Leticia

We were up nice and early today as we needed to be at the airport for 9:45. After sorting our stuff out we left the hostel to see if we could find some breakfast. We quickly discovered that 8am is far too early for anywhere to be open in Bogata, and after about 20 mins searching we gave up. On our way back we grabbed a taxi as it was passing, quickly said our goodbyes and piled all our stuff inside. We ended up taking a very roundabout way to the airport as the taxi driver decided he would drive us through a random park, then we found that the road he intended to take was closed so we had to take a detour and ended up almost back where we started. Eventually we made it though and got charge the $13 we were expecting (although I noticed he didn't bother to check the meter to see how much it said, probably because he knew we'd refuse to pay if he did) Once at the airport we quickly checked in before scouring the place to find a reasonably priced cup of coffee, which we eventually did, after going round about 5 places charging $2 a cup we found a small stall where we got one for $0.50 instead. We also got a pastry each for breakfast and went to wait at the gate until boarding time. The flight itself was rather uneventful, apart of course from then fantastic views at either end of the journey. Seeing Bogota from the air as we took off and then the Amazon rainforest spread out below us as we landed was incredible!! When we arrived at Leticia airport we went into the baggage claim area where we were greeted by several policemen... One playing an electric keyboard, one singing and another handing out drinks!! Their real purpose of course is to collect the $11 'environmental tax' which is compulsory for all tourists to the town. After paying our tax we collected our bags and immediately went to get our Colombian exit stamp from the immigration officer in the terminal. We were duly informed that we would need to get an entry stamp for Brazil within a day. At this point we had no idea where we would be staying tonight and therefore went off into town in search of an internet café. It's about 1.5km from the airport to the centre of town (for which a taxi will charge you $6) and the walk left us hot and sweaty due to the rather large increase in temperature and humidity compared to Bogota. After about 20 mins walking we happened upon a hostel where we managed to get a room for $18 a night between us, which is substantially cheaper than we could find on the internet. Happy and settled we almost immediately went out to explore the area. Most of Leticia is a fairly normal looking town and it would probably be dismissed as boring if not for it's stunning location, however the area of the town which borders the River itself is slightly different, as it is now the rainy season this area is now mostly flooded, but the inhabitants have build themselves walkways which cross the flooded roads and allow them to carry on with business as usual. As such there are now many bars and shops which operate by simply raising the floor until it is above the level of the river, and presumably the freshest fish market in the world since it is entirely under water! We spent a couple of hours exploring, finishing at the main park where there were several stalls selling all sorts of things from empanadas to ice creams. We opted for an cup of shaved ice, with raspberry syrup, custard, chocolate, honey and sprinkles and sat down opposite a giant, wooden armadillo (with see-saws and slides projecting out!) to eat it. We then bought some bread and ham for dinner later and went to explore the other park, where we discovered a small market selling mainly fish but also some veg, rice and other assorted goods. The fish is as fresh as you can get since the road ends in the river where the fishermen come and leave their boats. After looking around we decided to come back here for dinner tomorrow and also picked up a giant avocado from a man in the market. Finally we walked down to the rivers edge and popped into one of the flooded bars for a couple of beers to relax while we watched the sunset and listened to the very loud and rather odd music blaring from a stereo behind us. After 2 beers each we left as the lady seemed to be closing up and neither of us wanted to be eaten alive by mosquitoes anyway, we walked the short distance back to the hostel where we ate our dinner of ham sandwiches and avocado (YUM!!!!) before bed.