Reading the true Ruthless River: Love and Survival by Raft on the Amazon’s Relentless Madre de Dios, by Holly Fitzgerald is an adventure in itself. Just imagine experiencing a plane crash; being shot at; staying overnight at a prison on the Bolivian border where the prisoners were free on the grounds because the jungle formed a natural fence to keep them in; setting out on a home-made raft on a South American river through the jungle without a map; getting lost on the river with no outlet, no riverbank and a current that made it very difficult to stop or get to the side of the river; sleeping in a tree to avoid snakes and caimans; seeing your food dwindle to nothing and eating grubs, minnows and baby birds; and everything seeming to get worse as you approach starvation, covered in wasp bites! A reader’s lack of imagination might be rewarded during the reading of this book. For most of us in the discussion, it was an exciting book but equally hard to imagine and to not imagine the hardships and horrors as we read the book.
Pam gave us a detailed synopsis of the book to help us
prepare for the discussion. Her questions guided us, helping us to think about
what we might have done under the circumstances described in this travel
adventure.
One question asked us to describe the most dangerous,
frightening life-threatening adventures we had. Here is a summary of responses,
mostly about youthful ventures, adventures and misadventures:
Joanne, while camping, went on a hike in the dark by herself.
One moment, she noticed fireflies above her and then immediately noticed that
they were also below her: she was on a cliff!
Dennis spent a lot of time on the road in various places around
the world as a young man studying to be a scientist, and occasionally ate roadkill.
Flo went to the Amazon with her husband, who was buying some
electric eels, stingrays, and piranhas. One of the safer aspects of this trip
was that they had guides everywhere.
Cindy T. was in Los Padres National Forest in California,
where everyone drove in on Friday and out Sunday, because of the nature of the
road. She had to evacuate the area on the one-lane road out, pulling a camper
behind the car.
Marcia was in Mexico as a teenager. She said there was lots
of security all around, with lots of machine guns.
Pam traveled to Costa Rica and encountered a Gila monster in
the sink.
Joyce Z. was in a shipwreck while fishing in Galveston bay.
The storm came in fast, the boat capsized, and Joyce was lost and swimming,
concerned that the noise of the storm drowned out the shouting between her and
helpers.
Joyce M. went to Myanmar, a dangerous place, but she felt
safe staying at a Princess resort.
Carol said that her father was always very cautious and instilled that value in her, and it has helped keep her safe.
Lydia lived in Houston before finding Round Rock. In a
storm, she was driving on an overpass and couldn’t stop because no one could
see anything. She and her husband later decided they were lucky to be on the
overpass rather than below, where it flooded.
Lydia also had a scare in Egypt in the 1980s. She and her
husband were in a taxi, and the driver took them out to the middle of a
sand-dune area and pulled a gun on them. Though they didn’t carry much money
there because of such dangers, they did give the bandit all they had. He abandoned
them there in the sand, and they had to walk to civilization.
Jay had been camping with his wife and small children and
was driving on I-35 from Dallas. He saw that the traffic was stopped ahead, but
his car stalled. When traffic moved, there was so much of it that they couldn’t
do anything to signal their distress, and their car was hit twice before a
truck that hit them helped push them to the side of the road.
Ken was in a sudden squall in a 19-foot sailboat by himself,
with no life jacket. He pulled in the sail to minimize it but still use it to
move.
I told about my almost lifelong journey from camping under
the stars in a sleeping bag on the ground to traveling in an RV, as age brought
preferences for softer and more comfortable sleeping.
Thanks to everyone who shared their adventures! It was fun
to revisit the discussion to note them on the blog! I hope we all stay safe and
continue to enjoy reading and meeting online for discussions as we navigate
this pandemic!
Raging River was written 40 years after the author’s travel
event. The ending of the book tied up all the loose ends and went on to bring
the reader somewhat up-to-date with the couple since their dangerous first
travel adventure. It’s remarkable how much traveling the couple has done since
that first trip! It was as though they barely stopped to recover from that
physically debilitating adventure! What were they thinking? “The worst was
first?” They continued to have faith that traveling would be fun, and they had
wonderful times traveling the world!
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