Madre de Dios: Stranded in the Amazon | Dead End | 2
Against The Odds
Audible
4.7 • 7.9K Ratings
🗓️ 13 January 2026
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Fitz and Holly FitzGerald set out on their handmade raft, the Pink Palace, drifting down the Madre de Dios under sparkling sunlight. But when night falls, everything changes. After a tense encounter at the border, a violent storm hurls them off course, into a flooded maze of dark water and trees with no way out.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Against the Odds early and ad-free right now. |
| 0:05.6 | Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. |
| 0:09.8 | A listener note. Against the odds uses dramatizations that are based on true events. |
| 0:15.1 | Some elements, including dialogue, may be invented, but everything is based on research. |
| 0:27.8 | Thank you. may be invented, but everything is based on research. Gerald Fitz Fitzgerald smiles under a clear blue sky as his wife Holly snaps a photo of him |
| 0:35.3 | at the tiller. |
| 0:37.4 | Parrots and macaws call out from the trees, and sunlight sparkles on the water. |
| 0:43.2 | It's February 15, 1973, their first day aboard their homemade raft, the Pink Palace. |
| 0:50.8 | After a week of building the raft and gathering supplies, they're really doing it. |
| 0:55.9 | They're gliding down the Madre de Dios River, headed for the Amazon. |
| 1:00.7 | Holly laughs. |
| 1:02.0 | It feels like a dream. |
| 1:04.1 | No schedules, no people, just us. |
| 1:07.6 | I've never felt so free. |
| 1:10.5 | They drift deeper into the unknown, winding their way downstream with the current. |
| 1:16.5 | By late afternoon, all signs of human life have vanished. No more huts, no smoke. Only dense green jungle, |
| 1:25.2 | rising high on the riverbanks. There aren't even any other boats. |
| 1:30.0 | I've never been this far from people before. |
| 1:33.0 | Fitz scans the horizon. |
| 1:35.2 | The river spreads wide. |
| 1:37.0 | Half a mile of brown water on either side of them. |
| 1:40.2 | The border post should be coming up soon. |
... |
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