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Published: February 12th 2012
Letica
The Lake on a clear daySorry for the delay in blogs as after I left Bogota my hard drive decided to crash!!!
Luckily I backed up everything on my external hard drive, anyways
Let me give you some insight on Leticia and the Tri-Borders region since there was not much info on here when I looked for certain things...Hope the info helps..
I arrived mid afternoon via Bogota to some nice heat and humidity which was REALLY great after bogota!! You have to pay a 19,000 "tax" when you arrive in the baggage claim to all foreigners which isnt bad it's around $10 or so. So I finally get my bag from the belt and head out to catch a cab, I remember after booking Hostel Mahatu that the owner said don't pay more than 10,000 which was good info as I later found out some people got screwed on that, but I paid the 10,000 for the cab and arrived in 20 minutes or so.
Once there I met the owner ( Gustavo ), a guy from Germany, Mariana from the north of Colombia, and Angelo from Italy. we all checked in and sat down
for a beer and talked ( you know...Where are you from, what are you doing here and where are you going etc etc) Now Mariana is one of the most beautiful women I think I have ever seen no joke..we will get to that later though.
Leticia is a little bustling city that thrives on tourism and daily supply replenishment from the boats that come in from the Amazon. It's a nice little town I loved it, the border to brazil is an "open" border so you can walk right through which was good for me instead of paying the $150 visa for Brazil I could go and take pics and say I've been there lol. It rains a lot during the rainy season so come prepaired!!
The Hostel itself is amazing! nature at its best truly, but the owner seriously is Bi-Polar which everyone by day 3 was done and ready to move on. I stayed 4 days as I needed to line up the day of leaving for Iquitos with when the boat down the Amazon leaves which was sunday the next time, the tickets for the speedboat are sold near the end of calle 7
inside a small hardware shop, it has signs outside advertising for Iquitos, Peru. I paid $75 US for my ticket but a word to the wise BRING CRISP BILLS! they inspect the bills like no other place I have been to. You can pay in US Dollars or Colombian Pesos or a mix like I did since they wouldn't take some US bills because they had a tiny bit of wear.
The speedboat trip is about 12 hours long since you are going up river, seats are small and the boat leaves Santa Rosa ( Peru ) at 4am, make sure you get to the Tabatinga docks to catch the Lancha over to Santa Rosa, Peru around 3:30am the cost is 5,000 pesos and its about 15 minute ride over the amazon in the pitch black.
Ok so anyway, I just chilled out for the 4 days I was there in Leticia meeting some new people from all over, most were catching the slow boat to Manus, Brazil to get wherever they were going for Carnival, yea $100 a bunk per night..I'll pass lol. There was an even more balding white guy from the states who
was cock blocking on me for Mariana, which for whatever reason she rather enjoyed ( I think she knows just how really gorgeous she is and loves the attention though) but he had the advantage of going to be on the boat to Brazil with her so I called it a day and decided not to persue it, she did however let me know that her aunt is a president of some language school in her hometown and when I am up that way she would show me her city and give me a contact for teaching english which is cool with me. See things work out lol.
anyways Me and a couple from the states and England were catching the boat early sunday morning so thats about it from Leticia....Headed down the Amazon River!!
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daveolivertravels
david oliver
Good luck on your trip. I head to Coca, Ecuador on Tuesday to start my own trip on the Amazon all the way to the coast of Brazil. I figure it will take 2 weeks, maybe more. Safe travels dave