Living in Peru : your everyday companion

By Gart van Gennip

I just spent the afternoon at a place I never thought I would find myself: The Amazon Golf Course. I am not a sportsman, or even a fan; I like to watch baseball, because hitting that ball with that bat somehow appeals to my imagination. But don’t ask me about innings and outings and what have you; I don’t have a clue! My dad used to play golf religiously, at a 6000 euro-a-year club back home, so I thought, “Good for him, but that’s not for me!” Unfortunately, my dad had to give up golf due to bad knees (no, his name is not Tiger Woods!).

So it had been 22 years since I last held a golf club, when friends I visited in Youngstown, Ohio, asked me to come along for the day. It was the first and the last time I played, and apart from achieving an average of seven above par -I think you call it!- I don’t remember much about it. Well, that and the fact that it saved my life, as I should have been on a plane from Detroit to Los Angeles that day, which tragically crashed shortly after take-off (I had changed my travel plans to be able to go play golf and go on a picnic with my friends).

Today, my friends and I arrived at the Amazon Golf Course just before noon and were greeted by the ever jolly Mike Collis. He taught us what those confusing terms like ‘par’, ‘tee’, ‘green’, ‘birdy’, ‘eagle’ and ‘pigeon’ mean (“I think that’s a pigeon dropping on your shoulder!” Still not sure how that relates to golf…) while showing us the various types of clubs, the numbers they have -apart from the ‘putter’, which pretty much sounds like a four-letter word in Spanish- and in which situations to use them.

We took to the practice area in front of the club house, or the ‘Tenth Hole’ as Mike pointed out, where we could put our ‘putters’ to work for us. Boy, if you ever thought this was easy; hitting a ball into a hole… well, in any case; I was sadly mistaken. But we had a lot of fun, which was the main purpose, especially when one of the holes turned out to be occupied by a huge toad! I decided to rescue it from its precarious position and it gratefully peed on my hands. No good deed goes unpunished!

We decided to go and practice our long-distance shots, for which we needed an entirely different set of clubs and half a gallon of golf balls, conveniently packed in a plastic soda bottle. We should all get an A for effort, but the results of our hard work were disappointing, yet often hilarious. I saw golf balls go where no man had gone before. Sometimes I did not see them go at all, and after peering into the distance, discovered they were right where I had put them; at my feet. One golf ball disappeared deep into the ground, many of them just hobbled across the tee for a few feet, before mockingly coming to halt, just steps away.

We finally took to the real thing; doing the nine-hole course, with the Tenth Hole (or Watering Hole, whichever you prefer) as our final reward. And this is how we discovered that playing golf is more than just hitting a ball into the general direction of a distant green down the way (forget about that Hole-In-One dream if you are a rookie like me) and having to walk for miles; we enjoyed the peace and quiet of the golf course, the birds and butterflies we encountered, and most of all; each other’s company. Spending time with friends, having a laugh at calling ourselves ‘Tigre Maderas’ and at our silly displays of grandure that inevitably landed the ball in the high grass, or in one of the ponds.

We made it back to the Tenth Hole for a well-deserved and delicious barbeque lunch and we all agreed; this was a lot of fun and we will be back!

I have spent a lot of time in these parts, and I frequently worry about running out of subjects for my blog or for the newsletters I send to my friends. I should know better by now. I could have been better prepared for playing Amazon Golf. I could have worn shoes instead of slippers and I could have brought a hat. Amazon Golf turned out to be in a class of its own, but all in all it was the most fun I had had in a long time and definitely one of those unexpected, memorable experiences that put Iquitos at the top of my Best Times Ever list. And it does not set you back 500 euros a month! The Amazon Golf Course is affordable for visitors and locals alike and plans for a future swimming pool and tennis court will certainly add to the attraction of signing up as a member.

 

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Amusing article, especially the part about 22 years ago playing and achieving "an average of 7 above par".   That would make you about a 4 handicap and ranked in the top 1/2% in the world.   You should have stuck with it.  

I'm glad to see Mike (and all his cohorts) finally got this up and running.  Way to go guys!!  I hope to be out that way sooner rather than later, God Willing.

As for the 7 above par, I think he meant per hole, putting him 112 over for the day. . .