Leticia, Puerto Nariño and the Amazon

[buencamino]

We went to the Amazonas last week. All this time in Colombia I thought it was  about time I saw the Amazon river. You get there on a direct Avianca flight from Bogotá. Takes about two hours. Because Leticia which is the capitol of the department is right on the border with Peru and Brazil I was told you have to bring your passport but I never showed anything besides my resident visa and there was no problem. The first thing you discover when you get off the plane is that it is HOT! A friend had spent a year in Leticia and knew people there so he arranged for a taxi to meet us and take us to the dock where an Indian couple was waiting and would take us to Puerto Nariño up river in their boat and be our guides.  I asked the woman, Doña Betty how long the trip was and she said about six hours. Good god I thought, six hours under the blazing sun? No way! So I said no you take us to the “fast boat” and we’ll meet you up there. Alas the fast boat which takes two and a half or three hours had just left. It was a long hot boat ride to Puerto Nariño! All the lanchas on the river use little Honda motors with a long pole sticking out at the end of which is the propeller. I suspect they’re very cheap but the idea is the propeller can be instantly lifted out of the water when the boat encounters a log or debris. Anyhow being the first time I’d seen  the Amazon the view was new and interesting.  We passed several sections of the river where the fish were wildly jumping and I had to retrieve and throw back into the river a bunch that landed in the boat. No fishing pole required!
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We had finally left the dock in Leticia around three and the sun sets completely by six (it also rises earlier than in Cali with full daylight by five thirty). The trip ended up taking a little under five hours with the last couple in complete darkness. The only light on the boat was a flashlight that Doña Betty turned on briefly now and then to check how close we were to the shore. She wasn’t going to use up the batteries so the light was on for only seconds. We did hit a few things but this is the time of year when the river is very low and there is little flotsam and jetsam. At another time of year it would be very dangerous as there would be big logs in the river.
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Puerto Nariño is a neat and orderly little village with schools and a church and a fair number of hotels. This because it is a principal tourist destination and a much more pleasant place to be than Leticia. The population is pure Indian. We spent the next day touring around (more time on Don Braga’s boat) and among other things stopped to walk a trail leading back into the forest from an Indian community. An Indian who walked with us told me a trick to attract the girl of your dreams: you take some feathers from the head of a trogon (looks a little like a parrot) tie some hairs around them from the girl, mix with something I forget to make a paste and rub that into your own hair. In a week she will come to you with love in her eyes.
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For many years there has been a well-known  “ecolodge” in the jungle at the entrance to Amacayacu National Park about an hour down river from Pto Nariño that operated as a government concession  but in recent years there was a flood that destroyed the septic system and the government chose not to spend the money to rebuild it so it is kaput. That is a shame since I’d hoped to stay there. However it turns out a new lodge has been constructed on a private property a short distance away which I believe has only been operating for two or three years. It is called Calanoa Amazonas:
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http://www.calanoaamazonas.com/lodge.html
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It consists of only four two story cabañas (the owners do not intend to build more so as to maintain the quality of the experience).  and is located at the edge of a large fifty hectaria property which so far as I could see consists of virgin forest. We spent our last two nights there. It is pricy but the accommodations were terrific, the three meals a day were excellent with Amazon specialties like the fish Pirarucú and fruits like Arazá and Copoazú. They can arrange trips to see the pink dolphins and Monkey Island of course but the latter isn’t necessary as we saw bands of two species right around the compound. Also interesting was a night walk back into the jungle where the guide showed us  interesting nocturnal creatures like huge tarantulas attacking their prey. Our guide an Indian also explained to us where birds colors come from. It seems that in the beginning of time there was a woman with two children, a son and a daughter. The son had sex with his sister and the mother was suspicious so she laid a trap that consisted of a dye that would stick to whoever was comingling with the daughter.  The brother fell for the trap and his face was stained with the dye. He tried everything to get it off and each time he tried something new and threw away the leaf or cloth it produced a different bird color. Finally he tried to get it off with the leaf of a Yarumo (the underside is very rough like sandpaper). He rubbed so hard that is face bled and that produced the bird color red. But the stain still didn’t come off and his mother discovered the truth. She was so angry she banished him to the night where he became the moon. That’s why today we can see the stains or “manchas” on the full moon.
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It was a rough beginning but the trip turned out well and of course we took the “fast boat” back to Leticia which had a rough against the sun and got us there in an hour and a half.

[Gavan]

I have heard of Leticia, it is near Iquitos, Peru.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTkGPGkMK0M



I have been to lots of places in Peru and I know the Costa pretty well, but I have never been to la Selva. It is supposed to be very different from the rest of Peru. The food is certainly very different from what they eat on the coast.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lo7Kv2WOK4


And the music from la Selva is pretty good too 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDBILXXSEaU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIuRSaXWU2Y

[Elexpatriado]

BC did you have any problems with bugs, leaches centipedes, flies, and did you see any big spiders? I have bug phobia thats one reason it isn't on my "Bucket List"

[buencamino]

Actually I only put on repellent once. Mosquitos really weren't a problem. There was a spider on the wall of the shower at Canaloa but he stayed put while I showered. Tarantulas are hard to come by except on the night walk. It behooves them to stay out of sight in the day time when the wasps that parisitise them are about. We watched a Praying Mantis catch and eat a butterffly but that's about it for bug stories. I did talk to an Indian who showed me where a piraña had bitten him on the thumb. It was a nasty wound. I had a bad stomach after eating a ceviche peruana the last day in Leticia. It was made with Pirarucu which was out of season and can't be fished now because the fish have eggs. What I had had to have been old. I'll know to ask next time. The next time I go I'll bring ear plugs because if it's a clear night the frogs make a terrible din. I counted at least six different species calling as I lay hopelessly awake.