A-Rod Around: South America Part VI: The Tri Boarder

We got off the boat at the junction of Peru, Brazil and Colombia. As this is the Amazon, and a developing world, getting an exit stamp was quite the trial. We had to walk with the sun and high humidity during the heat of the day to a little village in Santa Rosa. After finding the police, who you had to check out with first, and then a man with a stamp, we had to hike back to the river and take a boat across to Colombia. Then we had to go to the airport to get an entry stamp. However, all traffic into the airport was closed when we got there because a flight was coming in. Does this make sense? We eventually got the necessary stamps and even bought our airline tickets to Bogota for only $100!

JaNahn, Kate and I popped over to Brazil for the night to see a festival that was going on. There were a lot of dancing women wearing g-strings and feather head dresses. All aged Brazilians were performing traditional dances and loud drums and other instruments were playing. It was fun to be in the crowd. We were given flags to wave and people seemed happy to have us sitting amongst them.

Melissa was sick during our time in the Colombian Amazon so while she slept JaNahn, Kate and I went for on a jungle walk, explored Leticia and its many street food stalls and walked through the markets selling cheap products. The tri-boarder was a fascinating place. While the jungle is the jungle on any side, the towns were vastly different from each other. Santa Rosa in Peru was unpaved, small and simple. Tabatinga, Brazil was colorful with more scantily clad people. Leticia, Colombia was extremely friendly and developed with clothes stores, grocery stores, gas stations and paved roads with nice houses. Life seemed a bit easier on the Colombia as opposed to the Peru side.

The Amazon continued to be a magical place for me and one I hope to visit again someday.

No cars - only motorcycles/scooters - Leticia, Colombia