Plaque to be unveiled for the adventure of a lifetime
By admin
A ceremony is planned for August 17 to unveil a plaque honoring the Starkells for their incredible “paddle to the Amazon.” The ceremony is scheduled for 2 p.m. at the East Kildoman Lions Club Senior Citizen’s Park, located on Kildonan Drive at Bronx Place – the park from which Don, Dana, and Jeff Starkell launched their six meter canoe The Orellana, June 1, 1980 and journeyed almost 20,000 kilometers to the mouth of the Amazon in Brazil.
The two-year odyssey (Jeff returned to Canada after the pounding seas of the Gulf of Mexico nearly killed them all) was fraught with surprises, many of hem life-threatening. Their adventures, chronicled in the book Paddle to the Amazon, earned them a place in the 1986 Guinness Book of World Records for the longest journey by canoe.
The plaque is being installed in the park by the East Kildonan-Transcona committee, with funding coming from a per ca-pita grant.
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September 22nd, 2009
Gabby relieves the Adventure
By admin
Delgado was a university student in Veracruz when he first met the Starkells nine years ago. Jeff Starkell, who had come that far with his brother and father, had just returned to Winnipeg, convinced that to continue the canoe trip would be suicide.
Their first attempt at crossing the Gulf of Mexico had nearly killed the three of them. They were grounded in Veracruz for three months, waiting for spring to bring calmer waters to the gulf and in the meantime, were searching for someone to replace Jeff.
Most Mexicans assumed Don and Dana were crazy when they said they had paddled to Mexico from Winnipeg, Delgado laughs. Did he believe them? “Their skin was black and their hair white. It was incredible, but yes.”
Delgado befriended the duo, rescuing them from their stifling, ant-infested hotel and bringing them to live in his boarding house. There, the Starkells learned Spanish and Delgado learned English, and a strong bond developed.
For so many months, Dana explains, he and his father had come to block out everything that didn’t relate to their survival. Now Gabby, as he calls himself, was part of that survival. He helped them get needed supplies, translate for the various immigration officials, and keep them out of trouble in a different country.
For Gabby, the Starkells were the first Canadians he had ever met. Their trip sounded fantastic and more and more he began to think about joining them.
At the time, Delgado says, he was struggling to overcome what was the start of a drug habit. “I was a little bit into drugs. Life was not going well.”
Gabby looked at the Starkell challenge as an opportunity to turn his life around, and build his self-esteem.
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Starkell’s Visitor Deserves Own Entry in Record Books
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You might say Gabriel Delgado deserves a place in the Guinness Book of World Records on a couple of counts.
First, the young Mexican, with a single day’s paddling experience, was brave enough – or crazy enough – to join East Kildonan canoeists Don and Dana Starkell on their “Paddle to the Amazon,” sticking with them for 19 days as they paddled over Gulf of Mexico waters that would have intimidated the toughest canoeists on earth.
That was back in February and March, 1981.
And now, the ambitious marine engineer has accomplished what few Mexicans would dare to do. Last week, he drove with his wife Mary, who is four months pregnant, and their daughter Christina, 2, from their home in Monterrey, Mexico, 3,200 kilometres north to Winnipeg in an 11-year-old Volkswagon with 160,000 kilometres on it., for a visit with the Starkells.
“Nobody at home knows we came by car. They would have gone crazy. They think we flew,” laughed Delgado as he stretched out in the shade at the East Kildonan Lions Club Senior Citizens Park last Wednesday morning.
The trip was relatively easy, he says, grinning as he admits the starter went in Fort Worth, Texas, and ever since he’s had to push the car to get it going. “We’ll have to get that fixed while they’re here,” Don adds.
Border crossings went smoothly too, in part because at the U.S. border everyone was too astounded to think they were driving all the way to Canada. And, a friend of Don’s cleared the way for them at Canada customs.
He and his family had arrived in Winnipeg the day before and that morning, they and Don and Dana were launching The Orellana from the little park to head to the official opening of the Forks National Park.
It bad been just over eight years since Delgado had climbed into the Orellana, the canoe which took Don and Dana from the shore of the Red River in East Kildonan almost 20,000 kilometres to the mouth of the Amazon River- an adventure that earned them a place in the 1986 Guinness Book of World Record for the longest canoe trip ever made.
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