An Amazon Golf Adventure in Iquitos Peru

Easter resurrection of the Amazon Golf Course

Easter Sunday in Iquitos began like many days in the rainforest, with a cleansing, cooling, rain that blew over by mid morning. Then the weather and day turned beautiful. Marmelita and I packed up a change of clothes, camera, a book to read, a notebook to capture ideas before they disappear, and a good attitude. We flagged down a motocarro, negotiated the fare down from S/ 20 soles by laughing loudly as we walked away. The motocarista followed us begging for how much we would pay. We alway pay S/ 10 soles to the golf course, and that is what we settled on. I decided if the motocarista did a good job getting us there in one piece with no problems I would give him a S/ 2 Easter tip.

Before we even got out of downtown Iquitos we saw two friends of ours in a motocarro in front of us nearly have an accident. A bus changed lanes right on top of the motocar they were riding in and the two vehicles touched fairly hard, but no one lost control and no one even stopped to see if there was any damage.

As usual, we saw several other interesting scenes on the ride out to the Amazon Golf Course. A motocar was carrying two giant blocks of ice that must have weighed 100 pounds apiece, and a couple of small children that probably weighed 40 pounds apiece were turned around in the seat rubbing the ice and enjoying the cold sensation.

I like to watch the activity along the road. Riding through San Juan, the suburb of Iquitos on the way past the airport, a young woman crossing the street in front of us had a Capuchin Monkey wrapped all around her arm. Marmelita pointed out a camu-camu juice processing plant that I was not aware of. Past IIAP where they have a display of manatees, trying to raise awarness in the native community to protect the “river cows.” We rode along with the wind blowing our hair past several new construction sites including workers expanding the largest wood drying kiln in the greater Iquitos area, and a government building project that I’m still trying to figure out, that may be a recreational park with water works and small zoo. We were traveling mostly south, past the Iquiteña beer brewery, the rice warehouse, and the plant nursury where we purchased many of the trees and blooming bushes for the Amazon Golf Course. The plant nursury had several customers lined up to buy Easter Lilies. I noticed most of the restaurants we passed were open on Easter Sunday, expecting people to want to eat out. Most of them were nearly empty between 12:30 and 1:00pm. The motocarista turned to the right and headed west on the Zungeracocha, Nina Rumi, road and we bounced along the washboard rough sand road for 7 minutes and were happy to see the Welcome to the Amazon Golf Course sign and flowerbeds by the road marking the entrance, with the clubhouse up on the hill.

I wish you could have been there in person to see how much our trees have grown. I’m very impressed. The grounds crew are keeping compost from near the base of the trunk to past the drip line for a mulch, with a hand full of lime mixed in to sweeten the soil. The trees and bushes are responding to the tender loving care.

I wish you could have stood with Marmeltia and I looking up the lane through the Hibiscus, and Heliconia, to the clubhouse and felt what we felt. What a change in just 11 months.

Do you remember how these 4 Ficus Trees looked 11 months ago? Wow!!! What a spurt of growth. I know, Marmelita isn’t the tallest person to compare the trees to, but I’m impressed. How about you?

Margarita, Rodrigo, and the rest of the crew prepared a great Easter parrillada. The chicken was perfect, and the cocona sauce was delicious. After lunch Marmelita walked all around the course and I took photos of all the greens so I could show you part of what we’ve accomplished.

One of our biggest challenges has been making and keeping the greens playable. We can do better, but I think you will agree they are pretty good.

This will be the first time I’ve managed to photograph every green to post in one article.

We need a professional greens mower to take the next step up to more playable greens. We mow our greens with a wore out $700 push mower that’s broken down and in the shop right now.

Green # 4 is a tough one. It looks more like a lunar landscape than a golf green. Joe Boatright will tell you the best way to deal with # 4 it to hit a hole in one.

The back half of the Amazon Golf Course was long neglected. We have made a special effort to bring it “up to par” with the rest of the course. That will be an ongoing project to catch up with the front half, but we’ve made a good start.

This Forever Spring blooming bush is another of about a thousand amazing growth success stories.

Marmelita and I walked all over the Amazon Golf Course examining all of the greens, water hazards, and nearly ever blooming bush and tree. We were happy. It was a great way to spend Easter Sunday. Right at dark we were walking back to the main road to catch a motocar back to our home. My thoughts were wandering about the significance of Easter Sunday, and I kept coming back to an analogy about the resurrection of the Amazon Golf Course. Without laboring over the mystical, religious implications, very simply, let me share this analogy with you; the Amazon Golf Course has been brought back to life. I wish you could have been there with us. Maybe next time.

Bill Grimes is the manager of the Amazon Golf Course, where you can have an Amazon Golf Adventure, in Iquitos Peru.

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