Upon stepping onto the tarmac in Leticia, Colombia it was very obvious that we were no longer in the cool, fresh highlands of Bogota.... the heat and humidity was oppressive. Leticia is in an area known as the Tres Fronteras -- Three Borders because it's sister city about a quarter mile down the road is Tabatinga, Brazil and across the Amazon is Santa Rosa, Peru. Brazil just happened to be playing North Korea the same afternoon that we arrived and it was amazing to be able to count the Brazilian goals by explosions of firecrackers whenever a goal was scored. The victory parade that ensued their 2-1 victory was simply phenomenal... I'm pretty sure that every moped, tuk-tuk taxi from both the Leticia and Tabatinga sides were decked out in full party regalia for the 45 minute parade of horns and hooting.
The next day we took a tour to Isla de Micos which means island of the little monkeys. It was about a 45 minute boat ride up the Amazon and the main focus of the tour was feeding bananas to the little creatures while they crawled all over you.
The only way to get to the Peruvian city of Iquitos from the Tres Fronteras area is by boat--- 3 days in a Cargo boat or 10 hours in a high speed boat. We opted for the $70 fast boat as we had booked our connecting flight to Lima out of Iquitos. My idea of a 10-12 hour trip up the Amazon involved cruising with a couple 200 hp outboard motors enjoying the views and breezes of racing up the river. Unfortunately when we showed up at the dock at 3 am the next morning, we were looking at the equivalent of a greyhound bus but floating. All of the South Americans were intent on keeping the shades drawn and the windows closed even though there was no A/C. It turned out to be a LONG, miserable trip up the river which was prolonged even more when about an hour out of our destination our boat broke down which was explained to us as "running out of diesel" but the explanation seemed questionable after we kept hearing wrenches at work in the engine room and then miraculously the boat started and ran long enough (about 15 minutes) for us to go up the river to buy some more fuel. The entire breakdown on the Amazon set us back about 2 hours and I couldn't do much more than just laugh as I knew that neither AAA nor Sea Tow would probably respond and help us on the river.
Once we finally got to the steamy jungle town of Iquitos we were pleasantly surprised to see a proper Sports Bar with TV's everywhere -- although the owner is a huge Univ of Texas fan and the place is completely decked out in UT colors. It was a great place to keep up with the World Cup though.
During our tour the next day we went to visit two different Indigenous tribal communities and had the "opportunity" to have our faces painted and participate in some tribal dances. One of the tribes' dance involved stamping your foot in rhythm and that was too much for me to keep up with as was the running in circles with the other tribe. We ended our Amazon tour by visiting a Butterfly Sanctuary which also had a bunch of orphaned Amazonian animals... the most impressive a Jaguar that had been for sale at the market but was donated once the poacher couldn't find a buyer.
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