Amazon Woman: Facing Fears, Chasing Dreams, and a Quest to Kayak the World's Largest River from Source to Sea

by Darcy Gaechter

Overview

An extraordinary and inspiring chronicle of one woman’s harrowing journey to become the first female to kayak the entire Amazon River.

Part memoir, part feminist manifesto, Amazon Woman shows what incredible feats we are capable of and will encourage people, especially women, across all backgrounds and ages to find the courage and strength to live the life they’ve imagined.

This 148-day journey began on Darcy Gaechter’s 35th birthday. She sold her successful outdoor adventure business, upsetting her partner and boyfriend of twelve years and getting them both fired in the process. The emotional waters that would fester and erupt on the ensuing journey was often more challenging to navigate than the mighty river itself. With blistering lips and irradiated fingernails, Darcy would tackle raging Class Five whitewater for twenty-five days straight, barely surviving a dynamite-filled canyon being prepared for a new hydroelectric plan. She and her two companions would encounter illegal loggers, narco-traffickers, murderous Shining Path rebels, and ruthless poachers in the black market trade in endangered species.

In a desperate attempt meant to give her some pretense of control, Darcy even cut off all her hair before entering Peru’s notoriously dangerous “Red Zone” in hopes of passing for a boy and being seen as less of a target. At once a heart-pounding adventure and a celebration of pushing personal limits, Amazon Woman speaks to all of us feeling trapped by our desk-bound, online society. This a story of finding the courage and strength to challenge nature, cultures, social norms, and oneself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781643133140
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	03/03/2020
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Darcy Geachter is the first and only woman to kayak the entire length of the Amazon River. For the past fifteen years, she has been considered one of the world's best female kayakers, leading expeditions in the continental United States, Alaska, Ecuador, Colorado, Idaho, Bhutan, Nepal and Kenya. A speaker with the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies and the Colorado Whitewater Association, Darcy lives in Colorado.

Editorial Reviews

Don’t miss Darcy Gaechter’s Amazon Woman, an account of her harrowing kayaking journey along the Amazon river from source to sea.

Outside

Only badass women need apply...Raging whitewater, narco-traffickers, Shining Path rebels, poachers and more all stood in the way of her goal. Equal parts memoir and feminine manifesto, this inspiring chronicle of her journey will have you rooting her on late into the evening.

Source Weekly - Tom Beans

Darcy’s trip down the Amazon serves as a reminder that the beauty of life is not in the destination, it’s in the journey. Darcy is a role model and an example of what you can accomplish when you follow your dreams.

Tejay Van Garderen

A powerful, adventure-filled memoir, beginning with the first page.

Booklist

A roller coaster thrill ride, both physically and emotionally. Yet, riding rapids pales in comparison to having to face down the darkest elements of human nature. A riveting definition of true fortitude. Readers will be inspired by her audacious sense of adventure and courage, and when combined with her vulnerability, Darcy becomes a Wonder Woman for the ages.

Julie Moss

This is one exciting read, sure to be a wild ride.

Redlands Daily Facts - Jill Martinson

The same courage and relentlessness that propelled Darcy Gaechter down the Amazon also powers this terrific book. Thanks to writing that is both lyrical and self-reflective, Amazon Woman manages to become at once an inspiring adventure story and a deeply intimate memoir.

Eli Saslow

Darcy Gaetcher navigates Class V whitewater and evades armed drug cartels while uncovering the deep and complex roots of her own passion for adventure. As the first woman to paddle the Amazon River from source to sea, she leverages extreme skill and endurance against refreshing humility. Amazon Woman shares a remarkable journey that runs, like the river itself, with both turbulence and grace.

Caroline Van Hemert

Don’t miss Darcy Gaechter’s Amazon Woman, an account of her harrowing kayaking journey along the Amazon river from source to sea.

Outside

2019-12-26
A well-paced tale of outdoor adventure.

"We are all, I suppose, confined to specific destinies and mine seems to be chasing rivers." So writes Gaechter, who decided to mark her 35th birthday—making her ancient, by competitive kayaking standards—by traveling the length of the Amazon River from source to outlet. Why do such a thing? Because it's there, of course, and no woman had been known to do it before, and there's no time like the present. Still, in the company of her longtime partner and a like-minded Brit, she tackled the project, emerging 148 days later after crossing South America from the Andes to the Atlantic. The physical challenges were extraordinary, although, the author notes, "keeping a cool head is the most important skill in kayaking, though by far the most difficult to master." There were plenty of opportunities to exercise that skill, for on top of the churning whitewater rapids and odd critters were the more dangerous denizens of the rainforest, including illegal loggers, Shining Path guerrillas whose "primary operations…now happen in remote jungle areas and involve the lucrative drug trade," and soldiers of fortune who could be quick with the trigger finger. Then there were the more quotidian culture clashes, for, as Gaechter patiently notes, "time is a point of contention between North Americans and Peruvians," making an important rendezvous all the more difficult to schedule. Was it worth dying in that jungle war zone in order to exercise her coveted freedom, she asks? The answer was no—but then again, as she writes, "I'd invested a lot of time and suffering already," reason enough to press on to the next canyon, rapid, anaconda, sulk, argument, and bad feeling ("I didn't want the person I loved acting like an asshole and lunatic, and that's what I often felt Don was doing") while vanquishing inner doubts. The author includes a glossary of kayak terms.

Daring readers will be inspired to overcome similar challenges—and armchair travelers won't be disappointed.

Kirkus Reviews

A narrator needs to sound strong to deliver a one-of-a kind adventure story, and Laura Jennings fully succeeds. The natural huskiness in her voice matches the author’s determination to become the first woman to kayak the Amazon River from its source to the sea. Gaechter is leading two other explorers on the river, and Jennings amps up the adrenaline as the team dodges mining explosions, Shining Path rebels, and a handful of near-death mishaps in the ever-changing water. She softens her delivery, in turn, as the author marvels at wildlife, connects with locals, and shares her insecurities about continuing a life on the river through middle age. Hearing how Gaechter pulls off an expedition of this breadth is audio listening at its most exciting. J.T. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

APRIL 2020 - AudioFile