“Step aside, Indiana Jones…"

By CORKY SIMPSON sportswriter for the Tucson Citizen

September 7, 2001 article

Step aside, Indiana Jones, your movie adventures pale against the real-life stuff of silver-haired Tucson housewife Mary Peachin. Shes the late Leon Levys daughter — he owned one of Arizonas most successful department stores, was a member of the Arizona Sports Hall of Fame and was one of the states real movers and shakers.

His daughter is something else. Among other things, she has:

Chased — and been chased by — sharks.
Bungee jumped off a very high bridge in Australia.
Kayaked in Canada.
Poked around coral reefs.
Flown airplanes and those ultra-light propeller things that look like flying lawnmowers.
Glided and soared through the air, probed underwater caves, stalked polar bears. . .gasp!
And spent 23 years looking for, and finally bumping into, so to speak, a polka-dotted sea monster as big as a submarine.

Mary found a whale shark, the great spotted king of all fish, 60 feet below the surface in the Pacific Ocean off Ecuador. It was a couple of years ago and Mary, recalling this scuba-diving nirvana over coffee at the Rincon Market, said it was like hitting a home run in the World Series or making a slam-dunk in the Final Four. So, we asked, was the 23-year search for the elusive sea monster worth it? “Are you kidding?" she asked. “Can you think of anything neater than seeing a h-u-g-e shark with polka dots?" Well, yes, we can: staying as far away from sea monsters as possible.

Not Mary.

“I spent years looking for one of those beauties and Ill never forget the thrill of actually finding one," she said. “They e beautiful. They look like a whale, except for the polka dots." Mary just returned home from a summer fishing in Canada, mostly in British Columbia and the Yukon.

“It was great. It was cool and beautiful and I left my heart up there," she said. For her next adventure, Mary is training for the RoughWater Swim at La Jolla, Calif. on Sept. 9. “I'm going to swim the mile distance," she said. What sends the wife of Tucson accountant David Peachin around the world in search of wild beasts and weird things to do, is a giant-sized curiosity which she has turned into a profession. Shes an adventure-travel writer/photographer. Mary has written for the Citizen, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Dallas Morning News and Chicago Tribune.

And in June she was awarded five writing and photography awards from the Society of American Travel Writers. “When I first started diving for sharks, in 1992," she said, “I ran into Dick Vonier (late member of the Citizen staff and editor of the now defunct City News) on a parking lot one day. “Dick said, Whatcha been up to lately, Mary? “I told him Id been shark-diving. “And he said, Wow! Id like to have a story about that. And that's how I got started writing about the crazy things I do." In between flights of fancy and dives of danger, Mary is pretty much your typical charity-fundraiser-civic-minded housewife. And she says the “danger" notion is an exaggeration. “Danger is when I feel Im not in control," she said. And how often has she not be in control? “Well, Ive had to get out of the water rather quickly a few times, because of sharks who looked a little too curious," she said. “And I had a not-too-friendly encounter with a saltwater crocodile once in the Solomon Islands, near where the Battle of Guadalcanal took place.

“I bumped into the crocodile in an underwater cave — and I got out fast." Mary credits — or blames, take your pick — her understanding husband for her adventure forays. “He bought me my first bicycle, and thats what got it started," she said. During tax season one year, with David buried up to his eyebrows in work, Mary looked around for some interesting diversion to occupy her time. So she pedaled from the Grand Canyon to Nogales. In first gear!

“I didn know how to shift gears — I didn even know there were gears," she said. “I was ready to leave that bike at an orphanage in Nogales– no more of that! — when somebody pointed out, Hey, Mary, you know its easier when you shift gears."

Her ancestors came to Arizona in a covered wagon from Texas in the 19th Century. They settled in Douglas, where they opened a store, the one her father would take over when his University of Arizona football career ended in 1933.

Eventually the business was moved to Tucson. Levys was located for years downtown on Pennington. “Everyone who grew up in Tucson in the 1940s and 1950s, I think, worked at one time at Levys," she said. It was in the 50s that Levys moved to El Con shopping mall on Broadway. After Mr. Levy died, the business was sold and has since gone through multiple owners.

Leon's adventuresome daughter said she took up flying at an early age, much to his dismay. “The first time I flew solo to Mexico, my dad called the FAA and tried to have the plane stopped," she said. “He was too late."

She's had a great time with her adventure trips and writing assignments, and said she owes it all to her husband. “David allows me to be a free spirit," she said. He even joined “Indiana Mary" for a bike ride across the island of Hokkaido in Japan one year. “We rode from Hakodate to Sapporo," she said. “We don speak the language, so I had these laminated cards made up that read in Japanese: I'm Mary. Can you point the way to Sapporo? “They worked."

The Peachins have two children, Suzie, a school teacher in Portland and Jeffrey, a CPA in San Francisco. And the kids have followed, at least to some extent, the example of their thrill-seeker mother. Jeff is a mountain climber and Suzie loves to fly-fish.

In addition to adventuring all over the planet, Mary and David are diehard University of Arizona sports fans. “Like tons of other kids who grew up in Tucson, I used to sit in the knothole gang seats at Arizona Stadium, she said. “I didn have to, but I enjoyed it more in those seats."

As for her improbable — and downright incredible — exploits around the globe, Mary says simply: “I like to live each day to the limit, to the fullest." And she likes to chase giant sea monsters to the polka-dottiest.

“A Tucson Superwoman"

By Wendy Sweet

Tucson Lifestyle Magazine – July 2004

From all outward appearances, silver-haired Mary Peachin fits her role as a businesswoman, community leader and volunteer fundraiser. But lurking beneath this executive exterior lies the heart and soul of an adventurer.

This mother of two adult children regularly dives with sharks. She also has bungee jumped off a tower in Australia, piloted small planes and sky dived. “I admit I am a bit of an adrenaline junkie," says Mary. “I also have almost an insatiable curiosity about people. That's partially what motivates my travel and determines my destinations."

Mary is an adventure travel writer/photographer who also publishes an adventure newsletter on the Internet. “Peachin Adventure (peachin.com) has thousands of readers every day," she proudly notes. “I publish the newsletter every month (except for bi-monthly issues in November/December and July/August), and each one features a different sport and destination." In addition to including her own commentary, Mary also publishes articles by “other top-notch writers doing adventures I don't have on my radar screen right now." She first started the newsletter about eight years ago. “I was one of those pioneers on the Internet," she says.

Although athletic as a child, Mary's adventurous spirit didn't really blossom until after she married her husband David 38 years ago. “He bought me a bicycle, and I rode across the state of Arizona a couple of times. Then we went to San Carlos, Mexico. Rather than sit on the beach, I went snorkeling, and didn't get out of the water for two days! David bought me scuba gear, I started diving in 1978 and the rest is history," she says.

Mary encountered her first shark in the early 1980s. “This was back when only a few people were doing research with sharks, and before people were regularly diving with them," she remembers. She admits it can be scary to see a shark up close and personal. “That's when the adrenaline kicks in. I get such a rush. Sharks are sleek and beautiful, but I respect them totally," Mary says. “Two things I crave are diving and tarpon fishing. I can only go so long and I have to go diving. There is nothing more serene, quiet and beautiful."

The intrepid adventurer, who has more than 700 dives under her belt, searches the Internet for trips and almost exclusively takes “live-aboard" dive trips. On these trips, you actually stay on the dive boat and “can dive all day and night." Dive boats are not like cruise ships (there might be a dozen divers on board); “they are geared toward the hard core who wants to dive all day and not have to worry about hauling gear back and forth from a hotel," explains Mary. These dive boats have come a long way since she first started taking the trips.

“'Live-aboards' used to be roach infested with almost inedible food," she recalls. She generally travels alone on diving trips, while her husband David often travels with her on bicycle trips. Mary hooked her entire family on fly fishing, and they now get together for an annual fly fishing outing (daughter Suzie is a teacher in Portland, Oregon, and son Jeffrey is a CPA in San Francisco).

Despite the fact that her adventures take her all over the world, “I haven't had to take that much time away from my family," she says. “The kids are gone, and my husband is a workaholic CPA. I do most of my adventures during tax season to preserve my marriage," she jokes. She does admit that all this travel results in her being “in a state of chronic jet lag. There have been times I've literally woken up in the middle of the night and not known where I was."

Her adventures also have resulted in some close encounters with death. “My closest call came while tarpon fishing in Costa Rica," Mary relates. “A wave hit our small panga boat and killed the engine. Waves kept coming in and swamped us in shark-infested waters. I was up to my neck in water holding on to the side of the boat, thinking, 'eventually I'm going to have to let go and swim.'" Fortunately, two nearby fishermen saw what was going on and rescued both Mary and her guide. She also has experienced three emergency landings while piloting a small plane. “The worst time was when I was flying to Yuma and lost all electrical power," she recalls. “I also had two scared passengers." A tense 45 minutes later, she made a safe landing.

Mary bungee-jumped “because I got tired of people asking me if I had done it," she says. “It was my biggest rush, but it was scary," she admits. She went sky diving on her 50th birthday. “I didn't really like the sky diving," she says. “I didn't have goggles on, so I couldn't get the view I wanted, and the g-force I experienced when the chute opened came as a surprise."

Two of Mary's most memorable underwater experiences involve a humpback whale and a whale shark. “I was diving in the Turks and Caicos when a fellow diver tapped me and said there was something big behind us. It was a humpback whale. The whale stopped, went up to the surface and came back down, stopping just a few feet from us. We swam over within just a few inches of him, and then he swam off without a ripple. I wanted that same exciting experience with a whale shark. However, I chased the whale shark for at least 20 years all over the world before I finally saw one." She has now seen two while diving, but both times were in “horrible diving conditions." During one sighting in the Galapagos Islands, “the current was so strong that divers' equipment was blowing off. It was a thrill to see the whale shark, but because I couldn't let go of the barnacle-encrusted rock I was holding onto for dear life, I couldn't photograph the shark or get closer."

Mary writes about her travel adventures for numerous publications – including Sport Fishing magazine, Chicago Tribune, and the Dallas Morning News. She also has written a book about sharks: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Sharks, published in 2003. With the help of five experts, three editors and a collaborator, Mary wrote the book in just three months. Several of her shark photographs also are featured in the book. She seldom travels to the same place twice, the exception being British Columbia. “That is the only place I've returned to time and again. Vancouver (in B.C.) is my favorite city." In fact, she and David now have a condo in Vancouver in addition to their home in Tucson.

The Peachin homes are filled with artifacts Mary has collected during her world travels. The collection is “cultural, ethnic and maybe a bit morbid," she observes. It includes such diverse items as a Greek orthodox icon. But probably the most unusual treasure is a skull rack (although it has a coconut rather than a skull on it!). Of her collection Mary says, “it doesn't matter to me what it is, as long as it isn't new and wasn't made for tourist consumption." The walls in Mary's office hold her numerous awards – including a national award from United Way, presented by Gerald Ford at the Kennedy Center in 1987. She also has received the Tucson's Woman of the Year Award (1981), and the U of A Alumni Association's Distinguished Citizen Award (1992).

A native Tucsonan, Mary's parents owned Levy's department store. “I started working for my dad (Leon Levy) as a stock girl when I was about 13 or 14," she remembers. She received a B.A. at Tulane and her M.P.A. at The University of Arizona. Over the years she has pursued a variety of careers. “I've been an adoption caseworker, aviation consultant, and I owned an art and framing business for 15 years." But, she confesses, “I've never been so busy or had so much fun as right now."

This winter, Mary went scuba diving in the Dutch Antilles (Saba, Statia, St. Kitts), Thailand, and Mona Island off Puerto Rico, and she traveled to Portland and Vancouver. Her 2004 plans include a trip to the Bahamas, as well as, “grizzly bear viewing in British Columbia. I also want to do more salmon fishing and go fly fishing for trout in B.C." A bicycle trip in Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick is also is being planned. “I may not look it, but I am a gym rat. I work out every day," she says. “If for some reason I don't get my work out, I feel I've been deprived. I try to focus on staying fit.

Ten years from now, I hope I can be doing the same things. Upon returning from some trips, I've been known to mutter, 'Phew, I've defied death once again.'"

Living Life on the Edge

By Lee Allen
Inside Tucson Business – November 09, 2007

From dives of danger to flights of fright, Mary Levy Peachin is no shrinking violet. “I like to live each day to the fullest – right to the limit," says the self-proclaimed adrenalin junkie and president of Peachin & Peachin: Leaders in World Adventure.

That's not just a big jump, but a quantum leap from her former life as a retail sales clerk at the family Levy's department store to being an adoption case worker, a travel consultant, and ultimately, ownership of her own art company (three galleries actually with eight employees).

On paper, it looks like a dichotomy. In reality, it's a trichotomy attesting to the many sides of Mary Peachin.

“Many people don't know of the three sides of my persona," she says. “I also have a strong civic side where I want to help better the community."

Her resume is a lengthy lineup of service from helping establish Angel Charities, Arizona Cancer Center, Ronald McDonald House, and the Metropolitan Tucson Convention and Visitors Bureau to board membership in United Way of Greater Tucson, Tucson Museum of Art – ad infinitum.

Along the way her collection of wall plaques grew with Woman of the Year honors from the City of Tucson, multiple awards from United Way, a distinguished alumni award from the University of Arizona, and a Governor's Award from the State of Arizona.

Still and all, the native-born Tucsonan would rather talk about her most recent escapades being chased by grizzly bears, sharks, and crocodiles, or sky diving and bungee jumping. “There's usually something beyond the beauty of the nature experience itself that gets my heart pumping."

A graduate of Tucson High School , then Tulane University for her undergraduate work and UA for a master's degree in Public Administration, Peachin is a certified commercial/instrument pilot, an award-winning adventure/travel writer and photographer, and a seeker of her next adventure anywhere in the world.

“Everything I've done in my life has sort of fallen in my lap, or at least been serendipitous," she acknowledges.

Mary began work at age 14, as a stock girl for Levy's department store downtown and remembers the Tucson of old.

“In the late 1950s, my dad, Leon Levy (who lead the store's relocation to El Con and brought Steinfeld's department store along to the new shopping center), didn't see a bright future for independent retailers and sold the business," Peachin recalls. “People still remember what personalized service used to be like. If customers were regulars, my dad knew what styles they liked and what size they wore. You don't find that kind of personalization in the big box stores of today that offer super prices, but little in the way of service."

Peachin grew up when Tucson's population was about 40,000 and when Country Club Road was the east end of the city limits. What would eventually become Tanque Verde Road “was the end of the world, totally surrounded by pristine desert. I used to horseback ride in what is now El Con and eventually ended up cruising Speedway Boulevard and hanging out at Johnnie's Drive-in."

After raising two children and making her mark in the retail world, she began to look for different kinds of adventure and initially followed that muse into shark-infested waters off the coast of California.

“I'd just gotten back from a dive with sharks when I ran into the editor of Phoenix magazine who asked me to write about the experience. I wasn't a journalist or a photographer, but that was the beginning of my writing career," she remembers.

Words and pictures depicting exciting adventures are now her vocation as well as avocation. “I'd been pleasure diving for awhile and thought it would be neat to view sharks, up-close and personal. Since those first forays, I've spent a lot of time swimming with sharks and eventually writing “The Complete Idiot's Guide to Sharks," which focuses on sharks in general without too much mention of face-to-face encounters. The revised edition (being retitled Sleek as a Savage) will include my personal adventures. I've just finished a book on diving in the Caribbean and, in collaboration with the editor-in-chief of Sportfishing magazine, am starting a book on fishing the Caribbean."

With no false modesty and an equal lack of understatement, she owns up to the fact that she's been scared on a number of animal encounters in the wilderness.
“There has to be something beyond simple curiosity that encourages me to put myself into situations that are frightening and fraught with danger," Peachin says. “I have a healthy respect for nature and live by the mantra that I'm in someone else's environment and understand I'm the intruder into their world."

Asked to provide details on her most harrowing experience, she's reluctant to pick one.

“I've been in and out of the water real fast when I found myself in the company of salt water crocodiles in an underwater cave in the Solomon Islands. I'd been told to expect small crocs, but not the six-foot-long ones that were headed in our direction," she said.

Water currents in the Galapagos Islands were so strong they literally chewed holes in her gloves as she kept getting battered back and forth on coral reefs while waiting for a whale shark migration. She ultimately found a summer migration of the whales of the Yucatan Peninsula where she surrounded herself by the giants along with an entourage of massive manta rays and her standard swimming companions, sharks.

“One of the most recent encounters in Alaska scared me to death. We'd flown into a location to fish for salmon and my husband and the others had gone upstream to look for trout when I heard them in the distance yelling about a grizzly bear headed in my direction. Although we'd been told not to run if we saw a bear, fright and flight took over and I beat feet in the direction of the float plane. From my vantage point on the plane's pontoon, I couldn't see if the bear was still hanging around so I spent the rest of my day alone, still angling while hanging onto the aircraft."

As to future adventures, Peachin says “As long as I'm healthy, I'll keep on keeping on and writing about the experiences. I have enough books on the drawing board I hope I live long enough to get them done."

Mary Peachin enjoys travel and adventure. She will tackle anything from fly fishing to deep sea fishing, and swimming with everything from sharks to crocodiles. Here she is fly fishing in the Dean River in British Columbia.

Lee Allen is a Tucson-based freelance writer.

Outdoor Channel.com

Gray-Haired Adrenaline Junkie

Mary Peachin's adventures often end with 'I've defied death'

Mary Peachin's adventures was swimming alongside a whale shark

By: Lee Allen, OutdoorChannel.com

From dives of danger to flights of fright, Mary Peachin is no shrinking violet.

“I live each day to the fullest – right to the limit," said the gray-haired grandmother with the self-proclaimed title of Adrenaline Junkie. “I don't know where that comes from. My parents were afraid to cross the street, but I fly my own plane, sky dive, and bungee jump."

As well as swim with sharks, dive among saltwater crocodiles, salmon fish alongside hungry grizzly bears – and in her tamer days, pet playful manatees and curious Komodo dragons.

“There's something beyond the beauty of nature itself that gets my heart pumping,” the 73-year-old said. “But there's more than curiosity that encourages me to put myself into frightening situations teeming with danger.

“Danger is when you feel you’re not in control of a situation and I try to keep those occurrences to a minimum. I have a healthy respect for the fact that I'm in someone else's environment … I'm an intruder into their world."

After working in retail and raising a family, in 1978 she followed her adventure muse into shark-infested waters off the coast of California. It's been a total adrenaline rush since: crocodile diving in the Solomon Islands; whale chasing in the Galapagos; fly-fishing with grizzlies in British Columbia; swimming with sharks in the Caribbean; tackling tarpon in Costa Rica; keeping a watchful eye out for sea snakes in the Philippines and jellyfish in Micronesia; stalking polar bears in Alaska; and probing underwater caves wherever she can find them.

A member of the Arizona Sports Hall of Fame and a graduate of both Tulane University and the University of Arizona, she is a certified commercial/instrument pilot, an award-winning adventure and travel writer/photographer, and a seeker of her next adventure anywhere in the world.

“Everything I’ve done in my life has sort of fallen in my lap, or at least been serendipitous,” she said.

Her shark experiences can fill a book or two, and have done so – Sharks: The Sleek and the Savage; Underwater Encounters – What You Should Know About Sharks; Scuba Caribbean, and Sport Fishing in the Caribbean (test.peachin.com). It all began in the late 1970s when she went snorkeling in San Carlos, Mexico, and discovered the wonders of a new underwater world.

“Two things I crave in life are the opportunity to go tarpon fishing or diving,” she said. “I can only go so long and I have to put on a wet suit because there is nothing more serene, quiet, and beautiful as being underwater.” After making her mark in the traditional work world, she began to look for something different, a quest that took her into shark territory in the waters off the coast of California.

“I’d been pleasure diving for awhile and thought it would be neat to view sharks, up-close and personal,” she said.

But sharks aren’t the only thing that gets her heart beating faster. Asked to provide details on her most harrowing experience, she’s reluctant to pick just one.

“One time diving in an underwater cave in the Solomon Islands, I learned just how fast I could get out of the water when I found myself in the company of saltwater crocodiles,” Peachin said. “I’d been warned to expect small crocs, but not the 6-foot-long ones that were headed in my direction. Our divemaster had told us the behavior of man-eating crocodiles was unpredictable and urged, ‘When you follow me through a 250-foot-long underwater passageway, please leave me plenty of room to escape.’ ”

The encounter with saltwater crocodiles stays in her memory bank, as does a close call with hundreds of sea snakes in the Philippines and a severe reaction to jellyfish stings in Micronesia. Lest we forget other exploits like competing in the Rough Water Swim in La Jolla, Calif., and long-distance bike rides from border to border in Arizona, or other expeditions where she stalked polar bears and bungee jumped off high bridges in Australia. Another time water currents in the Galapagos Islands were so strong they literally chewed holes in her diving gloves as she got battered back and forth on coral reefs while waiting for a whale shark migration.

“The current was so strong the dive master said we could easily be swept out to sea, so we were hanging on for dear life. The barnacles were ripping our fingers. It was thrilling,” she said.

And it was all for naught as that parade never marched by her observation spot. Ultimately she did find a summer whale shark migration in the Yucatan Peninsula, where the giant mammals surrounded her along with an entourage of massive manta rays and her standard shark swimming companions.

Some of her experiences were not so neat, like a tarpon fishing trip on the muddy Rio Colorado in northeastern Costa Rica. It started out innocently enough as just another day on the water until breakers began crashing over the 16-foot skiff.

“We rode the swells like a roller coaster, tossed about like a wobbly Frisbee, until a 6-foot breaker finally killed the engine – followed by more waves that tossed our gear into the shark-filled waters,” she said. “I silently calculated the wisdom of fighting rip currents and the likelihood of reaching the closest beach a mile away.

“As we were swept powerless into frenzied seas, my shark bravado waned and the ‘stay with the boat’ advice played in my head. We hung onto the submerged skiff in a life-or-death situation made even worse when we realized that soon, there would be no boat.”

Peachin and her guide were saved by another fisherman who managed to haul them safely to shore. “I turned to my guide and said, ‘Get another boat. Let’s go fishing.’ Not too many gringas (American females) come to fish alone at Barro del Colorado, and there’s lots of reasons why they don’t,” she said.

Peachin has found danger both on the water and under it, as well as along-side it.

“One encounter in British Columbia scared me to death. We’d flown into a location to salmon fish and my husband and the others had gone upstream in search of trout when I heard them in the distance yelling something about a grizzly bear headed my way,” she said. “Although we’d been told not to run during a bear sighting, fright and flight took over and I beat feet in the direction of the float plane. From my vantage point on the plane’s pontoon, I couldn’t see if the bear was hanging around, so I spent the rest of my day alone, hanging on to the aircraft – but still fishing.”

Earlier this year she had one of her scariest experiences in West Papua, New Guinea.

“I was dive bombed by an 8-foot-long grey reef shark with an arched back, indicative of aggressive behavior mode,” she said. “He came at me at what seemed like 100 miles an hour and at the last minute, still going at a lightning fast pace, veered away. I was definitely scared. No, make that terrified.”

Any time the adrenalin has a reason to kick in, Peachin is happy. Once while diving in the Turks and Caicos, a fellow diver tapped her on the shoulder and indicated there was something very big following behind them. It turned out to be her first sighting of a humpback whale that swam within inches of the divers before swimming off without a ripple.

Her life on the edge includes a memorable scuba-diving nirvana, a 23-year search for the spotted King of the Ocean, a whale shark the size of a small submarine.

“I waited over two decades for a whale shark sighting, but it was worthwhile, like hitting a home run in the World Series or making a slam-dunk in the NCAA Final Four,” she said. “I can't think of anything neater than being face-to-face with a h-u-g-e shark with polka dots.”

As to future adrenaline experiences, Peachin said, “As long as I’m healthy, I’ll keep on keeping on and writing about the adventures. When I return from some of the more harrowing experiences, I usually exhale and say, ‘Phew, I’ve defied death once again,’ and I’d like to continue to utter that for years to come.

She's Hooked on Adventure