Join us for The Jungle Roast at the Amazon Golf Course in Iquitos Peru on January 31st, the last Sunday in January.

You may be asking your self, “What’s a jungle roast?” Or maybe you are asking, “What the h**k is a jungle roast?” Or, “Wow, are they going to roast the whole jungle?” Or just, “Roast Jungle?” I don’t have all the answers, but remember this, “The Jungle Roast, Amazon Golf Course, last Sunday of January. Be there.”

What I know for now is, The Jungle Roast is the most exciting meal and potentially the most fun day of 2010. It all depends on you…

The Jungle Roast menu

The Jungle Roast is a meat eaters delight, featuring succulent majas, the best tasting meat in the jungle, with caiman tenderloins, flavorful venison, young peccary, and delicious duck, all roasted and smoked in an old fashioned wood fired oven.

If you don’t want meat, enjoy big slab fillets of fresh dorado, one of the best tasting fish from the Amazon River, cooked to perfection over red hot coals on the charcoal grill.

There will be an abundance of rich vegetarian fare, with freshly found wild mushrooms and yuca breaded with fariña and fried in palm oil, (the best way to cook yuca that I know), steamed rice, lentils, baked sweet potatoes, roasted potatoes, platanos, fariña and lots of tropical jungle fruit for dessert.

All you can eat buffet

The meal will be buffet style, all you can eat, served at the Amazon Golf Course clubhouse, on January 31st, 2010. It only costs S/20 soles to make a reservation, which also includes free golf, volleyball, and soccer all day from early till late, a raffle, prizes, games, cards, and activities.

Reservations

Reservations must be made in advance. Only 200 meals will be served, only 200 reservations made. Don’t wait until the last day to make your reservation. The Jungle Roast will sell out! Be there! Make your reservations today, at the Dawn on the Amazon office, #185 Malecon, Maldenado, on the boulevard, The Amazon Explorers Club Lounge, #101 Nauta, at the corner of Nauta and the Boulevard, Mad Mick’s Tranding Post, the middle of the first block of Putumayo, #163, up the stairs to Apt. #202, or at the Amazon Golf Course Clubhouse.

A fun day

This will be a fun day you should not miss. Plan ahead. Bring your family and friends.

Profits

Profits will go to help finance improvements to the Amazon Golf Course.

Join us for a fun day and The Jungle Roast at the Amazon Golf Course in Iquitos Peru on January 31st, the last Sunday in January.

Bill Grimes, Dawn on the Amazon

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We served 100 Thanksgiving meals at the Amazon Golf Course on November 29th.

Amazon Golf Course clubhouse with a fresh coat of paint, photographed from the green #9

My crew and I are exhausted. Not many crews in Peru could have done as good a job as my team. I’m proud of them. They started early and worked late for over a week. The 24 acre Amazon Golf Course was manicured, the clubhouse was painted, supplies were purchased, and everything organized.

For three days the tantalizing aromas of rich chicken broth simmering on the stove mingled with the smell of southern style cornbread, and dressing baking in the oven. The sounds of knives chopping vegetables, pots and pan being washed, and ingredients stirred together, were mixed with lots of laughter in our small bustling kitchen.

One of the six 5 kilo Thanksgiving turkeys served at the Amazon Golf Course

Perhaps it is inappropriate for me to brag how wonderful the food tasted. It would be better if someone not so close to the cooking complimented us. But since I am the one writing this critique, let me just say it tasted like I wanted it to, and I liked it. Some did not appreciate Grannies Southern Cornbread Dressing as much as I did. It was very flavorful, with lots of sage, thyme, marjoram, and rosemary and the baked pollenta gave it a crunchy texture. I hate soggy dressing. That’s just my opinion. If you shared Thanksgiving Dinner at the Amazon Golf Course let us know your opinion in the comments below.

Management overcame all of the obstacles. Like when the Iquiteña Brewery called a few hours before they were supposed to bring us three tents, several tables, and a hundred chairs, to tell us they did not have any. When I threw a gringo fit, Marmelita reminded me, “Bill, we need solutions, not more problems.” We came up with one tent, several tables and 50 chairs. It was enough.

I am too full of turkey, noodles, dressing, potatoes, and mushrooms. We had a feast.

We served nearly 100 delicious Thanksgiving meals. We made new friends, and brought old friends close. We shared our vision of what the Amazon Golf Course can be, and made others aware for the first time of how beautiful it already is. We enjoyed lively, interesting, conversation, and had a fun day. Did I mention we played volleyball, soccer, and golf?

I posted 18 photographs on the Amazon Golf Course Blog. Click that link to know some of what we saw and did that day.

Thanks again to all who worked to make the Thanksgiving Day Celebration a success for the Amazon Golf Course, and to all of you that shared our day together.

View of the Amazon Golf Course from the observation deck of the clubhouse, golden light, on November 29, 2009

We served 100 Thanksgiving meals at the Amazon Golf Course on November 29th.

Bill Grimes is the manager of the Amazon Golf Course, among many other endeavors.

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Jeff Sutherland, publisher of Inside Golf Magazine, and www.insidegolf.ca, sent Mike Collis an email saying in part, “…I have taken the liberty of visiting your site and then written a piece about your amazing achievement. Please note we ran this in our 5,000 subscriber newsletter and in the summer issue of our magazine…”

Golfing Amazon Style, From The Fringe

I'm going to dine on this forever. What other golfer can claim to have lost a finger tip to a piranha while playing golf.

In the campy British “Carry On” movies of the 1960s, there was a scene where the explorers emerge from a jungle trail to find themselves in the middle of civilization. Little did Birmingham, England native and past Vancouver resident Mike Collis realize that he would write his own golfing version when he decided to move to Iquitos, Peru. “Iquitos was then a town without a golf course.” Collis recalls. “Other expats like me missed our golf so much that in January 2004 we decided to found our own.”

Mike Collis, visionary of the Amazon Golf Club

Given that this was the world’s largest city without any road access, this might seem a tough undertaking, but Collis had already proven that he could get things done. In 1999 Mike had come up with the idea of a rafting race down the Amazon River, an annual event that now attracts teams from around the world. So the idea of putting a golf course in a community where virtually no-one had ever held a club might not have been as daunting as first thought.

It started with getting more than 60 “Founder Members” from 14 different countries to buy shares and fund construction. Once they had the financing in place, a site was selected and work started on the Amazon Golf Club. Volunteers and workers carved holes out of second growth jungle taking every precaution possible to limit ecological disturbance and, four long years after breaking ground, the first official golfer, Johan Ohrling of Sweden tee’d it up May 1st, 2008 on the 2,500-yard, 9 hole layout that included 4 par-threes, 4 par-fours, and 1 par-five.

Still if you plan to follow in Johan’s foot steps you should remember this is not your mother’s golf course.

At the Amazon Club, it’s not so much about birdies and eagles; it’s more about the boas, ‘gators and piranhas.

Greens here are elevated for a reason

This is likely the only course in the world where golfers are provided with a machete before they tee off and warned about the wildlife.

“We always, always tell golfers not to retrieve balls from the water traps unless they really are intent on feeding the local wildlife,” says Collis.

One visitor who did not heed this advice will have a reminder of his indiscretion for the rest of his life.

In 2008, David Parry from Wales, a 7-handicapper, tried to retrieve a ball from the pond near to the 2nd green. He recalls, “I could see my ball lying in about 6″ of water and decided to lift it out rather than lose a ball. As I put my left hand in to grab the ball, in an instant, a piranha came out of the shadows and bit off the tip of my little finger. It didn’t hurt at first but it did later, and as blood dripped into the water a whole shoal of the blighters appeared.”

Still David Parry was fairly sanguine about his loss, “I’m going to dine on this forever. What other golfer can claim to have lost a finger tip to a piranha while playing golf?”

Collis observed, “Mr. Parry was very lucky. The fish could have easily taken the whole finger…or more.”

This is not the only time that a tourist has had a run-in with a Amazon sized animal. Collis recounts the story of American Ron Shores who, while hiking was attacked by a 420 lbs, 22-foot Anaconda in a small creek. Luckily he was strong enough to remain standing while his companions came to his aid. His experienced guide wanted to shoot the snake but Ron insisted it be released.

American Ron Shores, with 420 lbs. anaconda

One group of people who would not need to be given advice about the dangers of the jungle would be the locals…and getting local Peruvians to play is also a major goal for the course. There are special discounts for Peruvian players age 25 and younger to encourage them to get involved.

There is a mandate to get locals to start golfing

Green fees for guests are $25 for 18 holes and that includes 12 balls, clubs, and machete. Additional balls are $1 each. They ask that if you can, to bring extra balls to leave as they are hard to come by.

View from the recently built clubhouse

If coming to the Peruvian jungle might be a little too far to go just to play golf, they have also put together great 6 to 9 day packages where they arrange everything from flights from Lima to accommodation to golf at the course to a 3-day river tour down the Amazon. Prices start at a very reasonable $900 USD for this once-in-a-lifetime experience. As Mike Collis puts it in an understated English way, “Perhaps one day you might ‘nip’ over for a round of jungle golf.”

The Amazon Golf Club has a very entertaining blog on their website where you keep up with developments at the course. Visit www.amazongolfcourse.com to find out more.

Golfing Amazon Style, From The Fringe

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Remember the 4th of July

Cookout Celebration

At the Amazon Golf Course, Iquitos Peru

How to get to the Amazon Golf Course. Take a moto-carro for S/ 10 soles

The details for the July 4th celebration are at this link to the Amazon Golf Course article;

Don’t Miss The Big 4th of July Celebration At the Amazon Golf Course

Bill Grimes, Manager of the Amazon Golf Course

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Join Us For The 4th Of July Celebration And BBQ AT the Amazon Golf Course Clubhouse

If you will be in Iquitos Peru on Saturday, the 4th of July, join us for a delicious BBQ at the Amazon Golf Course Clubhouse. Plan for a fun day of sports, drinking, dancing, or just hanging in hammocks in the shade, visiting with good friends, and making new friends. All nationalities like to have fun, so everyone come on out and eat and play. It will be a good day.

Bring your family and friends. The festivities will begin at 10:00 am. Food will be ready coming off the grill before 12:00 noon.

We will have meat on the grill, potato salad, and baked beans, large bottles of cold beer for S/5 soles, Inca Cola, Coke, and pure bottled water.

Play golf, volleyball, soccer, driving range, putting green, competitions. Children welcome.

Don’t miss the 4th of July Celebration and BBQ At the Amazon Golf Course Clubhouse

Bill Grimes

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