Ep. 802: First Woman to Kayak Amazon From Source to Sea - Revisited - Darcy Gaechter
Adventure Sports Podcast
Curt Linville
4.6 • 579 Ratings
🗓️ 27 January 2022
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Originally aired June 4, 2018
In 2013, Darcy Gaechter became the first woman (and vegan) to kayak the Amazon River from source to sea. With blistering lips and irradiated fingernails, her team of three paddlers tackled Class V whitewater for twenty-five days in a row; just barely survived a dynamite laden canyon being prepared for a hydroelectric dam, and pled for mercy at the hands of the murderous Ashaninka people who remained somewhat convinced we had come to steal their children's organs.
In a desperate act meant to give me some pretense of control, Darcy cut off all of her hair just before they entered Peru’s notoriously violent “Red Zone.” The hope was to pass for a boy and be seen as less of a target. Despite all odds, they reached the Atlantic Ocean 4,300 miles and 148 days of kayaking later.
Upon reaching the Atlantic, the three, an esoteric computer programmer from London, a vegan girl from Aspen, CO and her begrudging boyfriend who would become the first man to kayak the Amazon, “because his girlfriend made him”—became the first three people to kayak the entire Amazon. Darcy became the first woman to do it.
Now, the same number of people have walked on the moon as have descended the Amazon from source to sea.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | And he sat down and sort of quietly started crying. |
| 0:02.8 | And I just looked at him and I was like, this man has just accomplished the most amazing thing in his life. |
| 0:08.1 | And he trained for 10 years for an entire decade to be able to do this and put everything into it. |
| 0:14.9 | And he just felt, you know, so overwhelmed and so happy. |
| 0:34.5 | Yeah. overwhelmed and so happy. This one is intense. |
| 0:36.4 | I mean, who hasn't wanted to kayak a river from source to see before, |
| 0:40.9 | especially to be the first. Darcy was the first woman to do that on the Amazon River back in 2013, |
| 0:47.5 | 148 days, 4,300 miles, and oh my word, so many adventures in between. Hi, I'm your host, Mason Gravely. This is |
| 0:57.6 | the Adventure Sports podcast and today is actually a throwback Thursday episode as we built up more |
| 1:03.2 | new episodes that we release on Mondays. We will have some new episodes soon, but until then, |
| 1:08.5 | enjoy this one and be sure to dream big. |
| 1:22.6 | Hey, today is a fun show about the Amazon. It's about kayaking. It's about first descents from source to sea. |
| 1:32.0 | And it's about being a small, petite gal who wanted to prove that if you really want to do something, it can be done. |
| 1:39.5 | Darcy Gechter is with us today. Darcy grew up in the Aspen area, Aspen, Colorado, and I found her today in |
| 1:45.3 | Glenwood Springs, just up the valley. Darcy, welcome to the program. Thanks, Kurt. It's great to be here. |
| 1:51.1 | I'm excited about the show today because I love water sports. I love talking about the Amazon, |
| 1:58.0 | and I love it when people have the can-do attitude that you have about doing adventure |
| 2:03.6 | sports. So let's start with that. So Darcy, you kind of framed your little summary about this show, |
| 2:12.0 | that you wanted to make sure that you got to talk about being someone that people wouldn't |
| 2:16.4 | expect to be that adventurous, |
| 2:17.9 | who has proven that she is adventurous. So let's just dive in there. All right. Yeah, |
| 2:25.6 | so I guess I'm really short, I'm pretty skinny, and I'm a woman, and I'm a vegan. And when |
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