Travel--The Great Equalizer

Hello Everyone!

I was in my late-30s before I started traveling to any large degree. I was working as a journalist about the time U.S. agriculture was feeling it’s oats in the global marketplace. I was ripe to travel and the timing was right.

My first major international assignment took me to South America to study and report on the beef business in Argentina. I traveled with a small group of Montana Angus breeders who were looking at marketing Angus beef genetics in South America. It was quite an eye-opener!

Assignments started stacking up. The more I learned and shared about farming and ranching in other countries, the more curious the audiences got.

Then they wanted to see it for themselves.

Curiosity was always the common denominator. The result was an awareness that whatever we experienced in other countries, more often than, not mirrored what we experienced at home.

The real payoff though, was a shared empathy covering all aspects of life; family, lifestyles, country, society, and economics. But, it’s best learned face to face—to experience the sight, sounds, smells, and feel of it all.

It’s been quite a ride—and it’s not over yet.

See you next week!

Charley Pike

Sometimes we have to get away from home to really appreciate what we have in our own backyards. Sometimes we have to travel to find out if the grass really is greener elsewhere.

It’s been said travel is the “great equalizer.” Of course that’s also been said of education, guns, time, and even death…

But of the many equalizers, travel can give us a sense of discovery and adventure while allowing us to physically and mentally soak up the elements of wherever you choose to land. It gives us a chance to see it for ourselves!

Charley Pike’s travels have primarily been born from purpose—work, sharing or exploration. Most of his travel involved getting paid to do so. For many years it was agribusiness/ag journalism, hosting beef study tours and a mix of research assignments—seldom for casual tourism.

One of Charley’s few “non-business” trips though took him to the Amazon jungle in northeastern Peru. The initial idea was to catch a fish—a peacock bass, tucunaré (genus Cichla). It was a bucket-list kind of thing.

But, as you will read, he got far more than what he bargained for!!!

Adventure Travel

There are three components to travel; 1) Planning it, 2) Doing it and, 3) Remembering it.

One of the most sought-after gamefish in the world is the peacock bass, a native of the Orinoco and Amazon river basins of South America.

1) Planning It

It wasn’t all that hard to plan the trip to the Amazon. A quick TripAdvisor search brought up David Rios. David is a five-star rated, English-speaking Amazon guide working out of Iquitos, Peru.

After a few calls and texts with David the trip was booked. Flights were reserved; United to Lima and Avianca to Iquitos. It was late October 2021 and travel had bounced back to some degree following the Covid pandemic.

David didn’t share many details of the itinerary.

First on the agenda would be two nights in Iquitos—allowing a day to buy supplies for the trip. Then rise early and catch a “fast boat” for the six-hour ride down the Amazon to the jungle hamlet of Santa Rosa de Atun Caño.

The heart of the adventure would be a stay with David in the home of our jungle family hosts for five nights—with four days of fishing. From our host lodge we’d paddle by canoe to a series of connected lakes seeking out the peacock bass that inhabit their waters.

Local families live on and gain subsistence from the lakes in the ancient Amazon oxbows. The lakes clear up each year after the muddy river washes floodwaters into them during the rainy season.

2) Doing It

First, David met his guest at the Iquitos airport.

Iquitos is the largest city in the world, not on an island, that cannot be reached by highway—only by air and river. The city’s half-million residents are almost equaled in number by the moto-taxis that swarm its streets night and day.

In Iquitos Charley was put up in a quaint but definitely jungle-city Double Tree hotel. A few pisco sours in the hotel bar followed a plate of aji de gallina—Peru’s signature dish. So far, sooooo good!

The next morning David was on-time picking his client up. A rented moto-taxi waited. He and his client bought food and collected the necessary supplies—including Charley’s spanking new fishing rod purchased at the city’s only sports shop.

The next morning they were off to the city docks and marina to catch the “fast boat” to Santa Rosa.

Iquitos, Peru is the commercial navigational head of the Amazon River. In any given year the docks will rise and fall 20-30 feet with the seasonal levels of the massive river.

The village of Santa Rosa is 60 river miles downstream of Iquitos—about six hours by “fast boat” with several stops at various settlements..

Along the way the river varies from 2-6 miles in width. Depths reach up to 60 feet.

While the Amazon River is two-miles wide at Santa Rosa (blue arrow below), it’s still a 2,240-mile boat ride to it’s mouth on the Atlantic Ocean.

As the boat nears the rivers’ shore, there’s only a steep dirt bank and wavy gangplank board there to greet David, his wife Patricia and Charley. The scene is the definition of “middle of no place.”

A short portage and canoe ride across the lake ride brings the the family’s compound into view. This is the home of Gabriel and Enith and their extended family.

Their daughter Monica and her husband Larry and their two-year old daughter live in the same house—for now.

They’re waiting for David and the Gringo.

Larry works along side Gabriel. The main source of income is from selling fish netted in the oxbows. There’s some farming of manioc and rice.

When the opportunity arises Larry helps his friend David guide clients. He helps row the canoes and patiently retrieves the client’s tackle when it gets snagged in the underwater brush and fallen trees.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words; so this story will continue with a short photo journey:

Larry and Monica (back row) were married four years ago. They have been living with her parents and the other kids, but plan to build their own house later this year at the site marked by the red arrow below.

One of the girls can be seen washing pots in the veranda off the kitchen (blue arrow).

The only fresh water for the family comes from rainwater collected off the roof of the house and stored in a tank. It’s used for drinking and washing.

While the kitchen stove is wood fired—there’s no shortage of fuel nearby. Nor is there a shortage of labor for cutting and collecting firewood.

Catch and release fishing isn’t practiced among the villagers who live along the Amazon River.

 Our hotel room also served as the living area in Gabriele’s and Enith’s home. The kids overcame their initial shyness and teased the Gringo about his snoring! There was no language barrier there!

3) Remembering It

There’s not much to say about remembering this trip. Charley didn’t catch a boatload of fish—but a few fish were enough. The rest of the trip was relatively uneventful.

David has become a friend to Charley; “pen” pals with an occasional phone call. They share a lot of photos and fishing stories.

The real memories are of the jungle family—Gabriel and Enith and Larry and Monica.

The memories are of the kids delighted with a gift of a coloring book, a jackknife, a matchbox car, a package of balloons, a box of colored pencils, a Strawberry Shortcake t-shirt.

Thirty dollars worth of Walmart stuff packed in an extra duffle bag—and leaving the bag behind. All less than the price of a medium-rare steak and a loaded baked potato downtown.

Its’s a memory of Third-World life in an impoverished country. Third World problems versus First World problems.

It’s about Enith being happy with a bag of hand-me-down dishtowels. It’s about Gabriel and Larry getting up at 4:00 am so they can set their fish nets ahead of the sweltering heat. It’s about dealing with the whims of nature—the rains, the rise and fall of the river. There are no safety nets on the Amazon.

A week after Charley’s trip to Santa Rosa the village was hit by one of the hardest earthquakes to rock the region. The early morning tremors leveled Gabriel’s house. In the darkness while trying to escape the house with her baby in her arms, a panicked Monica fell down a ladder breaking both of her legs.

David called from Iquitos with the news. Charley and a few of his friends gathered up a few bucks and sent the money to David. It helped the family pay some of Monica’s medical bills.

Lots of memories, friends; lots of memories…