In Part 2 of our deep dive into Ruthless River by Holly FitzGerald, we pick up with Holly and Gerald William FitzGerald drifting down the Madre de Dios River, still riding the high of survival and convinced the river is guiding them safely toward Riberalta, Bolivia.

Before the chaos unfolds, we explore the river itself. The Madre de Dios, meaning Mother of God, was once called Amarumayo, the River of the Serpents, by Indigenous communities because of its twisting, unpredictable path. It stretches more than 700 miles through Peru and Bolivia and ultimately feeds into the greater Amazon basin. It is powerful, remote, and anything but forgiving.

What begins in “Huck Finn mode,” inspired by Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, quickly unravels.

In this episode, we cover:

• Being shot at by border guards when arriving at the Heath River checkpoint in the dark
• An invasive search that leaves them shaken and without key supplies
• Brutal heat that turns the Pink Palace into a floating oven
• A violent nighttime storm that rips their shelter apart and fire ants
• Getting swept into a flooded dead end logjam with almost no food left
• Abandoning the Pink Palace to paddle for survival on a tiny raft
• Spotting a plane overhead that never circles back

By February 23rd, they are five days stranded, starving, exhausted, and clinging to hope.

Part 3 is where everything changes.

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