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After the boat journey that left us in Tabatinga we headed across the border to Leticia, Columbia. As advised by our travel bibles, Leticia is a little more established for tourist visitors and has far more facilities as well as being the place to book jungle tours from. After having limited time in Manaus we still needed to head into the jungle and do what almost every other tourist does while in the Amazonas region, a jungle tour... so we booked ourselves into a 3 day, 2 night adventure into the Colombian Jungle.... this was of course after one day of R&R and doing the necessary washing after the last weeks adventures.
Our tour included a fast boat ride (pretty much over boats at this point!.. but glad to see the scenery whizzing past in this one!!) 70km upstream to a remote riverside village where we disembarked and headed for a half hour walk inland to our base camp. From here and over the next couple of days our activities signed up for were to head out on canoes into the tributaries, into the local village, complete a 5 hour jungle tour to a spot where we spend our second
our base camp
out to the main house and the makeshift bridge that crosses the waters to it. night before heading back to base camp on day three and return to Leticia on the speedy boat again.... We were told that the jungle walk was going to be hard when booking.... and they weren´t kidding!....
We met our guide, Wilson at the port in Leticia before embarking the speedy boat to the village. He was Spanish speaking and throughout the next couple of days we found out that he knew the area like the back of his hand as well as everything about it and is a must be a pretty good negotiator!
After getting settled at base camp in our thatched roof hut and meeting the family that was hosting us we headed out in a canoe to check out the area a little closely and to visit the nearby village which we landed on after our 45 mins fast boat ride from Leticia. From canoe things are amazing to see. You just notice so much more and are always on the lookout for animals, both in the water, in the trees and above head. Butterflies are EVERYWHERE! and they are beautiful!.. can be found in every colour and are so diverse in the Amazon
our base camp
our sleeping quarters region that there is supposedly one butterfly with patterns on it to represent every letter in the alphabet. My favourite were the MASSIVE silver blue ones measuring at least 10-15cm across. Of course though they move just too quickly for the camera to catch so we only got a couple that were resting and soaking up the moisture of the clothes on the washing line back at camp. Just as we rounded the bend back to the village the eagle eyes of Wilson spotted an Iguana resting in the trees.. this was our first REAL sighting of a larger wild animal and definetly my favourite, as much as I love those butterflies!
In the village we met many locals, some were preparing food for a special tribal celebration/ceremony the next day, others making handicrafts from wooden marine animals to jewellry, kids playing soccer or climbing trees or ready to show us their special pets.. some with a couple of anacondas that kept eating thier chickens, a sloth, a squirrel monkey and many many puppy dogs!
The next day we prepared ourselves for the 5 hour trek into the jungle to where we were to stay for that night.
our bathing area...
trusted that there were no piranhas or anacondas here!.. I lasted only half an hour before the heat obviously got to me and I passed out.. stubborn as I am and not wanting to stop as well as not believing that I couldn´t make it I passed out again within 10minutes of the first time. Mind you I have only ever fainted twice before in my life!.. (the third time featured among my time in London on another blog posting).. I was not physically tired, so we put it down to the heat, the almost 100% humidity and no breeze through the trees which was just causing me to overheat. I HATE not finishing things and really didnt want to be defeated as well as cause us back to base camp, but that´s what was advised... So after heading back again and taking it easy we headed out on an afternoon trip via canoe along the waters. On this trip we saw more Iguanas happily lazing in the branches of the trees, some more massive lilipads (same as those we saw on the Manaus day tour) more birds, including a species of Maccaw, many water tarantulas both on the vegetation on the waters edge as well as in the
boat!... and a little fishy that got one hell of a suprise when happily leaping out of the water, lept so high he went flying across and over the top of my knees, landing in the canoe beside me!.... before the heavens opened and we were saturated from head to gumboot we saw some awesome sunset skies across the water from the canoe and another opportunity to capture it all on film.
The rains did not stop throughout the night and continued on until early afternoon so pretty much grounded us in camp for several hours. We did however, before heading back to the village for our return boat to Leticia venture again for a walk in the jungle. It was certainly a cooler day and the breeze helped out a little making it far more pleasant than the previous day!.. again, Wilson was a wealth of information on all the vegetation species and with over 26years experience in guiding explained things simply enough in Spanish for even a non-Spanish speaking person such as myself to understand.
After saying our thanks and goodbyes to the family we were on 30min walk back into town where our scheduled 3.30pm
boat should pick us up.. the ´boat stop´is pretty much in a families little farm on a wooden bench on the shores of a little bay off the Amazon, complete with dogs, cats, chickens, roosters, ducks, a MAMMOTH pig and the sweet manure smell that goes along with a farm. This shuttle run, however is often late so if 4pm-4.30pm comes round and there should be no need to worry. However after seeing the first full boat go speeding back full without stopping we we assured there should be a second.. there was at about 5.20pm.. this too sailed on past.. with only half a boat load. Now we were concerned that our 2 day unwashed selves would be in hammocks for a 3rd night again.. not real worry, but just not what we were prepared for. After Wilson made a couple of calls, we sat waiting by the Amazon still... and waiting.... and waiting ...watching the sunset.. and waiting.. and watching the night sky. It was not until 2 boats later, a couple of canoes that a few village boys came back into town and with a bit of persuasion from Wilson in private and a bit of a
out on a jungle walk
the first guy had machette in hand... a little bit of re-assurance for us.. i guess. pay off no doubt we were on our way back to Leticia at 9pm for the 70km journey downstream through the darkness with only torchlights ashine on the waters infront to avoid collision with any debris to the motorised canoe. Along the 2hour journey, we were stopped by the police on the banks of the Colombian shores and the boys on board were questioned to why they were making such a journey, we made a stop at the petrol station on the Peruvian side where the drunk peruvian inside was drinking local Peruvian spirits didn´t believe there were ´gringos´on board but invited us in anyway... (to our thanks but decline)... and then by the Colombian Coastguard who again had the same questions the police did..... Both myself and Owen were a little concerned at both stops by the Colombian officials as we were crossing both Peru and Colombian waters with still only our Brazilian visa!... a dumb smile goes a long way!..
Once on shore, there were HUGE hugs headed Wilson´s way! Of all the little mis-adventures over the couple of days, it was those that made them the most memorable days of the trip and would have done
it all over again.. .. as long we still had the same end result of landing back to sure intact and out of trouble. One bet though that I was guarenteed to win was for the number of mosquitos bites!.. ... with over 54 ´countable´mosquito bites it is quite evident that these little suckers can bite through clothing and after just about finishing a complete bottle of repellent over the 3 days, they are repellent to this stuff too!
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