Schedule | Route Scout Details | Why PAC Tour is Going to Peru
by Lon Haldeman
I had traveled on the Amazon during a charter group tour in December 1999. I fell in love with the country and the people. By chance one of the last people I met at a craft booth in Iquitos before boarding the airplane home was a young 18 year old Indian woman named Rubby. My brother took her photo and I got her address and sent her the photos.
I didn't hear from her for many months until she wrote me a letter thanking me for the photos. She told me about living with her humble family and she was working to buy grinding tools for her father. We traded several more letters as I asked exactly what type of tools they needed. I knew she could not afford the $100 of grinders they wanted. I had lots of those type of tools in my wood shop, so I sent them my spares.
We exchanged many more letters. She wrote in Spanish. I wrote in English. We stumbled trying to decipher each others letters. I asked her if she would like to travel across Peru with me during our scout trip in November 2000. She had only left her hometown once before for an appendix operation when she was eight years old. She was excited and probably skeptical to now travel with an American man for two weeks across the back country of Peru.
We finally met at the Lima Airport at 11:00 PM. We spent two days touring the city and waiting in lines to get her a passport. Everything we did and saw was new for her. She saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time. She went to a shopping mall. She slept in a hotel bed. When she saw the mountains her smile and enthusiasm made me realize how much Iıve taken for granted during my travels across America.
As we traveled by truck into the Rain Forest and then on a dirty boat down the Amazon I realized Rubby was a special person. Her delightful personality would radiate to those around her. Mothers would trust her with their babies. Armed guards would smile and leave us alone.
During our two week tour together she was always dressed neat and clean with the combination of clothes she carried in her small dufflebag. Her favorite outfit was a PAC Tour jersey and sweatshirt I brought from home. When we reached her jungle hometown of Iquitos I was able to visit her house. She proudly invited me to have lunch with her family. I was not prepared for what I saw. Even though her house was filled with pride and love I could not believe such a beautiful person lived in these conditions.
She lived with her parents, two younger brothers and an older sister. The dirt floors were swept clean and there were open windows and doors. A few pieces of plywood were tacked together as room dividers. Everyone slept on floor mats. Her mom cooked on a wood fire on the back porch. An outhouse building dripped raw sewage into a drainage ditch ten feet from their back door. Her dad lay on his mat dying from tuberculosis, too weak to move.
I spent four days with her family in Iquitos. Everyday they worked from 9:00 in the morning to 11:00 at night in their craft booth selling trinkets to tourists. When I would return to my four star hotel at night I was usually so upset with the fate of Rubbyıs family that I couldnıt sleep. Those who know me, think I am not an emotional person. I lost track of how many times I cried for Rubbyıs family during my stay in Iquitos.
If left unchanged, Rubbyıs future is not good. Most poor women have children before they are twenty years old. The cycle of survival is repeated with their new family. I made a promise to help Rubby have a chance at a better life. She is my motivation for bringing a PAC tour trip to Peru.
The proceeds from this Peru tour will go toward the immediate needs of her family. Medicine for her father ($100), installing an enclosed sewer ($120) getting clean bedding ($90) and other household improvements.
Rubby will be joining us during our tour as a local guide and hostess while our group travels to restaurants and points of interest. Her personality, smile and knowledge of local food and customs will make her a popular dinner companion for our group. I am hoping she will make enough money in tips from PAC Tour to help support her family the rest of the year. If she was able to make $50 from 20 people she would equal her $1,000 current annual income.
I am not sure of a long term plan. Rubby and I have discussed her need to return to night school and learn better English. Classes are $200 a semester. We have discussed buying a clean riverboat that would improve the traveling conditions of local people and be good enough for American tourists to travel the Amazon. Running a properly managed and promoted river touring business could be a great possibility for Rubby.
Now all I can offer Rubby are dreams and hope for a better future. She says she is so excited to even have a dream of a better life. I told her I would organize a tour to keep those dreams alive. That is my motivation to make this the best tour possible.