Adventuring for Christ in Peru
Third Installment of the Travel Diary of Dr. Louis T. Talbot and Mr. J. Russell Davis.
Air View of Peruvian River and Plain
if anything happened. As far as we could see on every side was dense jungle, broken only by the silver slit of the river slowly winding its way down into the Amazon and on to the Atlantic over 3,000 miles away. After a delightful flight of about two hours we saw a rain storm ahead, with clouds right down on the river, so we had to skirt around it out over the jungle. Before we hardly realized what had happened, the storm had closed in all around us, and there was nothing to do but fly about fifty feet above the jungle through the mist and rain in an attempt to re-establish contact with the river. We were in touch with the radio at Wycliffe Jungle Base all the time, giving them our last known position, our speed, and our direction, in case they had to come out and look for us! After about fifteen anxious moments, we saw the very wel come sheen of the river off in the dis tance, and very soon we were over it, following its every twist and turn. After a while we ran out of the storm, climbed to a good altitude again, and with thankful •hearts continued our trip to Pucallpa. There we were met by a truck in which Titus Nickel (’44) came in to meet us, and soon we were bounc ing over the worst road (at least they said it was a road) in the world. Forty- five minutes later, we were at Yarina Cocha, the Wycliffe Jungle Base, being greeted by Dr. and Mrs. Keith Altig, Florence Nickel, Mary Sargent ( ’49), Lois Cameron Schneider, all from Biola, and a host of other Wycliffe friends. Thursday, April 26, 1951: Yarina Cocha is a beautiful jewel of a lake, completely surrounded by jungle, and in a clearing on the brow of a low cliff at the edge of the lake are the buildings of the Jungle Base. Our first sight-seeing journey today was to look around the base and observe the fine dispensary, dining hall and kitchen, school for the translators’ children, office
and store, and the houses of the various persons stationed there. After the order liness of the buildings of the base, it was quite a contrast to go by dugout canoe to the other end of the lake to visit an Indian village. Here we found a group of 60 or 70 Indians living in open thatched-roof huts, carrying on their way of life as their fathers had before them for untold years. We watched them making their arrows, weaving cloth and tape, painting Indian designs on the faces and legs, cooking their meals over open fires, while squat ting on the ground. After a very inter esting afternoon, exploring Indian life in this village, we took our leave, went back to the base by dugout canoe, en joyed a very refreshing dip in the lake, a good dinner, and then a fine evening of fellowship with the group. Friday, April 27, 1951: j Today we drove again, this time by jeep, over the road through the jungle from the base at Yarina Cocha to the little town of Pucallpa on the banks of the Ucayali River. After taking care of business matters for various members of the Wycliffe group, Don Burns, our guide, took us to visit Mr. Joe Hocking, a very fine missionary connected with the Plymouth Brethren. We enjoyed a few hours of fine fellowship with Mr. and Mrs. Hocking and their children, and learned something of the excellent work they are carrying on in the city and among the Indians along the river. It was from others, however, that we learned of the high regard in which the Hockings are held by the people of Pucallpa; how they give their help without measure when anyone needs help from them, from the officials of the town down to the poorest Indian. We spent a very interesting time with Mr. Hocking in the jungle, and saw several boa constrictors, some very in teresting birds, turtles and other types of jungle life, including monkeys. One T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
Monday, April 23rd, 1951: An interesting day, seeing some of the sights of this city of about 50,000 peo ple, 2,500 miles deep in the Amazon jun gle. We enjoyed getting acquainted with the work of the Bible Institute here, both in the class work and in practical work of visiting along the river in a dugout canoe. We went visiting too and saw something of the life along the river in this district, where many live in little huts. This is the harvest field for the workers here, so they must go out to reach them. We have made plans with the Wycliffe folks to leave tomorrow in their four-seater plane for the jungle. We will be joined by a smaller plane on pontoons and will go in to a very small river and see more Biola graduates at work among the Indians there. We will then go on to the Wycliffe Jungle Camp at Pucallpa and plan to spend about ten days with them seeing and photograph ing their work in the heart of the jun gles of Peru. Wednesday, April 25, 1951: This is the day we are to leave for the jungle base of Wycliffe Translators near Pucallpa, Peru, but the weather really looked doubtful in the early morning. Pucallpa is four hours’ flight away, the Norseman plane has wheels only and no floats, and between here and there is nothing but jungle and river, so for safety the weather must be good enough to fly contact with the river at all times. The radio weather reports from Pucallpa were good, but each report showed more cloudiness. In Iquitos it was raining lightly, but we decided to go up and see what the weather looked like anyway. Prank Matthis, the very efficient pilot, Don Burns of Wycliffe, and we two, took off, went out low over the Ucayali River, and within a half hour ran out into good sunshine, which enabled us to get enough altitude to have a fair chance of at least getting down near the river Page Twelve
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