This Website is about my time in Peru in 1976 as a geochemist, working for the Institute of Geological Sciences (IGS, now the British Geological Survey) and carrying out a survey with a colleague from IGS in Peru, aiming to identify Uranium resources. We were also working with Signal Oil (Peru) and IPEN (Instituto Peruano de Energia Nuclear) – see the ‘Background‘ page for more details. See here for Peru map.
A short biography which explains how I came to be working in IGS and why I was involved can be found here.
The work in Peru took place between early August to the end of November 1976, and involved travelling around many parts of Peru from the coast to the Andes, and into the Amazonian jungle. Most of the work involved measuring the radioactivity (gamma radiation) of rocks and countryside using sensitive detectors mounted on vehicles, (or boats for river work) and portable radiation measuring equipment, both gamma ratemeters and gamma spectrometers. I had assembled, tested and designed the setup of the equipment required in the UK, and some further metalwork and fitting was needed in Peru. In addition, I was able to use the engineering and electronic labs (and staff) of IPEN in Peru for initial setup and maintenance during the work.
Most of the work was carried out using Land Rovers (a Long Wheelbase and a Short Wheelbase, hired!), but also from boats, and latterly, a small bus. Initially starting out as a party of 5, we accumulated more personnel as we went along, ending up with a collection of 8 individuals before the work was completed.
My colleague from IGS, and I, tried to ensure we also visited important archaeological sites and other places of interest, where possible, as we travelled, so we managed to visit Machu Pichu and Iquitos (on the Amazon) amongst other places. We also experienced the full gamut of biomes that Peru possesses, including desert, mountains and jungle with all the in-between areas. during the work
Apart from myself having one brief stomach upset (from a ‘good’ restaurant meal!), and my colleague suffering an insect bite that needed treatment, neither of us suffered any illness or accidents. We weren’t staying in high class hotels most of the time, quite the opposite, and were camping in the jungle for some of the work. Meals often were whatever we could find from roadside food establishments (I hesitate from calling many of them restaurants) and at times my colleague and I were working by ourselves, so had to learn enough Spanish fairly quickly to be able to get by.
As part of the work, I ended up spending a lot of time driving a Land Rover, sometimes along fairly tricky mountain roads and over bridges that were not in the best condition, and at times with broken suspension (we broke springs on the Land Rovers a number of times thanks to the rough roads). The logistics of operating two Land Rovers in remote country areas, far from any recognizable petrol stations, was always tricky and we needed to carry jerrycans and funnels to be able to refill the vehicles and collect fuel from places selling petrol from large barrels, rather than conventional pumps. Neither of the Land Rovers broke down during the work, but we broke the rear springs several times. The rear springs are composed of separate leaves and usually one of more would break every few days as results of the rough roads. As soon as we stopped in a town big enough to have a blacksmith or repair shop, we’d simply have the springs taken off, the leaves welded back together, and reassembled. This usually didn’t hold us up for very long and often the work would be completed during an overnight stop. Only one tyre puncture that I can remember, and that was early in the work and as we arrived in Cuzco. The worst vehicle problem we had was the front suspension breaking on the Short Wheelbase LR, which led to me having to drive alone around 15 miles, very gently, while everyone else sped ahead to the nearest town in the other Land Rover (ostensibly to find a repair shop)!
As part of the work we travelled a long way up a river in the Amazon area in dug-out canoes and ended up close to the Brazilian border, camping all the way. See later in the posts for the full details of what turned out to be a difficult journey.
When possible, which wasn’t often as we had a busy schedule, I would try to wander round the cities and towns taking photos, and was told off more than once by our local contacts for straying into areas that were ill advised to go into. I had taken a good set of photographic kit (see ‘background page’), but it wasn’t always possible to take photos since I was heavily involved in the work.
Unusually, perhaps, being a keen fisherman at the time, I’d taken a set of fishing equipment, including an expensive rod which, after some problems with the shipping to Peru, came in very handy during our river-based work.
On the whole I enjoyed the work in Peru, although very tiring and stressful at times, and was pleased to have had the opportunity to see all the interesting places that we did. It was great opportunity to see other cultures, and experience the topographical ‘highs’ (Andes) and the ‘lows’ (Amazon jungle). Tasting a wide variety of food and drink was also an ‘interesting’ experience.
The work in Peru was my first overseas work for IGS, and only the first of many more periods of work in many different countries. However, none proved to be quite as long as the Peruvian experience. The Spanish I acquired also came in handy when I worked in Spain some years later.
Important – this was in the ‘olden days’ before mobile phones. Basically once we left Lima there was only sporadic contact with the office (in Lima) and next to none with the UK.
Also, this site talks about, and shows scenes from the Peru of 50 years ago – a lot has changed since!