of food because there were farms called fincas along the riverbanks with friendly locals that would happily give them fruits and breads and things to sustain them for their 10 day journey or so. He even went on to offer them help with finding a raft already built. He had plenty of friends in the area that had them and would happily give them for them to use.
20:37 Cassandra Yahnian? What does he get out of this?
20:39 Danielle LaRock? Nothing, actually.
20:40 Cassandra Yahnian? He's just giving this advice?
20:43 Danielle LaRock? Yes. There's a lot of, it doesn't seem kind right now. There is like a lot of kindness in this story from,
20:51 Cassandra Yahnian? Okay.
20:52 Danielle LaRock? From like, there is no other angle. It was like sinister.
20:56 Cassandra Yahnian? Okay.
20:57 Danielle LaRock? If that makes it better.
20:58 Cassandra Yahnian? A little suspicious. I was, okay, I was getting suspicious because I'm like, why do they want to send these tourists down a river on a handmade raft for 500 miles?
21:07 Danielle LaRock? Yeah, there is no gain, I should say.
21:10 Cassandra Yahnian? So they're like actually trying to help?
21:11 Danielle LaRock? Yes.
21:12 Cassandra Yahnian? Yeah. Okay. It's just an adventure.
21:15 Danielle LaRock? Right. Yeah, adventure is a way of putting it.
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22:44 Danielle LaRock? The couple had no experience with rafting, but from what they were told, it seemed pretty idiot-proof. Ultimately, their options boiled down pretty simply. Wait three months in town or take a raft. That was kind of where they were at. Okay. Fast forward to the next afternoon and Fitz and Holly were the proud new owners of a balsa. Juan had kept his word and connected them with someone who gave them their raft free of charge. Word spread throughout this jungle town about the two crazy white people and their plan. Over the next handful of days, they received help from locals working on the raft, enhancing it to make it river-worthy. While some helped, others flocked to the riverbanks just to observe, ask questions,
23:26 Danielle LaRock? or simply just to gawk at the scene that was unfolding in front of them. After four days, the raft was complete. A solid board was hammered onto the logs of the raft, which measured about eight by seven feet in total. Using poles cut from the trees, they constructed like some makeshift poles, which they then put a tent over that consisted of thick blue and pink plastic sheeting. They made a stove out of a five-gallon oil can and chicken wire. Which they would use to grill food and to boil water. They purchased a mosquito net, a machete, two fish hooks, four boxes of food, which consisted mostly of fruit, canned tuna, coffee, rice, cheese, beans, and spam. They had iodine tablets and a hammer and nails for potential repairs that they might need to make on the plastic sheeting.
24:12 Danielle LaRock? And lastly, a rifle, which was Juan's final suggestion. Holly and Fitz balked at that at first and wondered why they would need a rifle. And Juan reassured them that they should likely not need it and that the people near the river's edge were mostly friendly and they shouldn't run into large predators as long as they kept to the river. But it was good to have regardless as a backup. His other piece of advice, don't ever swim in the water. Yes, there were piranhas and black caiman, the Amazon Basin's largest predator, which could grow as large as a thousand pounds and stretch up to 13 feet long.
24:48 Cassandra Yahnian? What? And you're on a raft?
24:51 Danielle LaRock? Like this little, like, not little, it's eight by seven feet, but...
24:54 Cassandra Yahnian? That's little in comparison to a thousand-pound creature in the water.
24:58 Danielle LaRock? Yeah, but what he was really warning against was the candiru, also known as vampire fish. So small that they would swim up your orifices, latch onto your intestines, burrow into your intestines, and suck your blood.
25:13 Cassandra Yahnian? I'll wait the three months. I'll wait the three months. What?
25:17 Danielle LaRock? Have you ever seen those, um, god, what show is it on? And I have such a vivid recollection of the reenactment. And it's about, it's like this guy going up just above his waist into the water in the Amazon and like to pee. And it shows like the little fish like going up his urethra.
25:36 Cassandra Yahnian? I've seen that too. I don't know why. I have no idea.
25:40 Danielle LaRock? God, someone please tell us because I just have such this vivid, yeah, like, image in my mind and it just scarring me. I didn't know they were called candiru or whatever, but I have that in my brain. Where? Yeah. Yes. So that's what he was really like. He's like the, don't mess with those, you know? So shivering, the couple noted the final pieces of advice. They're like, okay, you don't gotta tell us twice. They dubbed their balsa, the Pink Palace, due to its bright pink plastic tenting, and were gifted a local bottle of beer in lieu of a champagne bottle to smash onto the raft, a longstanding christening tradition to usher in good luck. In front of a gathering of locals, the grinning couple packed away the last of their supplies and were ready to push off.
26:25 Danielle LaRock? They had gathered all of the goods that Juan had recommended, triple-checked the tent to ensure that it was watertight, and looked out to the sparkling surface of the river. They had just checked off their final to-do, purchasing a license to go down the river, which would also serve as a record. The officers had raised eyebrows at their plan, but didn't interfere, instead offering reassurance that if they didn't reach Riberalta in a few days, the Port Authority would radio them back as a heads up. So they were like, we will radio ahead to your next destination. If you don't arrive within the 10 days, they'll notify us and we'll know something's up. The officers echoed what Juan had said, pretty much that floating day and night, they should reach the next town in about 10 days.
27:09 Danielle LaRock? So they weren't like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whatever that guy told you is way off base. You shouldn't be doing this. They were kind of like, okay, best of luck. Like, yeah, that sounds about right. Good luck. We'll keep an eye out for you. Nearing noon, they were finally set. Tying a rope around the neck of the beer bottle, Holly wound up to smash it onto the balsa. Fitz clicked the camera as the bottle was mid-air, the crowd of locals grinning. Thud. The bottle bounced off the raft, completely intact, and you could almost hear the collective, oof, from the crowd. Their sunny, bright day seemed to suddenly dim with a cast of bad luck. But shaking it off as merely some silly superstition, the couple waved goodbye as the locals shoved them off.
27:54 Danielle LaRock? After a bit of a struggle fighting the current, they managed to get the raft into the center of the river and were quickly swept around a bend and away from the smiling gathering of people on the bank. Small farms and open lands were quickly replaced by a thick canopy on either side of the mile-wide river, and Holly marveled at the beauty. It felt as if they were barely moving, but taking note of how quickly driftwood and shoreline was zipping by them, she could tell that they were actually traveling pretty quickly. The couple laid out on the deck, taking in the beauty of the Peruvian jungle. Macaws flew above them while iridescent butterflies floated around them, trees with leaves as large as small children stretched into the sky, moss and vines dripped off of branches that leaned over the river, and the smell
28:39 Danielle LaRock? of fresh fruit drifted through the air. Holly leaned against her husband, never feeling as liberated than in that moment, questioning if she had ever been as happy than right in that moment. They spent the rest of that day reveling in the just magical experience of being in the middle of a river in the middle of the jungle.
28:58 Cassandra Yahnian? It's certainly an adventure so far.
29:00 Danielle LaRock? An unexpected one, too.
29:02 Cassandra Yahnian? Now they're on a raft together in this beautiful jungle.
29:06 Danielle LaRock? What could go wrong?
29:07 Cassandra Yahnian? Yeah. What else could go wrong?
29:09 Danielle LaRock? The officers had informed them that they would need to make one stop along their way at the Border Patrol building between Peru and Bolivia, located right on the river. But there was still no sign of the small post as the sun began to set, and they were told that they should be coming upon it pretty quickly within that first day. Like, don't miss it, you need to stop there. But they were scanning the shorelines, still didn't see any sign of it, and they were worried that they might drift by it in the middle of the night. So they decided to pull ashore for the evening despite being fearful of becoming sitting ducks for whatever may venture to their raft from within the jungle if they pulled up on shore. Steering the pink palace towards the shore,
29:51 Danielle LaRock? they paddled as hard as they could as they neared the riverbank. They reached for the low-lying branches and vines despite the fear of snakes being all over them to pull themselves ashore, but each and every time, the current would wrench them back into the middle of the river. Again and again, they tried to approach, using all of their strength to pull them ashore once they reached the trees, but again and again, they were ripped. It was then, breathless and looking down at their swollen, cut and red hands, that whatever confidence they had spent the day building was diminished. They were at the total mercy of this river. Not wanting to miss the post but unable to stop, they settled on taking night shifts by scanning the jungle for any spot of light, whether it was coming from a light source or someone lighting up a cigarette,
30:36 Danielle LaRock? just any indication that they were near this, this border patrol office. Holly climbed into her sleeping bag and drifted off to sleep. Fitz yelling startled her awake. Socorro, Socorro, help, help. He had seen a small flicker of light as someone struck a match and lit a cigarette on shore, and he was trying to alert the men presumably working at the border patrol office to their location. Scrambling out of the tent, Holly joined in, jumping up and down to help her husband signal whoever was there. They heard muffled voices and doors banging on shore, then voices yelling from the riverbank. They had been seen, but apparently not understood, because before they knew it, they were being shot at.
31:18 Danielle LaRock? Fitz and Holly hit the deck as bullets whizzed by their heads, tearing into their tent.
31:23 Cassandra Yahnian? I thought they were friendly.
31:24 Danielle LaRock? The men from ashore jumped into small motorboats and zipped to the raft, still drifting down the river. All the while, they're just like drifting on by. They're like, help, like, we're trying to stop. Ordering them out with their hands up, guns and flashlights pointed directly in their faces, the uniformed men instructed Holly and Fitz off of the raft and into their boats. It took several small boats to pull the big balsa to shore, but once it was there, the couple was ordered at gunpoint, along the bank, up a steep path and into a dark hut. They were sternly told to sit on the floor while they dumped out all of the contents of their bags, picking through Holly's bras and underwear and dangling them in the air, tossing them at each other and laughing.
32:05 Danielle LaRock? Apparently, they had initially taken them for drug smugglers trying to slip past the border unnoticed, but now realizing that they were a non-threat, they took the opportunity to humiliate them. A sergeant entered the room and the tone changed pretty much on its head. The men were sent to bed and Holly and Fitz were given sleep- bags to stay the night on the floor. Unable to sleep, they huddled on the cold floor of the hut until the sun came up. The following day, the sergeant spoke with them kindly and apologized for the behavior of the other men. After being informed of their plan and their worry of being unable to control the raft, the sergeant reassured them that rafts can be difficult, but just keep following the river,
32:47 Danielle LaRock? he said, and shout once you reach River Alta and someone will come out and get you. His confidence put them at ease once again, and before they knew it, he had escorted them back to their raft safely across the border and sent them along their way. A little shaken, but back on track, Holly and Fitz fell back into the beauty of their adventure. They spent time sipping coffee, cooking on their camp stove, writing in their journals, dancing on the deck and watching the world go by.
33:13 Cassandra Yahnian? I have to give it to them. They're very positive thinking.
33:16 Danielle LaRock? You, yes, that is, and that's going to be a big theme later. Like that positivity and state of mind and just like framing difficult situations in a different way.
33:29 Cassandra Yahnian? Okay. I mean, they've survived a plane crash. They had really bad news that their other at the port. They almost didn't even get on the plane that crashed. Now they're on this raft.
33:40 Danielle LaRock? A prison.
33:41 Cassandra Yahnian? They crashed.
33:41 Danielle LaRock? They were at.
33:41 Cassandra Yahnian? Oh, yeah, right. How did I miss that part? They were at a prison with an inmate with a machete and they're just kind of vibing. It feels like they're like, well, that happened. We'll, we'll keep on going.
33:53 Danielle LaRock? Truly. And I did mention the book briefly in the beginning. I'll talk more about it at the end, but just another highlight of it. Holly, who spoiler alert, she lives, um, she wrote this book. It's a memoir. It's called Ruthless River, and she talks a lot about how she credits a lot of, of her survival and everything to the love that her and Fitz shared, like the love between them and the support that they gave one another during this time was what really saved, saved the day ultimately.
34:27 Cassandra Yahnian? Okay.
34:28 Danielle LaRock? And she talks a lot about that. The pair was floating down a river that cut right through the Manor Rupi National Amazon Wildlife Reserve. So this is the.
34:36 Cassandra Yahnian? This is the tie in?
34:37 Danielle LaRock? Yes.
34:38 Cassandra Yahnian? I was gonna ask, but I was like, she's gonna, she's gonna get.
34:41 Danielle LaRock? There. It's a little bit of a stretch, but we're going with it. Okay. First established in 1973 and later expanded and placed under the direct administration of the National Service for Protected Areas in 2000, the creation of the reserve located in northern Bolivia was done with three main objectives. First, to protect the Amazon rainforest ecosystem. Next, to safeguard the watersheds and wide diversity of species of flora and fauna of the area, many of which are endangered. And lastly, to promote the integral and sustainable use of wildlife resources, meaning human activities in the area should be carried out in a way that respects the ecosystems and ensures their long-term viability.
35:22 Danielle LaRock? Today, the reserve is roughly 1.8 million acres among the Amazon River Basin, which is the largest in the world. The area is tropical and humid with significant rainy seasons, averaging about 71 to 98 inches of rain a year. Wow. It is difficult to quantify just how ecologically diverse this reserve is, as many species are still being discovered and documented to this day. But according to the World Wildlife Fund, there are an astounding 1,461 species of plant and animal life within this reserve alone. The reserve is home to many communities, most of which rely on the forest for their livelihoods or who practice sustainable grows of produce like acai and Brazil nuts.
36:06 Danielle LaRock? Park rangers also live and work in this reserve. And one of their top priorities includes monitoring and protecting the yellow spotted turtle, which is a species that has found itself in the crosshairs as of the last few decades. And this has nothing to do with the story, but I thought it was really interesting. Poachers and egg smugglers of this particular species of turtle are a huge problem in the reserve as the turtle's meat and eggs are highly coveted and seen as a form of, like a delicacy in other countries and fetch high prices on the black market. The reserve has been battling poachers, but also other illegal activities for years. Parts of this reserve conceal smuggling routes where drugs and weapons are also transported,
36:48 Danielle LaRock? not just turtle eggs. It can be difficult to apprehend individuals here, which is a huge challenge to the park service. In 2023, one of many operations revealed that over 800 eggs were in the possession of one individual on the edge of the Peruvian border. And the man who is in the process of being apprehended for smuggling so many of these turtle eggs, he just took off and fled into the thick forest and they never found him. Like, it's really easy to disappear here.
37:19 Cassandra Yahnian? I can just imagine with all the thick vegetation and lose people really quick.
37:24 Danielle LaRock? Yeah, so it's a big problem, especially because there's not a lot of, um, the park service there is not, um, well-staffed. So there's just a minimal amount of rangers to patrol huge amounts of jungle and obviously apprehending dangerous criminals that are unpredictable and could be smuggling anything.
37:45 Cassandra Yahnian? And I imagine drug smugglers, and especially in this environment, are going to be heavily armed.
37:50 Danielle LaRock? Yes, absolutely. As of last year, there were just seven park rangers tasked with protecting the entirety of this reserve, resulting in a near constant uphill battle.
38:01 Cassandra Yahnian? What a brave job to do, to be of seven, fighting people like that. That's...
38:07 Danielle LaRock? Not only fighting people like that, like preserving and protecting the ecosystem and trying to save this turtle species and...
38:14 Cassandra Yahnian? There's only seven of them, yeah.
38:42 Speaker 05 Coca-Cola para todos. Compra una Coca-Cola en una tienda cerca de usted.
38:47 Danielle LaRock? Okay, back to the year 1972 and Holly and Fitz's fourth night on the river. It was a peaceful start, but it didn't last. The couple was startled awake by flashes of lightning, cracks of thunder and pelting rain. Shocked awake, they found themselves and their rafts spinning in the churning water. The lazy river had turned treacherous. Shouting over the storm, Fitz, who had made his way out of the tent, ordered Holly to stay down and she hit the deck just as the raft came to a sudden halt. A large ripping noise accompanied the sudden stop and Holly found herself pinned. The raft had slammed into a large tree floating down along the river with them. Its tangled and sharp root system had plunged into their tent and pinned Holly to the floor
39:32 Danielle LaRock? and was starting to sink the raft. Between lightning flashes, Holly managed to see her predicament as Fitz struggled to lift the tree enough for her to wriggle out. The heavy rain was pelting her, the roots were scraping her scalp and ripping at her hair and to make it a trifecta, she started feeling her body burn. Fire ants were absolutely swarming her.
39:53 Cassandra Yahnian? Oh my no.
39:55 Danielle LaRock? Biting and crawling across her body as she leaned, as she laid pinned under the root system, struggling to free herself as the raft dipped further and further into the river.
40:05 Cassandra Yahnian? Fire ants are the worst.
40:07 Danielle LaRock? Didn't, weren't you on the phone, like you were on the phone and got attacked by?
40:10 Cassandra Yahnian? Yeah, I was in Texas and I was just, I was like, I'll go sit in the park on the ground and I'll call Al and I had sat down and unbeknownst, actually I think I had laid down on the grass, that's what it was. I had my, I picked up my phone and I called Al and I held it up to my ear and there were a ton of fire ants crawling up my arm and I didn't know it and they climbed onto my face while I was on the phone with him and they started attacking.
40:37 Danielle LaRock? Yeah, very unpleasant. Holly and Fitz struggled to remove the tree and were final, and were finally able to lift it just enough to free Holly and slide the tree off of the raft and into the river before the raft was completely swamped. Finally free, Holly burned. Burst from the tent, swatting away the ants that were not whipped off in the wind of the storm. And they were everywhere. Not long after the storm began to subside, with just flashes of lightning illuminating the sky in the distance, for the first time in days, they felt their raft brushing up against branches. Managing to take hold of some low-hanging vines, the pair pulled the raft to what they assumed was the river's edge. They tied up and collapsed into sleep. Morning broke and macaw calls served as their alarm clock.
41:20 Danielle LaRock? The couple awoke feeling lucky after the incident of the night prior. But that sense of luck was about to take a sharp turn for the worse. Taking account of their situation in the daylight, there were two major problems. First, their boxes of food had toppled and spilled into the river during the storm. There were now only six items left: A four-ounce can of tuna, a 1.4-ounce package of dehydrated pea soup, a can of evaporated milk, a half a cup of sugar, a small chunk of cheese, and a jar of instant coffee. Then Fitz looked around and took account of where exactly they were. They were no longer in the wide, swift river. They were in a narrow, slow-moving sliver of water.
42:02 Danielle LaRock? And glancing at the trees that they had tied up to, they saw no land at all. There appeared to be thick brush and tangles of branches as far as they could see, but no actual earth. A creeping sense of panic edged into their conversation as they decided to untie and push off in hopes of catching the current. But after exhaustive efforts of paddling, the raft moved only feet. It was ultimately dead weight in the sluggish, moving water. For hours, they struggled to get the pink palace moving towards a bend in the river, which sustained more rips and tears as they attempted to navigate along the thick brush. After so many hours of effort, they moved approximately 10 yards, but were finally able to see around the bend
42:44 Danielle LaRock? that was, they were thinking was gonna like lead them right back to the river. Anticipating it to be linked right back to the Madre, the blood drained from their faces, because what they saw was a dead end. The storm had pushed them into a small channel off of the river into a flooded jungle. No land, no riverbank, or outlet. Just still murky water and impenetrable jungle. So the branches and the trees that they were going along and tying on that night, they're just the tops of trees, because they're in a flooded jungle. Wow, that's- So scary. The decision was made to try and make it back to the where they were the previous night.
43:24 Danielle LaRock? But again, after more hours of struggle, pulling themselves inch by inch by the vines and branches back up the channel. They had only gained a handful of yards and they started to yell for help until their voices were hoarse, but they heard no reply. Darkness descended and with it, the rain. Too exhausted to repair their ripped tent, a couple collapsed into a sopping wet sleeping bag. Holly was up all night plagued by the mysterious sounds of the jungle and the animals that roamed in the night. Breakfast consisted of a tablespoon of pea soup and coffee, both hydrated with river water, which was boiled and treated with their, their.
44:00 Cassandra Yahnian? So they flooded water that's in, now they're in slow moving water. I hope that they're really treating it because that's a recipe for a disaster.
44:09 Danielle LaRock? They considered their next move. They could swim out of the channel until it linked back up to the Madre and follow it to hopefully, until it reached some sort of civilization.
44:20 Cassandra Yahnian? No, the fish that climb into your intestines are in there.
44:24 Danielle LaRock? I, the caiman, it's a caiman for me.
44:26 Cassandra Yahnian? Yeah, well, there's that too.
44:28 Danielle LaRock? And there's also like anacondas and pythons and other sort of, I mean, you're in an Amazonian jungle. I mean.
44:34 Cassandra Yahnian? There's everything.
44:35 Danielle LaRock? There's everything. It's, it's.
44:36 Cassandra Yahnian? Everything that's venomous or poisonous or whatever is, is there.
44:41 Danielle LaRock? And it's, the river is just, it's so brown. Like you can, you can just submerge your hand in it just an inch or two and not be able to see it. So.
44:49 Cassandra Yahnian? There could be anything lurking and you'd have no idea.
44:52 Danielle LaRock? That is correct.
44:53 Cassandra Yahnian? Spooky.
44:54 Danielle LaRock? So that first option would have been a very ambitious move. Their strength was now depleted. They were struggling all day the day before. And even in tip top shape, that would have been nearly impossible to do. Like the strength that required to, to swim that distance and.
45:11 Cassandra Yahnian? Yeah.
45:12 Danielle LaRock? Then hopefully float and not be snagged by something. Uh, not to mention, like we just talked about, there's caiman, stingrays, anacondas, piranhas and eels, just to name a few, that all called that water home and a lot of other unseen hazards as well. I mean, rocks and trees and getting injured in some way, aside from any sort of animal life. That was something to consider as well. It was decided that they would stay with the raft, but rather than wait where they were for rescue, which may well never, ever come, they'd attempt to navigate the pink palace back up the channel. Just as Fitz was suggesting that was impossible and that he would attempt to swim for help alone, they spotted something in the jumble of brush at the dead end that they were in.
45:57 Danielle LaRock? And it was another raft. It was smaller and in pretty rough shape, but it was within reach. Much to Holly's anxiety, Fitz jumped into the water and swam to it, pulling it back to their raft and tying it to the side. This new raft, they nicknamed the balsa. It was about two feet by four feet. And while it floated with them both sitting on it, it was still partial, they were still partially submerged by a couple inches of water. So this thing is like barely floating.
46:24 Cassandra Yahnian? Yeah, you're on an eight foot raft and now you're on a four foot, two by four raft.
46:28 Danielle LaRock? But the thinking is it's easier to navigate and to paddle.
46:33 Cassandra Yahnian? Back up the river.
46:33 Danielle LaRock? Correct. Retrieving the balsa took the better part of the day. So it was decided that they would rest up that the rest of that day, pack up, condense their stuff and attempt to make their way back out of this channel and onto the river, the main river on that smaller balsa the following day. So that was the plan of action. Anxious to get back to civilization, they rose before the sun on the third day of being trapped. They or they reorganized their belongings, packing only essentials into their small camera bag, which included the rest of their food, some clothing, their identification and money, and two cellophane wrapped photos of their toddler niece named Liza. Waving goodbye to their pink palace, they took off, paddling in unison and singing as they went to keep up their spirits.
47:18 Danielle LaRock? Grabbing a hold of reeds and tree limbs as they went, sweltering the full sun and muscles burning, they continued to paddle. They were at it all day. At times having to get into the water to pull the raft over log jams as mystery objects slithered and bumped against their legs. As the sun began to dip and no land in sight, they tied up to a submerged tree and crawled into its branches to sleep, to have a good night's rest.
47:44 Cassandra Yahnian? Yeah. I sleep well.
47:46 Danielle LaRock? No.
47:46 Cassandra Yahnian? Oh, my God.
47:47 Danielle LaRock? Imagine plagued by relentless mosquitoes, crawling ants and bats all night long. Holly woke Fitz the next night by screaming for help. She had heard a motorboat in the distance, but they had been too far and the motor too loud to be heard.
48:03 Cassandra Yahnian? Oh, I wonder if it's someone looking for them because they said if they hadn't heard from them and after a certain amount of time.
48:10 Danielle LaRock? And that's what they were hoping as well. After a mouthful each of dry pea soup, off they went again on their fourth day trapped. Their muscles were screaming, their skin burned from the sun and welted from the relentless insect bites. Their stomachs ached from the lack of food and their mouths felt like sandpaper. Hours melted by as they battled log jams, brush and the increasing strength of the current. Then the skies darkened and the heavens opened. Rain pelted them and churned the water, spinning their raft in furious circles, squinting against the sheets of rain.
48:42 Cassandra Yahnian? It's just getting worse and worse.
48:45 Danielle LaRock? All the time.
48:45 Cassandra Yahnian? This story is really reminiscent of Yossi Ginsberg where he's out in the, he was in the Amazon too, right?
48:54 Danielle LaRock? Yeah. And it's funny you say that because I looked, I looked that up because I'm like, how far away was he? And he was in Medidi National Park, which is relatively close to where they are.
49:05 Cassandra Yahnian? Which explains, I guess, not totally similar, but kind of similar circumstance, but also just the theme of it just never ends. Like there's no, nothing is getting better. It's just awful.
49:17 Danielle LaRock? It's relentless is what it is. It's just one thing after another, after another. Squinting against the sheets of rain, they paddled with all of their might, fighting just to stay in place. Like at this point, they are going as hard as they can just to not lose ground versus gain any ground.
49:33 Cassandra Yahnian? They're certainly determined.
49:34 Danielle LaRock? The wind swept them sideways as they ultimately dropped their paddles and dug their fingernails into any branches that they could reach in desperation to just hold on to something stationary. Screaming at each other over the wind and crashing waves to hold on. The couple battled to hold their position, but ultimately lost. Unable to keep a hold. The storm whipped them backwards and through the rain, they were hurdled past all of the landmarks. They fought so hard to pass. Within minutes, the rain relented, the balsa calmed, and they opened their eyes to see the pink palace. They were right where they had begun.
50:12 Cassandra Yahnian? All that work, all that work for nothing.
50:15 Danielle LaRock? Feeling defeated, they dragged themselves back onto the larger raft and collapsed. Just as soon as they hit the boards of the pink palace, they heard a distant rumbling growing closer by the second. It was a plane, and now they could see it. It was a small, two-propeller plane that had burst through the clouds and was flying low over the swamp towards them. "We're over here," they screamed, jumping up and down, frantically swinging their arms. Just as soon as it appeared, it vanished from sight, leaving a stunned silence hanging in the air between them.
50:46 Cassandra Yahnian? No.
50:47 Danielle LaRock? Hopes dashed but not completely squashed, they set out to repair the tent and to use the remaining bright pink and blue plastic sheeting to construct a large SOS. The days came and went with no additional sightings of a plane. They ate the last of their food, two teaspoons of sugar, and set off on their balsa to survey their flooded swamp of a dead end. Despite their earlier reservations, it was decided they would make a swim for it. They're like, okay, it's been days, we're stuck in this dead end, no one is coming for us.
51:19 Cassandra Yahnian? We have no option at this.
51:20 Danielle LaRock? We have no option, we have to try and swim. Hipping each other up and reassuring one another that they were gonna be okay, they dipped into the murk and began to kick and stroke their way along the channel. It just gives me the.
51:32 Cassandra Yahnian? I feel like I need to shower just thinking about, like, it feels dirty and slimy and you don't know what's in there.
51:39 Danielle LaRock? I'm scared, just sitting here, knowing the outcome.
51:43 Danielle LaRock? I am nervous. Hours ticked by as they gasped for air, their lungs and muscles on fire. Eventually reaching one of the log jams, they spent the night on top of it, exposed to the rain, the mosquitoes, and the lightning that struck around them. They held each other as they cried, utterly defenseless and exposed, laying at water level and ripe for the taking. It's like, imagine how, just so vulnerable.
52:08 Cassandra Yahnian? You have no defense against any of the predators that are around.
52:12 Danielle LaRock? Nope.
52:12 Speaker 05 Para los grandes, para los chicos, para los bajos y los altos, los pacifistas, los valientes, para los optimistas y los pesimistas, los que valoran lo de adentro, para los que están lejos, los que no ven de lejos y los que no ven de cerca, para los introvertidos y los extrovertidos, para los que piensan y los que hacen, para los que nos mostraron el camino. Coca-Cola, para todos. Compra una Coca-Cola en una tienda cerca de Usted.
52:42 Danielle LaRock? The next morning, they awoke tired, but here we are again, determined. They needed to get out of there and fast. With no more food, they were running out of time. Again, they spent most of the day doing the breaststroke, inching along the channel. Exhausted and in need of a break, Holly scanned the water looking for a place suitable to grab hold of or climb onto just for a rest. Spotting a large tree that was big enough to hold the both of them, she paddled quickly for it, desperate for some relief. But when she got within a few feet of it, her left leg got caught. It was, it was stuck in thick mud, the consistency of clay, and it was pulling her in.
53:22 Cassandra Yahnian? Quicksand? Now we have quicksand? Just add it. Oh my, this poor couple on their honeymoon, their extended honeymoon.
53:32 Danielle LaRock? That's right. Within seconds, her left leg, up and over her left hip, were sucked in to this clay. Staying as calm as possible, she shouted to Fitz as a warning, "Do not come any closer, lest he be snagged up too." Pushing down the panic, because she's also in the water, like she's also being pulled underwater.
53:51 Cassandra Yahnian? So she can drown if she gets pulled down too far.
53:54 Danielle LaRock? Right, right. Like that's the other aspect that we need to keep in mind here.
53:57 Cassandra Yahnian? Cherry on top of all these bad things.
54:00 Danielle LaRock? Pushing down the panic, Holly maneuvered and twisted herself out, gasping for air and trying to swallow with a tongue so swollen it barely fit into her mouth anymore. After more hours battling the current in the channel, they came upon another log jam. With shaky arms, they managed to pull themselves onto the logs, the first "solid land" that they had had in hours. Fitz broke his composure for the very first time. He started screaming at the sky, cursing, screaming, shaking his fist in the air, kind of just like cursing God, asking God, why? Why? With tears in both of their eyes now, they faced their reality. They couldn't go on. The current was just way too strong, they were way too weak,
54:44 Danielle LaRock? and with little to no resources left, with no promise of finding people anytime soon. There's no guarantee that all of this effort is going to pay off. Mm hmm. They made the difficult decision to give in to the river and just float back. What took them literal days to swim past took less than 15 minutes to float back by. And once again, they were at the Pink Palace. Once they were back on their raft, they shifted priorities. They needed food. On the morning of their ninth day trapped, Holly wrote in her journal, "We have found in each other and perhaps ourselves more strength, courage, and faith than we realized was there, a great desire to live."
55:27 Danielle LaRock? They climbed into their small balsa and set off in search of anything that moved amongst the reeds and lily pads, whether they be bugs, lizards, insects, literally anything that they could ingest. They spotted a few but were too slow and too weak to catch them, but felt confident in trying to catch fish when they found a few little, uh, they described them as kind of like slug-like worm bugs sticking to a log. So easy to catch? Well, they were, they were like, we can use our fish hooks. Cause they, remember they had, uh, fish hooks that they bought? Yeah. So they still had those and they were thinking they could use these little worm things as bait and catch some larger fish. So they're smiling at the thought of just like biting into a fish.
56:12 Danielle LaRock? They threaded them onto the hook and plunked the hook into the water. But minutes ticked into hours without a single tug on the line. And by mid afternoon, the bait had completely dissolved into nothing. And it turns out their hook was way too big for the bait and any of the fish that were in that little area. Of course it is. Geese honked overhead and the pair gazed upwards, their mouths watering at the thought of roasted bird. Their efforts continued much the same for the next several days. By their 11th day trapped, both Fitz and Holly had dropped so much weight that their jeans wouldn't stay above their hips. They daydreamed about their favorite meals, speaking about what food items they craved the most. Ice cream with chocolate sauce, broiled burgers,
56:57 Danielle LaRock? and onion soup. They spent more and more of their days laying inside the tent of the pink palace, just too exhausted to do much else. And also, there was a tactical reason for that. They wanted to conserve what little energy they had by just laying low most of the day.
57:16 Cassandra Yahnian? Makes sense.
57:17 Danielle LaRock? They would spend the early mornings and late afternoons out searching for food, like on these little scouting missions on the small balsa, before and after the intensity of the sun kicked into high gear, but repeatedly came up empty-handed. Bones that had always been covered with a layer of fat were now revealed, poking through a thin layer of skin on both Holly and Fitz. Up until that point, the squishy grub-like slugs that they had been finding were used for bait only. And the berries that they had periodically come across when looking for insects and other bugs and stuff, that they passed up in fear that they would be poisonous, were now fair game. Everything was fair game.
58:00 Cassandra Yahnian? Yeah, they don't really have a choice at this point.
58:03 Danielle LaRock? They had just finished eating their last of their edible items, which was their toothpaste. So they choked down these slimy grub-like worms and prayed that the berries would do them no harm. Because they had no, I mean, they're not educated in what is edible and not in this part of the world. So they're kind of just crossing their fingers and hoping that they don't get poisoned by anything, but they have no choice. They're starving.
58:30 Cassandra Yahnian? Yeah, berries can be so scary. Yeah. You just never know unless you're, you are well-versed in that.
58:37 Danielle LaRock? Then began a new battle. Let's, where's the list? Where's our scroll here?
58:43 Cassandra Yahnian? What is next? What is next?
58:45 Danielle LaRock? Bees.
58:46 Cassandra Yahnian? Poor couple. No. Are they allergic to bees?
58:49 Danielle LaRock? No.
58:50 Cassandra Yahnian? Okay.
58:51 Danielle LaRock? Okay.
58:51 Cassandra Yahnian? Positive.
58:52 Danielle LaRock? However, negative. There's thousands of them.
58:56 Cassandra Yahnian? That is definitely a negative.
58:58 Danielle LaRock? And they come out of seemingly nowhere and they just descend onto them and surrounding the entire pink palace. The couple were almost choking on them as the insects swarm them, covering every single bit of exposed skin and crawling underneath any remaining clothing that they had on, just relentlessly stinging them. With nowhere to go, they had to jump into the water to escape them. Pulling themselves back onto the raft, they realized they were spared by the swarm and started to understand what the bees were after. And it was their sweat. Four days, they were trapped by these bees, having to either trap themselves in the stifling hot pink palace tent, like this hot plastic sheeting.
59:43 Danielle LaRock? Or venturing into the murky river to escape the stings.
59:49 Cassandra Yahnian? Did they want like the salt from their sweat?
59:52 Danielle LaRock? Yes.
59:53 Cassandra Yahnian? Okay.
59:53 Danielle LaRock? And it's so hot that they're just, they're pouring sweat all the time.
59:57 Cassandra Yahnian? Yeah.
59:58 Danielle LaRock? So it's like, we need, either need to trap ourselves in this sheet of tent and the sauna, or get into the river and ultimately, like, potentially be exposed to worse things. But after a time, the couple had literally no fight left in them, no energy to do much of anything, but let the hundreds of bees just crawl all over them while they lay down on the raft. Just skin and bones, starving to death, and just kind of relenting to this situation. Like, there is nothing left to do. However, on the morning of their 14th day, we're at 14
1:00:39 Danielle LaRock? days now, Holly jumped up. Like, they, for the last few days, they were pretty listless and just really low energy, not talking a lot. They didn't have enough energy to have, hold full conversations. And Holly just jumps up. They had begun to come to terms with the very real possibility that they would never see their family or friends again. And the harsh truth that their family and friends may never even know what happened to them, they could ultimately just never be found. But on this day, Holly had an epiphany. She wanted to have a baby, something that she hadn't been quite sure of in the past. It was never a top priority, but she shared this elation with Fitz, who loved children, and this gave them a renewed sense of determination.
1:01:24 Cassandra Yahnian? They needed something to live for.
1:01:26 Danielle LaRock? Yeah, they needed to live. They wanted a family of their own. That day, a net that they had made out of a shirt paid off and they caught three tiny minnows. Without a second thought, they just gulped them down home and alive the first food that they had caught in two weeks. Their urge to bite into something was driving them crazy, though, and she talks a lot about that of like, just that urge to sink your teeth into something.
1:01:53 Cassandra Yahnian? Be like eating, actively eating something, crunching on something.
1:01:57 Danielle LaRock? So later that day, and it was driving them crazy. So later that day, they discovered dozens of snail-like insects clinging to the logs of the raft that kind of just appeared over the last couple hours, along with these tiny, they were about the size of a thumbnail, little baby frogs. And they just either, they eagerly just like a handful of them.
1:02:19 Cassandra Yahnian? That's a baby frog.
1:02:20 Danielle LaRock? Sorry, yeah, they had to go. And she was so desperate to bite into something, even though it was like disgusting to her. She, she, there was like this fight going on between her brain and her body's urge. She just put these snail-like little grub creatures between her teeth and just like
1:02:39 Cassandra Yahnian? Chewed on them?
1:02:39 Danielle LaRock? Bit down them. Yeah. She was surprised by the desperation to chew and then the repulsive, like
1:02:47 Cassandra Yahnian? How gross it was after?
1:02:49 Danielle LaRock? Yeah, immediate repulsion of this like gooey ooze that she had to choke down.
1:02:54 Cassandra Yahnian? Yeah, I mean, whatever you gotta do to survive, I can only imagine the mental and physical hardships that are happening. Happening right now.
1:03:02 Danielle LaRock? Yep. By the twentieth day. Two zero.
1:03:06 Cassandra Yahnian? Twenty.
1:03:07 Danielle LaRock? They had to tie their clothing onto them to keep it from falling off of their body. For without a sash, it would drop straight to the floor. They had grown so thin, Fitz's wedding ring had slipped off his finger and plunged into the water. They had discussions about what to do if one of them was to die first, including what they would have to do with the body. And Holly had to routinely check Fitz to ensure that he was still breathing when she woke up every morning. Like, that's how desperate the situation was getting.
1:03:37 Cassandra Yahnian? So is he doing worse than her, or is this, both of them are kind of doing this for each other?
1:03:42 Danielle LaRock? I think they're both kind of doing it, but the sense I got was Fitz was doing a little bit worse. Than Holly. Too weak to stand for long or balance on the raft. They resulted to crawling on their hands and knees to get anywhere, like they couldn't even stand up on their own. They had been surviving on the small snails and occasional berries. But on this day, they found a small nest with three baby birds inside, tucked amongst the reeds. Small enough that their eyes had not yet opened, Holly shed tears as her and Fitz ate them. Chewing every morsel, cracking their tiny bones for marrow and slurping up their blood. She thought of how in any other circumstance, she would be feeding them with an eyedropper.
1:04:26 Danielle LaRock? But here she was, desperately eating them.
1:04:30 Cassandra Yahnian? She has to survive.
1:04:31 Danielle LaRock? Yep. The highs and lows continued along with the intermittent sighting of low-flying planes. They were sleeping longer and longer each day, spending just a handful of hours awake, which they would spend scouring for any source of food. Despite all of their hardship, they always took time to express their love and appreciation for one another, even if they can only muster horse whispers. But in the afternoon of their twenty-fifth day, Fitz yelled for the first time in weeks. He was yelling as loudly as he could manage for help. Holly, who was in the tent, scrambled out to see what was happening. In an instant, she was joining.
1:05:11 Danielle LaRock? Effort yelling and waving her arms. They had spotted a boat with two men paddling in the distance. The boat turned as the men aboard had heard their cries. They almost fainted with relief as the men approached silently paddling and steering their canoe to the pink palace. Fitz and Holly quite literally fell into their canoe as the men sat in almost complete silence, likely taking in the unexpected scene in front of them. Two partially clothed, clearly starving and exhausted foreigners trapped on a raft in the middle of a swamp in the middle of a jungle. They exchanged some words in their native language in their native language while helping the pair aboard with their belongings. Through exchange, broken Spanish and English, Holly and Fitz
1:05:56 Danielle LaRock? explained their situation as best as they could while they learned that the men's names were Roke and Silvero. The men explained that they would bring them to help and explained where they were. Roke went on to say, "Here there is no land, no people. In July, this lake, which we call Lago Santa Maria, dries and we can trap and we can tap the rubber trees." They went on to explain, "No one would have ventured here for another four months." But they had been on the main river, the Madre de Dios, hunting turtles when they saw a monkey, which they knew would make a good meal. And it was swinging in the trees nearby and they were actually chasing it through the flooded forest when they came upon the two.
1:06:41 Cassandra Yahnian? So wow, what are the chances?
1:06:43 Danielle LaRock? They would have, they would have died. No doubt about it.
1:06:47 Cassandra Yahnian? So to be clear, they're being saved by poachers because they're not allowed to hunt the turtles.
1:06:53 Danielle LaRock? These are native people, so I don't know if they're because they, I don't know if they're subsistence hunting and I don't know if they're hunting the yellow spotted.
1:07:03 Cassandra Yahnian? Okay, so it's unclear if they're not supposed to be doing, but
1:07:06 Danielle LaRock? And this is also in the seventies. I don't think these turtles had protections at that point.
1:07:11 Cassandra Yahnian? Yeah.
1:07:11 Danielle LaRock? Regardless, that was, I didn't catch that when I was writing it as that, that correlation, but no, I don't think it was an, I think they were literally just hunting to feed their families and themselves.
1:07:21 Cassandra Yahnian? Oh, okay. And just happened to come across them.
1:07:24 Danielle LaRock? And then they're like, oh, a monkey. We would love to eat that. And then they would just follow it.
1:07:28 Cassandra Yahnian? What are the chances?
1:07:31 Danielle LaRock? Holly asked how far they were to River Larta, the original destination that they were
1:07:37 Cassandra Yahnian? Still trying to go there.
1:07:38 Danielle LaRock? Where the hell is this place?
1:07:41 Cassandra Yahnian? Take us.
1:07:42 Danielle LaRock? And they were surprised to hear that they had almost made it. It was only eight hours away by boat. So they had
1:07:48 Cassandra Yahnian? They were so close.
1:07:49 Danielle LaRock? They were so close. If it wasn't for that storm that pushed them off path. The men offered the couple chicha, and I was like, oh, we've had that. A traditional Peruvian drink of fermented corn juice and pieces of fried plantain.
1:08:04 Cassandra Yahnian? Chicha was so good, too.
1:08:06 Danielle LaRock? It was really good. I don't know if we had.
1:08:09 Cassandra Yahnian? We did a chicha moreena.
1:08:11 Danielle LaRock? Yes, that's, yes.
1:08:13 Cassandra Yahnian? The purple, purple chicha drinks.
1:08:17 Danielle LaRock? Handshaking, Fitz and Holly savored the small snack while their stomachs were screaming for more substance. They watched in bewilderment as Roke and Silvero expertly paddled the canoe across the swamp and into the thick tingle of flooded forest on the other side, weaving through the maze of vegetation with ease. After nearly two hours of navigating through this thick forest, they popped out onto the wide Brown River. They were back on the Madre de Dios and looking at the Red Riverbank rising on each side. And Holly was overcome with joy. It was the first land that they had seen in nearly a month. Because they've just been in a swamped jungle this whole time.
1:09:00 Danielle LaRock? The men paddled them to their small village of Santo Domingo, a rubber tree plantation comprised of just a small cluster of small buildings with some thatched roofs. Sliding ashore, they had to be helped out of the canoe and onto land where they collapsed under a tree, while the locals rushed to their aid. They came out with offerings, oranges, soup, rice, eggs, roasted bananas, fish and chicken. It was March 16th, a day they dubbed on the spot as their own personal Thanksgiving. The families jumped in to help them, bathed the couple, combed and braided Holly's matted hair, gave them fresh clothing and beds to rest in. Overwhelmed by their kindness and enormous gratitude,
1:09:42 Danielle LaRock? the couple expressed their thanks through words, tears and offering of any of their belongings from the pink palace. They're like, you can have literally anything you want. The next morning, the locals arranged a ride for Holly and Fitz that would bring them to their ultimate destination. Once they arrived, they made a stop at the Mary Knoll Missionary Hospital. Still weak and fragile as feathers, the couple struggled up the grassy knoll from the riverboat to the hospital, where they were met by all people, a woman named Sister Bernice, a nun from Connecticut. And they're from Connecticut.
1:10:18 Cassandra Yahnian? What a small world.
1:10:19 Danielle LaRock? While at the hospital, the couples received much-needed medical attention, including medication to kill intestinal parasites, and were informed by the doctors that they likely wouldn't have been able to survive in those conditions another two days. They were given food in very small increments as their bodies adjusted, and they regaled the doctors and nurses of their experience, all of whom were convinced that it was God's will alone that allowed them to live, because they were shocked that predators didn't get them at all. I mean, there-
1:10:50 Cassandra Yahnian? There are so many things that could have happened.
1:10:52 Danielle LaRock? Yeah. It took nearly four days for them to regain enough strength to even stand on their own, and several weeks before they were strong enough to be discharged from the hospital at all. They used a ham radio to contact their parents back home, who had no clue that they were in any sort of danger, let alone almost died.
1:11:11 Cassandra Yahnian? They were just going about their business.
1:11:13 Danielle LaRock? Well, they were like, hey, don't expect to hear from us.
1:11:15 Cassandra Yahnian? Don't worry about us. Yeah.
1:11:17 Danielle LaRock? Yeah. When they arrived, I just found that like, just so funny. Not funny, but just-
1:11:24 Cassandra Yahnian? Better that than the alternative since they ended up being okay than them worrying for days.
1:11:29 Danielle LaRock? I guess. Yeah, it's like, hey, you missed it, but we almost died. Literally, quite, yeah, literally. When they arrived at the hospital, Fitz had weighed 124 pounds.
1:11:41 Cassandra Yahnian? And how tall is he?
1:11:43 Danielle LaRock? Over six feet tall.
1:11:44 Cassandra Yahnian? Wow.
1:11:45 Danielle LaRock? And Holly was just 93 pounds. 16 days after being admitted, Holly and Fitz waved goodbye to the hospital and staff and hopped aboard a plane, one of many that would connect them to JFK International Airport and into the arms of their families. They spent the spring and summer recuperating at Holly's parents' vacation home in Stowe, Vermont.
1:12:06 Cassandra Yahnian? Wow.
1:12:07 Danielle LaRock? They spent-
1:12:07 Cassandra Yahnian? It's a good place to recover.
1:12:09 Danielle LaRock? It is, yeah. But by that fall, they were anxious to get back to their honeymoon because it was interrupted.
1:12:16 Cassandra Yahnian? What? These, this couple is, I will say, they, they do not give up.
1:12:22 Danielle LaRock? They don't. They set off to France, Britain, and Ireland, and on to Bali where they celebrated Christmas. They spent months in Malaysia and Thailand, trekked in Nepal, and traveled to India and Ethiopia. They have hitchhiked through Kenya, camped in Tanzania, explored Egypt, and beyond.
1:12:41 Cassandra Yahnian? Good for them. Wow.
1:12:43 Danielle LaRock? As they promised each other, every year on March 16th, or Raft Day, as they have dubbed it, Holly and Fitz celebrate. They replicate the meal that they were given by eating oranges, fish, and rice. But more importantly, they kept another promise to one another, to continue to love one another fully and have a family of their own. They settled in Massachusetts. Fitz went on to become an attorney, and Holly has gone on to write of their experience in her book titled, Ruthless River: Love and Survival by Raft on the Amazon's Relentless Madre de Dios. She attends book signings, speaks publicly about their struggle to survive, and even has a TED Talk, which I will link in the episode description,
1:13:26 Danielle LaRock? and it is titled, "What the Jungle Taught Me About Inner Strength." Holly concludes her book with the following, quote, Days are painted by our children and their families, our friends and meaningful work, our interests, and sometimes with travel. My life, like the Madre, is a running river. I am ever curious about what lies beyond the bend. As with other stories we have covered, including Yossi's and Dawn Fendler's Stories of Survival, it appears as if Holly and Fitz's story may just become a movie in the future.
1:14:00 Cassandra Yahnian? Oh.
1:14:01 Danielle LaRock? There's some, there's some chatter about it that I saw when I was in the process of researching some of the details for this story, but as I mentioned, I use the book heavily for my resources. But, and there's nothing concrete, but there is definitely, like I saw that they had taken some meetings and there's some producers that are interested in this story.
1:14:21 Cassandra Yahnian? It would make for a very interesting story. Wow, that I feel like I've said wow so many times in the past, like five minutes, but the story is truly incredible and such a, such a testament to having a partner that you trust and love and the love that's there, but also just having something to live for and the strength that you can pull out of thin air because they had nothing else but each other and the hopes of a life together to live for in those moments and sustaining them.
1:14:53 Danielle LaRock? For real.
1:14:53 Cassandra Yahnian? Yeah.
1:14:54 Danielle LaRock? Yeah.
1:14:55 Cassandra Yahnian? It's incredible. It really is.
1:14:57 Danielle LaRock? So yeah, there's, okay, let's recap quickly. Plane crash, prison.
1:15:03 Cassandra Yahnian? Prison.
1:15:05 Danielle LaRock? Storms, quicksand.
1:15:08 Cassandra Yahnian? The parasites, whatever they got for sure.
1:15:12 Danielle LaRock? Yeah, starvation.
1:15:14 Cassandra Yahnian? Starvation, dehydration, I imagine.
1:15:17 Danielle LaRock? Yes. I feel like there was more, but that's enough, you know?
1:15:21 Cassandra Yahnian? That's more than enough. I wouldn't want to go through three of those things and we just listed like seven.
1:15:26 Danielle LaRock? Yeah, and they were, yeah, so they got rescued on their 25th day. So thank you to the listener that recommended that. I'm sorry, I didn't write down your name. I'll get better at that. But yeah, this was just an incredible survival story and one that I'm just, I mean, Holly did write this memoir and she wrote it later in life. I mean, she just wrote this within the last few years. And she just talks a lot about, I would watch the TED Talk because she definitely talks a lot about how, exactly what you said, just having something to live for, having a partner, a supportive partner. And, because it can go so. Wrong. Like, a lot of the outcome is based on who your own mental state and who
1:16:09 Danielle LaRock? you're with and your dynamic and just as much as outside factors, you know? Like, a lot of it of survival is based on, yeah, your mental fortitude. And I think that they were lucky and they're still married to this day. Like, they, you know, a lot of this-
1:16:26 Cassandra Yahnian? I mean, if they can make it through that, then I think everything else they've been through in life is probably a breeze.
1:16:34 Danielle LaRock? All right. Well, thank you, everyone, for listening and we will see you next week. Enjoy the view.
1:16:40 Cassandra Yahnian? Bo, watch your back.
1:16:42 Danielle LaRock? Bye, everyone.
1:16:43 Cassandra Yahnian? Bye.
1:16:49 Danielle LaRock? Thank you so much for joining us again this week. If you have a trail tale or story suggestion, send us an email at [email protected] . Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at National Park After Dark and on Twitter at NPAD Podcast. Join our outsiders-only community on Patreon or Apple subscriptions to listen ad-free, unlock monthly bonus episodes and exclusive content.
1:17:13 Cassandra Yahnian? And remember, when you support our sponsors, you are supporting our show. For our exclusive discount codes and source information from today's episode, check out the show notes. For more information on our show, our book recommendations, merch updates and more, visit our website at NPADpodcast.com. And please rate, review and subscribe from wherever you listen to podcasts.
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1:18:10 Speaker 05 Para los grandes, para los chicos, para los bajos y los altos, los pacifistas, los valientes, para los optimistas y los pesimistas, los que valoran lo de adentro, para los que están lejos, los que no vende lejos, y los que no vende cerca, para los introvertidos y los extrovertidos, para los que piensan y los que hacen, para los que nos mostraron el camino. Coca-Cola, para todos. Compra una Coca-Cola en una tienda cercana a usted.
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