First stop in Colombia- Leticia

As you arrive in Tabinga (Brazil) you only need to catch a 5 minute taxi ride over the invisible border and your in Leticia (Colombia). Within this area, you could enter Santa Rosa (Peru), Tabinga and Leticia all within 5 minutes of each other. The law allows that the inhabitants within those 3 areas to go inbetween the towns freely. When we arrived from the boat we caught a taxi to Leticia and stayed at an eco lodge hostal on the outskirts of the small town.

In truth Leticia was not great, it was very small and full of mo-peds that polluted the streets. Lonely Planet had boast of its beauty, but then again at this point we had learnt not to take anything Lonely Planet said too seriously.To leave Leticia it was necessary to get a Brazilian exit stamp and Colombian entry stamp.We made this our first priority and it turned out to not be as straight forward as it sounds. We had to get a taxi back to Tabatinga, Brazil which was 5 minutes away. Lonely Planet had failed to mention that the office closed from 12pm-2pm for seista so when we got to the office it was already shut. We then realised that having just walked down the road the time had changed back to Brazilian from Colombian which was an hour behind. It was all very confusing, safe to say 2 taxi rides later we finally got our stamp out of Brazil. Our friend Olly said he couldnt live in an area that straddled 3 countries with all this time changing malarky, I agreed!

We had a free day before our flight out to Bogota. Leticia has a small airport that flies only to Bogota. Its the only way out of Leticia as it is completely detached from the rest of Colombia by road. The Jungles that surround Leticia are guarded by Guarillas and Narcos so its a no go zone. Flying is the only way in and the only way out. So on our free day we booked a tour around the amazon area of Colombia. It was a boat tour that stopped of at several stops. The first stop was monkey island where little yellow monkeys roamed the island in packs and it was not unsual to walk around with 3 monkeys on your head, 2 on your arms and 4 on your legs. I have to say I screamed like a girl as I could feel there little paws scuttle up my back and on my head. Michael took to it more naturally then me, they quite like him I think. After this we visited an island with indegenouse tribe and they did a song and dance for us. We then saw some river dolphins again, both types on the way an area that boast they had the largest water lillie pads in the world. I dont know about that but it was pretty big. The last stop on the trip was a village that was actually part of Peru. There we saw a real life lazy sloth which was incredible to see, we even got to hold it. We were told that the sloths can live to 100 years old and they just die on the same fetal position, clinging onto the tree branch. Here are some pictures from the tour.

Isnt that the best face you have seen! Sloth in the village of the river which was in Peru

CHEEKY!

I want to take him home!

Beautiful

Michael and the Monkeys

Monkeys causing terror on Olly

The tribes women put on a traditional show for us

Me and Michael with the tribe

Our mate barry!

On this tour we met an interesting character (to add to the collection from this trip) called Barry. Barry was from San Francisco and is 63 years old. He had been travelling nearly a year and half and South America was one of his last stops. He sold up his house and decided to see the world, he had been in Australia, New Zealand, Africa and now finally South America. This was his second time travelling as his first time was 36 year before when he did the Hippy Trail from Turkey to Cambodia, passing through countries like Afghanistan. Which to us young folks now is just unbelievable, Barry was our Hero. He then told us he visited England on his first trip and stayed in hippy commune on the floor for something like 50pence. He carried on to say that he loved England but was dissapointed when he had told someone he loved Vegas and gambling and a nice English man said, WAHAY! why dont you go to a place called Blackpool, its like the Vegas of England. Ofcourse you know and I know that Blackpool resembles more washed up beach town than the glitz of glamour of Vegas. As he was telling the story I just pictured wide eyed Barry pitching up in Blackpool expecting Vegas. Me, Michael and Olly where really chuckling at this point and thought I bet that guy was taking the mickey sending this Vegas poker player to Blackpool. Anyway, Barry had great catch phrases that we still qoute now like, (now you have to imagine a really, really american San Fran accent) "Unbelieeevaable" and "Thats neat". We have swapped details with Barry and we hope to see him soon in San Fran because that would be ""Unbelieeevaable".

So after 3 days in Leticia we said bye Barry and headed of to Capital of Colombia, Bogota.