South American Adventure

Part 1 – POUNDING SURF AGAINST A TOWERING ROCKY CLIFF

The little, charming whiteo large rocks secured by frayed green polypropylene rope that allowed us to stay 10 meters or so from the boulders a haired captain stepped briskly across the deck of our small wooden skiff and dropped the anchor. Better said, that the base of a hundred meter high rocky cliff, the result of powerful tectonic forces at play, as the South Pacific plate slide under the continental plate of South America. We baited our lines and in less than a minute I had a strike. Then all three of us had boated small but great eating  rock fish. We tossed our catch in a plastic pan, while red beaked southern gulls landed on the brow and screamed loudly at us. Streams of black and white pelicans used the wind forced up the the sheer face of the black and brown cliffs gaining altitude as they scored towards jagged rocky outcroppings they called home after a morning of diving on schools of anchovta, small anchovy type of fish, the most important fishery in the world. Yes, it is the most important fishery in the world. They are the protein base for the shrimp we eat, the food for our cats and dogs, KFC chicken, pork chops, food for cultured salmon and in numerous human food products. An artisanal fisherman worked a gill net for anchoveta near us. We passed a huge commercial anchoveta purse seiner near the port. Something on the order of ten million metric tons of anchoveta are landed every year in Peru.  That is a lot of fish that get turned into fish meal. Decades ago they nearly wiped them out like we did to the Monterrey sardine fishery. They got their act together and learned how to manage their globally important resource. The Monterrey sardine fishery never recovered.

My guide, Jampa, a tall native of Peru, born of Italian immigrants, was unconcerned by proximity to the rocks, the single aging outboard motor that had pushed us through the troughs and white caps of  incoming and reflective waves a few kilometers north from the fishing village of Pucusana. I could hardly focus on fishing while huge swells lifted us meters high and dropped us into troughs that blotted out the horizon.  We caught more fish. The tugs on the line bent the rod tips. Another and then another member of the oceanic rock fish clad ended up in the white plastic tub. The intensity of the moments blotted out a hundred scenarios of potential disaster and doom of being smashed up against the cliffs, struggling and finally succumbing to exhaustion and cold, to become all to soon, part of the nutrient system of the Humboldt current.

Latin America is on fire. Demonstrations from a dozen countries flash on the big TV screen of the Hotel where I am staying.  Rioters in Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Venezuela, look surprisingly like rioters in Hong Kong and Lebanon. Trump makes good on his intentions to pull out of the Global Climate Accord. Financial risk takers are again subverting the delicate balance of a global economy to enrich themselves and their children. Russian thugs use ethnic cleansing tools refined by the Serbs in a crumbling Yugoslavia to meter by meter grab off parts of the Ukraine and Syria. China, Israel, Turkey and Russia are in the process of a massive “Land Grab/Sea Grab” It seems all of Trumps actions internationally are to allow Russia to achieve it’s goals of reasserting a Russian Empire. China puts millions of Tibetans and Muslims into re-education camps. There is real danger everywhere. The very existence of humanity hangs by a few threadlike temperature units. It is easy to be very, very concerned.

But Peru is booming, thank you. It is not perfect, but they are working hard and ending a century of economic dislocations political corruption.  Fujimuri, the former President, and the leader of the terroristic Shinning Path are both in prison. Former president Garcia just blew his brains out as he was about to be arrested and a few months ago corrupt president Toledo was arrested for extradition from the US.  Miles of barren sand dunes and rocky hillsides are being covered with small houses. Exotic trees that thrive on capturing moisture from the air are being planted by the millions. The shopping malls look like Thailand’s multi storied hives of entrepreneurial energy by people under 30.  A shopping mall food court with local and international brands holds a thousand people with smart phones and stylish cloths