Dare to Survive

San Francisco businesswoman Cathryn Prentis' dream of visiting Peru's Machu Picchu turns into a living nightmare on October 21, 2003 when she is arrested in the Lima airport and charged with transporting cocaine.

Advised by DEA agents, Peruvian lawyers, family and friends to plead guilty and do anything she can-legally or illegally-to escape Peru, Cathryn must choose: should she plead guilty or should she maintain her innocence and risk a deadly prison sentence?

And can she overcome a foreign culture she can't trust, a language she doesn't speak, corrupt political systems, and politicians with their own agendas?

Based on a true story, Dare to Survive tells how Cathryn Prentis struggled to get legally exonerated, learn Spanish, create an import business, fall in love, and set two foreign legal precedents: the first American to be released from a foreign prison on her own recognizance and the first American allowed to return to the U.S. before her trial.