Iquitos, The Past Will Kill

For any novelist, the toughest part or writing a novel, is sometimes finishing the work in the first place. The telling of the setting, characters and all of which make up the fictional piece seems easy at first since there is a story which needs to be told. But when is it time to leave the keyboard? 

The story is written. 

The work is finished. 

Let it be, as the Beatles once sang. 

After a year of writing a story involving two former cops from Riverside, it was time to put the book to bed. The adventures had been told. There were corpses littering the ground from Southern California to the hinterlands of northern Peru. Enough terror and sorrow for one book, but it did have a happy ending. Well, perhaps that is up to the reader and not the wordsmith to decide. But was it done?

These were some of the 'hinterlands' to reside while doing research

The best thing when a novelist thinks it may be ready for readers is to send it off to the editor. Then, wait to hear back. Finally, when the writer receives something like the following from their publisher after a submission: 'John, I do want it. I have sent the attorney a memo to get you a contract.' it makes all the hours alone behind the keyboard worthwhile. Of course, it took many years to receive a contract for John's first novel, 'Hunted', but it has paid off since this is his fourth with Black Opal Books. He's hoping for a long relationship with this growing publishing house in the state of Oregon.

And here it is!

John R. Beyer's fourth novel with BOB

The work will be released this Saturday, the 17th of November.

As any fictional writer realizes, there has to be a lot of truth to a piece or it will sound like fiction. That actually does make sense since it is the job of that very same fictional writer to make the story believable. Fiction, even science fiction, isn't fun if isn't at least plausible. The relationships must ring true. The science must work. And in any work of fiction, the times and places must have a feeling of reality. John knows to make a story feel real, there must be sound research and exploration, and that is reason our intrepid trio took three separate journeys to Peru, including a month-long trip deep into the Amazon jungle. Iquitos to be exact -- where much of the novel takes place. John wanted to research, explore, and live that life...and drag his loving wife and best friend along with him. So the author and his daring team, Laureen, and Paul Bakas suffered mosquito bites, heat stroke, suffocating humidity, and generally had a great time gathering the information John needed in order to put pen to paper and bring life to the story rattling around in his cranium.

Along the way, we met some characters, some of whom appear, in one form or other, in the novel. We played with rescued sloths and monkeys, fed orphaned manatees, swam with pink river dolphins, fished for piranha and generally had the most wonderful experience my wife said she'd never want to have again. And, in the silence of the jungle night, we heard the unmatched cacophony of life end so swiftly with a deafeningly silence that inspired a scene in the novel (spoiler alert).

Some of the following photographs may look familiar to regular followers of our blog, but a trip down memory lane is sometimes good for the soul.

Cooling off with a breeze in a covered dug out on the Amazon

Nothing better than a couple of  lukewarm beers in the jungle

John and Paul with Ademir - our guide for a couple of days

The author with his number one Editor in Lima

The work is done, edited, printed, and soon on the bookshelves for readers to enjoy, but the memories of the research and exploration will never be forgotten or completed. There is always the next book to write. Perhaps one or two have already been started.

To purchase 'Iquitos, The Past Will Kill'

https://blackopalbooks.com/
https://www.amazon.com/
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/

And at other book sellers around the globe...

The Only Way to Get Around

When the intrepid trio landed in Iquitos this past summer, along with our great friend Carlos, we were met with two choices on how to get into the center of town where our hotel was located: take a regular taxi or the three wheeled wonder of the motocarro.

The only way to travel

 The concept is very simple - take a Honda, Suzuki, or off brand named motorcycle usually with a 125 to 200 cc motor (most of what we saw were in the 125 cc range for fuel efficiency) and retrofit a two wheel contraption on the rear with a bench seat for passengers along with room for suitcases, food, ice chests, or anything else of value needing to be moved here to there. A little research reveals the majority of these vehicles are manufactured in Mexico and shipped up the Amazon to sell in Iquitos and other river towns. Of course, other places build these unusual but very fun modes of transportation and a quick Google search will take the inquisitive mind where it needs to go if the desire to impress or confuse your neighbors strikes home.

Many years ago Disneyland in Anaheim California had ticket booklets instead of all day passes for visitors to the Magic Kingdom. The most cherished of these tickets were the 'E' tickets. These hot numbers were for the rides where fear and loss of breath were at the highest premium. No, these were not for the Dumbo Elephant rides for little kids but for the toboggan race down the steep incline of the Matterhorn. Hanging on by your hands (unless you raised them for a better thrill while heading straight down the narrow gauge tracks) onto the safety bar in front of you gave the rider such a pulsating adrenalin rush that only an 'E' ticket could provide.

Paul snapping with his I pad and Carlos ignoring him

 That's the same sensation while touring around Iquitos in a motocarro. Hold on but do remember to keep your arms, hands, legs, and head within the confines of the rear seat while your driver takes you on the Mr. Magoo's wild ride about the village on the Amazon.

"Excuse me," another passenger on a motocarro only millimeters away says.

"Yes," you respond while wondering how truly close the other vehicle is from yours.

"You seem to have something between your two front teeth."

"I brushed this morning before jumping into the rear of this motocarro," you respond.

"Yes, I can smell the fresh mint flavor - but you still have something between your teeth," the other passenger states and then waves as his driver bounds over the sidewalk trying to run over pedestrians as though this were a daily video game of blood lust.

Need a tow?

 Oops, this is Iquitos and not Lima where drivers are actually courteous to one another though they drive quickly, closely, and erratically bounding from passenger to passenger. Lima is the opposite of Iquitos - and that's not just geographically speaking.

It is the only true way to get around this crowded city on the mighty river efficiently. Narrow streets, high gas prices and the lack of auto dealerships makes motocarros the best mode of transportation available for taxis and businesses. Of course, there are cars, trucks, motorcycles and scooters but the predominant method of getting around is the inexpensive three wheeled vehicles that are literally everywhere.

No worries - on her way to work

 The decibels in the city are higher than anywhere else with these contraptions but after a day or two the tourist no longer hears the sounds - it's much like listening to a bothersome co-worker - just tune out the irritating noise.

No accident - just repairs

We were advised, by more than one driver, that there are a lot of accidents with these motocarros and even tourist magazines/books warn of this but after eight days in Iquitos and riding around numerous times daily we never witnessed one accident. Some close calls maybe but no physical contact between these vehicles and others including pedestrians.

 A true 'E' ticket adventurer for the explorer. 

By the way, it was a mosquito caught between J's teeth and thank goodness for malaria pills.

Don't Go Out at Night Alone!

Amazon big

The mighty Amazon River drives eastward through Peru, then through Brazil and out to the Atlantic Ocean four thousand miles in the distance. It is the longest river in the Western Hemisphere, and second only to the Nile in length in the entire world. But length is not the only measure of the vastness of this river. It is a river so large that to fathom the amount of water flowing those long miles is nearly incomprehensible. Every hour of every day water flows and flows to the tune of 7,381,000 cubic feet per second. One fifth of the world's total fresh water flows in the Amazon. The river is so wide, average between 1 and 6 miles in width in the dry season, it broadens to nearly 30 miles for long stretches during the wet season.

 The facts tend to boggle the noggin.

Monkey see...

The Amazon is a combination of many different tributaries and researchers are still arguing to this day whether the actual beginning might actually be near Cuzco to the south-east of Lima. Of course, one scientist arguing his theory versus another is the way of science throughout time. One theory generally trumps another until no one agrees with anyone. Meanwhile, there is no denying this a big place. With twenty percent of the planet's fresh water and (think of the plants in the rainforest here a minute) twenty percent of the world's oxygen being produced. This is the heart and lungs of the world.

A....turtle?

And here sits the relatively unassuming jungle village turned big city of Iquitos. This incredible location, recently mentioned in a prior blogpost, sits directly on the Amazon, Nanay, Rio Negro, Ucayal, and Itaya rivers and just a few miles west where they all become the Amazon together. The jungle village of nearly a half a million people is at the confluence of one of the mightiest rivers in the world and certainly the one with the most water flow.

Now, in this river environment are more species of swimming, climbing, flying, crawling, and creeping 'thingies' then anywhere else on the planet. Hold on to your scientific shorts with these figures (and don't forget new species are being found all the time): 30 million species of insects (one tree had 700 different species of beetles), 2200 species of fish, 700 species of mammals, 750 species of reptiles, 1830 species of birds, 55,000 species of plants and in reality nearly 2/3 of the entire planet's species reside in or along the Amazon.

By the time our fellow adventurers read this blog, these numbers will have surely increased!

Now, this makes the Amazon also a very dangerous place to reside, or dare we say, to travel.

Enough of the background.

Rustic and Charming

The traveling trio of Beyer, Bakas and Beyer decided to stay off the beaten path, well into the jungle itself while visiting Iquitos and chose a place a hour and a half up river - over fifty miles away from civilization. The Amazon King Lodge was a pleasant grouping of buildings on the river's edge but very rustic. Water ran some of the time in our mosquito screened room around the hammocks and electricity was on for perhaps two hours a day provided by a small but efficient generator. The lodge was built to hold about 60 tourists but on this outing it was only us, our guide, Sergio, and a skeleton crew to hold down the fort/lodge.

They had the essentials on hand, to be sure.

Breakfast was served, lunch was served, and dinner was served with the local products the jungle provides: fish, rice, fruit and other delights.

Actually, the lodge was rather charming and reminiscent of Hollywood films playing out in the hinterlands of the rainforest: rustic, primitive, hot, humid, and isolated.

Dr. Moreau and Mini-me?

It was rumored Dr. Moreau was to be said doing experiments in the jungle just next door. We didn't visit though.

We were advised over and over to make sure Sergio our guide went with us when we traveled on the river or in the jungle. This became apparent when our buddy Paul decided to venture out in the darkening evening to photograph some interesting things he had seen but no sooner had Paul's foot left the first step of the landing (all buildings are about four feet off the ground due to the flood season) and onto the stairs when Sergio stopped him with a firm grip and said:

Night in the Amazon

"Don't go out at night without me! It is very dangerous."

It should be noted that Sergio had a flashlight, rubber knee high boots and a machete at this time. He had grown up in the jungle and told us many anecdotal stories of why growing up one must be extremely cautious while walking the jungle at night. Even the daytime is dangerous.

"I have witnessed people getting bit by a snake without ever seeing the creature and be dead within minutes. Very dangerous."

Paul, a misguided guide

Paul nodded and retraced his steps back to the relative comfort of the mosquito nets.

A few hours later while sweating in our hammocks, we understood what Sergio had meant. The cacophony of the jungle came alive with ear banging fullness. Swinging less than a few feet from each other in the open large sleeping room it was hard to hear each other speaking without raising our voices.

ROUS - Rodent of Unusual Size

Things were moving, flying, crawling and being eaten not many yards from where we wanted to find some slumber. The slumber was hard as 'things' would occasionally drop onto the pitched thatched roof and roll off onto the jungle floor with a thud.

It was then that we knew - only a thin little mosquito net was between us and the rest of what ever was happening in the rainforest. It was frightening to think of what was happening out there as the noises continued. Strange sounds we couldn't completely identify. A sound like barking came from a capybara, an extremely large rodent which can grow to a length of four and half feet and weigh well over a hundred pounds. But the scariest sound of all in the jungle was silence. When the barking, and the shrieking, and even the chirping of insects seemed suspended -- and you knew a predator was near.

This is daytime - imagine it at night.
 Flashlight and machete anyone?

Night in the true jungle is an exhilarating and terrifying experience which we would highly recommend to any explorer or researcher.

Remember one thing though - don't go out alone in the jungle at night without a guide. You may be eaten.

Are we there yet?

 

Golf Clubs and a Machete?

Playing golf is not a passion for J or L but more of a way to spend some time enjoying the outdoors while having a few laughs and chuckles as we rid ourselves of any personal frustrations by whacking away at an innocent small white ball which generally has a mind of its own. Correct your stance for a nasty hook and the ball will mock you with a slice. Overall though it is a time to enjoy those you are playing golf with while getting exercise.

Thus the reason John and Paul Bakas (our videographer and companion to Peru this summer) decided to play nine holes at the Amazon Golf Course in Iquitos one afternoon during our eight day visit to the rain forest. Laureen was much smarter by staying back at the small but nicely laid out club house sipping on Pepsi and talking with the manager and his family.

Ninety-five degrees and ninety- five percent humidity at noon quickly pointed out that the boys would much rather have taken Laureen's lead and enjoyed a few cold ones beneath the palapa instead of walking over 2500 yards in the sweltering heat. But being the adventurous types, the reason for this blog really, Paul and John headed out to the 1st tee.

The golf club was created in 2004 out of 24 acres of second growth rain forest just a quick 30 minute drive in a motocarro from downtown Iquitos.Our driver for the day, three can sit comfortably in these motorcycle modes of transportation, was Ademir Guerra Shapiama. J and L don't normally go with guides but Ademir was so well known that not only did he take us to the course but spent the day with us. A very personable and enjoyable guy.

Ademir Guerra Shapiama - our guide

Anyway, the golf course was built out of the jungle and the minute a golfer arrives at the lush landscape, they realize the game is going to be very interesting to say the least. With the jungle lashing back at intruders day and night it is a struggle to keep anything resembling a golf course for the managers. Every day the team of groundskeepers are mowing,clipping,chopping,and clearing away with mowers, trimmers and machetes. 

Yes, machetes!

The Amazon Golf Course is probably the only course in the world that when clubs are rented they come with a machete and a warning that a lost ball in the jungle may be worth a stroke instead of a limb. Human - not tree.

Caimans (smaller alligators but with a similar bite) sunning themselves in the sand traps, Piranha in the water hazards (according to an employee at the course a golfer actually lost a portion of their index finger while trying to extricate a lost ball from the water), and snakes in the jungle on either side of many of the holes.

We saw no such things (could be we weren't there first in the morning) but did hear some strange sounds while looking for a lost ball or two in the jungle when the ball decided to head for vegetation cover. At one point Paul and John decided that a lost ball was not worth the trouble looking when a large group of leaves decided to slither away on their own.

Dead leaves don't have legs do they?

The nine holes went along as well as possible in the humidity and rough conditions of the course. It is not PGA since the rains are nearly every day and trying to formulate a perfect condition for golf in such an environment would be impossible. The tee boxes were fine, the fairways narrow and tough but it was the greens which seemed to be the biggest bugaboo for the adventurous golfing duo.

No such thing as a straight line putt. It was more like a hop, skip, bounce, and perhaps get near the cup eventually. Actually, after the second hole it seemed though the boys got the putting down to a near genius method. Punch the putt hard enough that it would literally fly in a straight line and try to keep it off the green itself. Sounds ludicrous but worked as there were a few pars during the nine holes.

The game was fun and a must for anyone who visits Iquitos but remember the heat and humidity. You are playing just a few miles where the Amazon River actually begins and lots of drinking water is needed to finish the course - there are no electric/gas golf carts or pull carts. It's nothing but the golfer, a bag on their shoulder and a machete in their hand.

But the great news is that there are very cold beers waiting at the club house for a very reasonable price. A well deserved award for those brave enough or dumb enough to venture out into the jungle for an afternoon of fun loving golf.

Multi Lingual Tourist Guide
Ademir Guerra Shapiama
963-523-328
Ademir84@hotmail.com

Amazon Golf Course
185 Malecon Maldonado
Iquitos, Peru
amazongolfcourse.com