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Well, it was time for my yearly junket back to the United States of America to see if it was the same as I had left it a year ago. Aside from the calamitous new records on tornadoes, floods in the nation´s farmland, the drastic rise in the price of foodstuffs, the trillion dollar scandal in the subprime mortgage market, great bargains at the pump like $4.00 a gallon for gas, and presidential primaries and caucuses where the American public is finally voting on vital issues apart from race, age, gender, etc., I found things pretty normal.

Luckily my main objective was my annual golf tour with “The Boys” from our local club, Los Inkas. This year, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina was the chosen spot.

When it comes to golf, Peru has its own unique situation. Due to the fact we have relatively few active golfers, there are only five golf courses in Lima, and three in the provinces for a total of eight courses. They are all private. We also boast the highest course in the world ( La Oroya at 12,375ft. a.s.l.) and a nine hole course at the large copper mine of Toquepala in the south of Peru where players bounce their drives off of barren hills and even play at night with special phosphorescent balls. We also boast some of the best caddies in the world, many of whom are professionals, and others with extremely low handicaps. Caddie fees run $14 dollars per round on the average.

Our group of twelve senior golfers has been travelling to the U.S. once a year for the last sixteen years and has tried a series of places including Daytona, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Ft. Lauderdale, Hilton Head, Sarasota, and Orlando. Myrtle Beach for golfers is like Disneyworld for kids.

A benign climate in a semi-tropical zone similar to Peru´s coast, along with 60 miles of white, fine sandy beaches and lots of golf and outdoor activities makes it a grand tourist attraction. This small city of approximately 25,000 permanent residents receives about 14 million tourists a year and features more than 100 golf courses. There is no other place like it in the world for the variety of courses and the facilities it offers. Vacation packages are readily available at extremely attractive rates.

One of the impressive sites very close to our resort was Brookgreen Gardens. The property was originally the site of three southern plantations where rice was cultivated and where black slaves abounded until abolition. Archer Huntington, son of multi-millionaire, Collis Huntington, one of the founders of the first transcontinental railroad in the U.S. and the Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Company in Virginia, acquired the properties with his wife, Anna Hyatt Huntington in 1931.

The original idea was to build a winter home on almost 10,000 acres of forest which ran down to the quiet sandy beach area along the Atlantic. They soon decided to convert it into a public park under a foundation and use it in part to display some of Mrs. Huntington`s prized sculptures. Despite their passing, the park now houses some of the most prominent sculptures of renowned artists of the United States, as well as an aquarium, a formidable zoo, art galleries, and picnic areas in a literal paradise of serenity and beauty. After a week of competitive golf , it soothed my nerves, for sure.

Following Myrtle Beach, I met up with my wife in Miami and we headed north for a most pleasant visit with family in Washington, D.C. We enjoyed Gen. George Washington´s home at Mt. Vernon, visited the National Gallery of Art, the Botanical Gardens, and toured the Voice of America studios. From Boston we drove north to Portland, Maine in a rent-a-car filled to the brim with that $4.00 a gallon gasoline that is all the rage now in the States.

Maine turned out to be another wonderful experience. With old friends who reside in Portland, we headed up to celebrate our 50th class reunion at Colby College in Waterville. There I had the thrill of singing with eleven of my old a cappella singing group, The Colby Eight. After two rehearsals, we were ready to perform and we made all those 70 year old female classmates swoon as they did fifty years ago. As it turns out, all of the members of the group sing in local choirs or harmony groups, and several play in jazz combos as a hobby. Talk about a thrill. Luckily we had name tags, as the pot bellies and the grey hair disguised some of the old personalities.

On the way back to Portland, we purposely detoured to Rockland on the beautiful rocky coast of the Atlantic to visit the Farnsworth Art Museum. This area was the home of the famous contemporary American painters, N.C. Wyeth, son Andrew, and grandson, James, and the Farnsworth has a fine selection of their paintings and others including Winslow Homer, Gilbert Stuart, and Rockwell Kent. The Rockland Café on Maine Street offered us a heaping deep dish of fresh steamed little neck clams with drawn butter for $9.99, followed by delicious apple pie and warm, oversized home made blueberry muffins.

As far as golf is concerned, our Portland host turns out to be the nephew of an extraordinary man called Barrett Nichols, without a doubt the oldest active golfer in the WORLD!. Mr. Nichols recently celebrated his 106th (did you get that? 106th) birthday and he still plays golf five times a week. A long retired local savings bank president and resident, he spends his winters in Sarasota, Florida, and, of course, Portland, cited as one of the Top Ten places to live in the U.S. He lives in a retirement home and was very upset with himself last year when he decided it was time to resort to a golf cart, rather than walk the 18 holes he has done all his life. Up until recently, he had a 26 handicap, and was hitting his drivers 160 yards.

Another thrill was a visit to Toddy Brook Golf Course, in Yarmouth. Several years ago, a local landscape contractor, Bob Anderson, got tired of practicing on a small putting green he had built in the front yard of his country home. His sister urged him to do something great, and they formed a team and developed a nine hole course which today boasts a full 18 hole course which is the delight of locals and vacationers.

Portland has been benefited in these recent years by a lady called Elizabeth B. Noyce, a multi-millionaire and philanthropist who took up summer residence in the area with her husband, Robert Noyce, co-founder of Intel, the world´s leading computer chip manufacturer. The Noyces ended up in a bitter divorce and Elizabeth was granted all the shares in the company while Robert continued with the management. Shortly after their divorce, shares of Intel stock went through the roof and Elizabeth became filthy rich.

Having fallen in love with Maine and particularly Portland, she dedicated much of her time and millions to refurbishing downtown properties, building museums, and financing hospitals and charitable institutions. She died recently at the early age of 65.

One of the jewels she left behind is a model farm called Pineland, north of the city. Originally an abandoned state institution for mentally ill children, her foundation purchased the facility and turned it into a beautiful farm with pedigree milk cows, horses, sheep, pigs, and chickens, in addition to a hydroponic garden and a cheese factory. All the production of the farm is sold in their own store on the property, and there are daily tours and events for all the family. In winter, there are cross country skiing treks, and in the fall, the woods around the rolling hills turn into a thousand colors.

The final delight of our visit was when my host, an accomplished musician and graduate of Bowdoin College, alma mater of Nathanial Hawthorne and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, invited me to one of his rehearsals with “The Music Makers”. This is a group of 16 old timers who get together and play the classical Tommy Dorsey, Glen Miller, and Benny Goodman stuff of the 40´s. The average age of the group is about 75, and one of the trumpet players is now 88 years old. Can they really play? Boy, I´ll say. I have my video to prove it!

If you are a golfer, I certainly recommend Myrtle Beach. If you want green forests, rolling hills and spectacular scenery while you savour the charm of historic old New England, I strongly recommend a visit to Maine.