Aarrived in Leticia

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  Leticia, Colombia
Friday, February 9, 2007

After recharging our energy levels in Bogota, it was a time to continue with our journey down south to Amazon region. Today our plane took us to the tropics of Colombian jungle, to the small border town of Leticia. As we approached our destination I must admit I was not sure if the plane is approaching to land or we are about to crush. Leticia is surrounded by the jungle and on the approach all I could see through the window of the plane was the forest.

At the airport we met another backpacker Rich from Croydon England, who has been "lost in action" since May of last year and will continue to be so for at least another couple of months. We all booked ourselves in the hostel called San Francisco and the other two have in-trusted me with a sanitary check of the accommodation. The rooms are basic and full of wild life and probably a paradise for David Attenborough, but they are cheap. Besides I was tired and had a mother of all hangovers after the night out in Bogota.

Once we booked ourselves to the hotel we decided to go around the town and of course the amazon river. Today the place has 25000 inhabitants (mostly Indians) and has a striving economy based on tourism. During the 1980īs though this was one of the key drug trafficking hubs between Brazil,Colombia and Peru. During the 1990īs the drug traffickers were replaced by the gorillas and finally in 1999 demilitarized zone was created. The area is apparently the size of Switzerland and officially there is no government troops in this area. In reality though we have been told that out of 25000 inhabitants of Leticia 5000 are soldiers in civilian clothing. Hhmmm yet another example of Colombian life and reality.
After the walk around the back streets and shanty towns of Leticia we decided to get something to eat and run into two guys from Austria we met at the airport in Bogota. Both of them were in this part of the world before and proved to be an excellent source of information. One of them even lived here for two years with his family and children. The bizarre thing is that we  spent over two hours talking to them with Maciek and Rich but we donīt know their names. Anyway we arranged to get together later on in the local bar for a beer or two.
Tomorrow the plan is to cross over to Tabatinga on the Brazilian site, from where we are going to catch a boat on Saturday going to Manao - city in the middle of Brazilian rain forest and I shall report back from there.

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