Jerzy "Yurek" Majcherczyk has organized many trips in the past to the farthest reaches of Latin America since 1979. Since 1992 he has been a “Fellow” of the prestigious Explorers Club in New York City and many other organizations, including the Polish Institute of Science in New York City (since 1987).
Yurek was also involved in founding/taking part in many expeditions and organizations in Poland and the United States, including: the Academic Kayaking Club ‘Bystrze’ in Cracow (1972), Kayak Expedition to Yugoslavia in 1976, Kayak Expedition ‘CANOANDES ‘79’ to Latin America (1979-1982). Yurek is also founder and Honorary Member of the Explorers Club Polish Chapter in Warsaw (1993). Majcherczyk recommended many famous names to this prestigious club: Tony Halik, Elizabeth Dzikowska, Stanislaw Szwarc-Bronikowski and Captain Krystyna Chojnowska-Listkiewicz. In 1996 he founded the Polish-American Travelers Club.
During the CANOANDES ’79 expedition he took part in exploring 25 virgin rivers through North and South America. He is also author of In Kayak Through Peru, which was made available to all Latin American countries, published in Lima in 1981 in Spanish and English. The mayor of Chivay awarded him a medal for promoting the Calloma Province (1995) through promotion for the Colca Canyon.
Yurek also co-authored a travel guide of Polish tourism – 1995 Poland Travel Directory, the first type of guide of this kind in Poland. His most notable book was “Conquest of Rio Colca – The World’s Deepest Canyon” (Warsaw 1998 in Polish, 1999 in Braille). In 2001 a new edition of this book became available with a detailed map of the Colca Canyon.
In 1994 Yurek was included in the ’20 Legends of Paddling’ in an article by the well known Paddler Magazine. In January 2000 he was chosen by the American Kayaker’s Association (the only Pole chosen) to the “Top 100 Paddlers of the 20th Century.”
In 2003 Yurek was honored by the President of Poland with the ‘Knight’s Cross Of Merit to the Republic of Poland” for promoting Poland throughout the world. In May 2006 he was handed, by the Marshall of the Senate of Poland, the prestigious award “For Promoting Poland and Polish Achievements” by TV Polonia.
Yurek also organized and took part in the Polish-American-Peruvian Scientific-Exploratory Expeditions Colca Condor 2008 & 2009, which finished exploring the previously unexplored ‘Cruz del Condor’ virgin part of the Colca Canyon. The scientific data along with a report of the expedition is included in a published book that is currently in Spanish only. Yurek’s three sons took part in these expeditions. After the expeditions Majcherczyk became the only person in history to conquer all 120 kilometers of the canyon along its depths.
Yurek has also co-authored about 500 articles and interviews in gazettes (among these The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, ‘Nowy Dziennik’ and ‘Rzeczypospolita’), and weekly and monthly magazines (among these Outside, South American Explorers Magazine, The Explorers Journal and Paddler) about Latin America – especially in Peru, U.S. and Europe.
