On a lush and serene bend of the Amazon River, in a humid tropical haze lies the compact city of Iquitos. Travellers who frequent this gateway to the jungle can often be found, come sundown, at one of the cafes dotting the colonial-era riverfront boulevard. As visitors come and go, one unlikely stalwart figure remains: a former insurance manager from Preston who relishes the ‘perpetual sunshine and cheap beer’, though still misses his pint of Worthingtons and cod and chips. Michael Collis aka Mad Mick has run his Bunk House and Trading Post in Iquitos since 1999 and for over a decade has seen his English-language newspaper The Iquitos Times mature from a three page handout to the monthly publication available today. I didn’t meet Mick formerly during my time in Iquitos, though I suspect we met unwittingly: on my first night, outside Dawn on the Amazon café on the boulevard I was handed the last copy of the paper by a silver-haired British gent, who celebrated his success by taking up residence at the next table with a cold cerveza.
I was reminded of Mad Mick on my return from Cusco, when I was surprised to find two copies of The Iquitos Times waiting for me at my flat. After my story had been printed in the newspaper I’d asked if it would be possible to post a copy to Lima, though after some time had passed, I’d assumed this request had been forgotten. In my usual inquisitive style I began to ponder over this character who had given up British life to move to the Amazon outpost and establish the only regularly distributed English-language newspaper in the area. Sadly I’m not able to return to Iquitos, so instead I caught up with Mick by email, to have my many questions answered.
Mad Mick’s relocation seems to be an extension of what has been a slow journey south since his youth. Born in Lancashire, Mick moved to Solihull as a child where he attended school and, upon leaving, entered the insurance business. In 1976 this led him further south to Herefordshire, where he took the role of Assistant Manager for Royal Life Insurance. ‘Always a traveller’ he frequently ventured further afield and has now visited nearly every continent, as well as having travelled extensively around South America. He is casual about his arrival in Iquitos in 1989, as he ‘turned up […] mainly to go fishing on the Amazon.’ Frequent returns were always cut short by family commitments, though he was reined back to England for the last time in ’98, when he retired from his job, sold his house and made the permanent move. Why? He ‘fell in love with the people, the climate and the atmosphere.’ After visiting myself I too can see the draw, but to feel it and to act on it is something else.
It was as a result of his departure that he was christened by the mad pseudonym most now know him by. Before leaving England Michael Collis entered the office of his boss at the time, and the unwitting Graham casually asked about his most recent fishing trip. Upon informing his boss that he was moving to the Amazon to live, Graham uttered his description, ‘the name stuck’ and Collis exited the office and the UK as jungle-bound Mad Mick.
Truly mad perhaps, was his idea to start The Iquitos Times, as Mick confesses he has ‘no journalistic experience whatsoever.’ A year after arriving in the Peruvian city, he opened Mad Mick’s Trading Post, which sells and rents hammocks, tents, mosquito nets, torches, hats, (the all-important) fishing tackle and everything one could possibly think of for a jungle trip. Mick initially produced a three page handout of information for visitors, so that he ‘would not have to keep repeating myself.’ Mad Mick’s Guide to Iquitos grew in the subsequent years, though it was with the assistance of an American journalism student that the paper evolved into its current form. Mick explains that ‘the transition from a handout to a newspaper could not have happened without the help of Rob Goodyear from Nevada USA’ who ‘played a major role’ in the development of The Iquitos Times. The first copy hit the streets in December 2002 and since then has continued to provide informative news, witty articles and act as a guide for visitors. When I was in Iquitos it offered all of this and more: I really miss reading a newspaper every day, so sitting down to breakfast and browsing through the stories was a welcome treat.
As a small, slow-paced city, local news and events rarely make for breaking front-page stories, and adding a pinch of fiction to some happenings has therefore been an obvious pastime of Mick’s. When asked about his favourite stories during his time heading the paper, the couple he cites are both spoof pieces. Ironically, it is one of these amusing reports that made the greatest news, with media in the US and Australia running subsequent stories based upon it. Mick explained how he was approached by Ray Shores, an American tourist who wanted to star on the front page of The Iquitos Times. This led the pair out of the city to a local man who had recently caught an anaconda: ‘a massive female about 23 feet long and weighing over 400 pounds, it’s girth was at least 24 inches.’ It took eight men to lift the snake and create the pose with Ray ‘who took off his shirt and was covered in muddy water for effect.’ The image appeared on the front page in June 2005 accompanied by a tale of Shores’ miraculous escape after the reptile had attacked him during a jungle expedition. This caused an ‘outstanding’ reaction upon Ray’s return to the US, where he was interviewed by press locally, as well as from Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald which ran the piece is its Sunday supplement!
Despite the abundant growth and thriving rainforest life surrounding Iquitos, Mick admits that the city itself has not provided the most fertile grounds for his newspaper to thrive. Successes such as the Shores story and the fact that the publication will be celebrating its 10th birthday in December have occurred in spite of its setting, as Mick explains ‘it amazes me how they keep producing the newspaper everyday.’ His assertion that ‘time seems of little importance to local people and the word “deadline” means nothing’ is one I would agree with after my own experience in the city. Iquitos itself has developed since Mick’s arrival in the ‘80s though, when there was only ‘one set of traffic lights, one chemist shop and only one gas station and what we now know as the Boulevard was a dangerous no go area.’ Thinking back to my own visit this is hard to imagine, as although the centre in compact, mototaxis fill the roads, busy shops line the streets and the boulevard in the evening is the centre of activity for locals and tourists alike.
The laid-back Peruvian way of doing things means that locals never rush, which is an asset when wanting to escape the hectic pace of life in the UK. Indeed, ‘being able to go out into the rainforest and get away from the world’ remains for Mick one of Iquitos’ greatest assets and the reason he has not been claimed back by Blighty quite yet. The ‘expat scene’ is another reason why he calls Iquitos home, and despite going without his pint of Worthingtons, I’m sure a chilled cerveza on the Amazon-fronting boulevard, enjoyed in laid-back local style will mean that Mad Mick and The Iquitos Times will be thriving for decades to come.