LETICIA & PUERTO NARINO, Amazon Basin, Colombia - 17th August

17th August Thursday - We had contacted Diana and decided to meet for breakfast at 7.30 the next morning. Diana is a cousin of our Colombian friend, German who lives in California. German and his wife Lydia (from Mexico) are our very close friends we had in California when we lived there 4-5 years ago. Diana moved to Leticia over 2 - 3 years ago to do her Masters in Anthropology on four specific ethnic groups of the Colombian Amazon, a few hours further north into the jungle from Leticia.

It was another early start. Diana is a lovely charming person; very fresh, positive and always smiling. It was so easy to talk to her. We walked to a cafe by the "Park Santander" in town. Had juice of a local fruit called Araza, and Pan de Bono (cheese buns). Diana, who understood how we prefered to be in a more rustic place than Leticia suggested that we go to Puerto Narino - we decided to leave right away that afternoon. Puerto Narino is a really small town, right on the mouth of a tributory of the Amazon river with a real jungle town feel, two hours away by boat, upriver.

As we had a few things to do before we left, we quickly rushed first to the river jetty ticket office to get tickets for the boat to Puerto Narino. Diana contacted a friend Jose, who has a car and runs a taxi service to drive us around. We went to visit the Leticia University where Diana is doing her Master's. We walked through the Ecological park on the campus - it was a very well maintained one. The University won an award a few years ago for its Architecture, designed to blend with nature.

Said bye to Diana and agreed to meet on our return on Saturday. Went back to our hotel to repack a bag to take for the next two days, check out and leave our other bags with them. We then had to drive to Tabatinga (Brazil) quickly to organise our boat trip to Iquitos (Peru) for early 20th (Sunday) morning. The Brazilian man at the Boat office was an easy going happy person ever ready to help. Bought the Rapido boat tickets - the river trip would take us on this realatively faster boat on the Amazon river and would take 10 hours to get to Iquitos in Peru - a journey that otherwise takes 2-3 days by regular boat. It would leave Sunday at 4 am in the morning.

We had a Brazilian buffet lunch in Tabatinga with Jose. Great food with several barbeque meats, beans, rice, etc. Surprisingly very different in taste from food just a few minutes away in Leticia. Tried the very refreshing local non-alcoholic fizzy drink called - 'Bare' made from a local jungle fruit called Guarana, and sold in large sealed bottles. The buffet food is charged for by weight - each plate is weighed after you serve yourself.

Jose drove us to the boat that would take us to Puerto Narino at 2pm. With the Amazon river almost 15m lower, the boat we were to catch was far from the regular jetty and had to be caught off a floating jetty reached by walking over a long series of tricky planks from the shore. Local dogs seemed to be very relaxed walking up and down these planks and one even overtook us whilst we did. Jose walked us to the boat to see us off.

The boat was a small covered speed-boat, packed with seats. We had to squeeze our way through passengers and seats to the last empty row. Sat next to a man we had seen around town earlier. He was Oscar who lived in a sort of commune of 5-6 houses in Leticia whose aim was to integrate their daily lives sustainably with the environment. He was extremely knowledgable about the Jungle and the Native Indians. He was on his way to the Amacayuca National Park to monitor studies in progress, and for a series of meetings with the local Indian Communities to further develop their involvement in the tourism associated with the Amazon for their benefit.

The boat drooped us off two hours later at Puerto Narino. A unbelievably peaceful town of 2000 people at the mouth of one of the river's tributaries. It is just as we would have imagined an Amazonian Town to be. No cars, motorcycles (they are banned)......infact there are NO ROADS. Just pavements for streets which dead-end into the jungle after a few hundred metres making cars & vehicles quite useless really.

The town had neatly kept timber houses on stilts, with neat gardens. People were very social and took pride in thier town and its cleanliness. They even organised cleaning brigades to keep the town clean. There is certainly a very gentle native Indian Community feel to the town. Children smile easily in the streets. Walked uphill to a really rustic hotel called 'Casa de la Selva'. The place had a wonderful feel; the room was basic and very fresh, with windows all the way around that it felt we were sleeping outside.

Found a small eating place where most of the people who ate there were regulars. Had some of the best fish we have had in all our time in Colombia - fried perfectly with a superb batter. Perfect !!! Then walked to the town square by the riverside, which was used at the football-basketball & parade grounds. Watched the local kids play a very fast & skilled game of football on this basketball sized field. What was very charming about this town was the sound of all the hundreds of birds, mainly parrots at dusk, and the occasional announcement over the public address system letting someone in the town know he had a phone call, or that someone was looking for another.

Later on our way back to our hotel we passed a lot of the kids who were playing football earlier, they on their way home. They all wished us good night very politely and as though they knew us well. We could get very comfortable in this town.

The town had electricity from 5pm to 11pm only. We went to bed by 10pm. After 11pm everything was perfectly dark and peaceful, with only insect sounds. Later there was a typical thunder shower in the middle of the night, the rain amplified in sound with its falling on the leaves of trees all around us.