Breakfast in Colombia, lunch in Peru, and Dinner in Brazil
There’s a unique corner of Colombia that often gets overlooked by the other stunning regions of the country (another blog post of that coming in the future). It’s a place far removed from the rest of the cities and towns, further into the heart of the South American Continent.
If you’ve ever looked at a map of Colombia and focussed on the southernmost point, you’ll notice a small wedge that juts out in between Brazil and Peru. At the tip of that wedge, on the banks of the Amazon river, lies Leticia, the capital of Colombia’s Amazonas department. The large town of almost 50,000 people sit across from a sliver of Peru which uses the Amazon river and the Javary River as its border, while sharing a land border with the slightly larger town of Tabatinga in Brazil.
Leticia is extremely isolated from the rest of Colombia with no roads leading to or from there from other parts of the country. In fact, most of this Eastern part of la tierra querida is inaccessible by road, with rivers and jungle covering the vast majority of it. Therefore, the only way in and out is via air or river in the form of flights to Bogota (and other parts) and boats that trawl up and down the river to Iquitos (in Peru) and all the way to Manaus and Belem (in Brazil).
Leticia, Amazonas (Colombia). World Weather Information Service ©
With the close proximity to other countries, it makes it natural to drift between the different countries with no need to go through a border check and no need to get your passport stamped unless you plan on going further into that country. Therefore, travelling from Colombia into Brazil is as simple as walking across the border! Or you can take a taxi or one of the many tuk-tuks that ply their trade in the streets.
Border areas have always fascinated me as there’s often a mix of languages, cultures, politics, trading, and movement of people leading to an interesting mix of two different systems living side-by-side. It usually also conjures up a lawless, ‘wild west’ image of illegal merchandise being smuggled and racketeering with people looking to take advantage of the different laws divided by an arbitrary line providing ample opportunities to benefit and profit but also to exploit. Although I’m sure there are such dealings occurring in this part of the world, for the most part, Leticia is a relatively calm and safe area of South America. I was approached twice by the military asking if everything was going okay and to be careful of unregistered guides who offer tours into the jungle.
I visited this region of Colombia (and Peru and Brazil) with my partner (now wife) in March 2016, a few months into the wet season (which lasts roughly from January to June). This meant periods of intense rain in the afternoon, but overall was not too bad as parts of the jungle were not yet underwater, enabling us to explore and walk through the humid, decaying undergrowth, exploring the abundant wildlife.
Main square of Leticia. Lachlan Page ©
There are many different tours you can do from Leticia all revolving around various destinations within easy reach of the town. We decided on one that travels to Puerto Nariño, a small town in Colombia further up the river to see the town and a nearby lake with river dolphins. Then to head across to Peru, have lunch and relax and explore the jungle around a lodge on one of the Amazon’s tributaries.
Breakfast in Colombia
We started off in the morning by having breakfast at our hotel (in Colombia) — huevos pericos con arepa, a colombian speciality of scrambled eggs with diced onion and tomato — before hopping on a speed boat to head up river to Puerto Nariño for a tinto — sweet, strong black coffee — and to watch the grey and pink river dolphins frolicking in the river and lakes. The town itself was very calm and green with no cars or motorbikes allowed, making it nice for a leisurely walk along the hilly cement paths as school children strolled to and from school. We listened to a talk from a Ticuna elder, who explained their way of life before jumping back on the boat and heading to Lake Tarapoto to see the pink and grey river dolphins. They sporadically burst to the surface for air, making it difficult to capture a photo but was amazing to see them in the wild regardless.
Puerto Nariño. Lachlan Page ©
Puerto Nariño. Lachlan Page ©
Lunch in Peru
After this we criss-crossed back to the wide, brown expanse of the Amazon before speeding across to the opposite bank into Peru. Here, we disembarked and continued on foot through the jungle for an hour as small monkeys played above our heads until we reached the Marashá Nature Reserve which sits on a small lake fed by one of the many tributaries feeding into the Amazon.
Reserva Natural Marashá. Lachlan Page ©
Reserva Natural Marashá. Lachlan Page ©
Here we ate lunch, swam and kayaked around the tributary on which the lodge sits. We fed the resident capybaras and macaws and also fed the giant catfish-like creatures of the Amazon called Piracucu (also known as Arapaima). If you’ve never read about these fish, google it now! They can grow up to 3 metres in length and If you can find a video of it being fed, it is an amazing sight as it sucks the food in at an alarming rate like a reverse vacuum cleaner times a thousand. We watched one being fed raw chicken and it hoovered it up sucking it right out of the air as the guide held it above the water. In the afternoon we headed back to Leticia on a smaller boat through a number of small offshoot tributaries and creeks before arriving back to our hotel in Leticia.
Reserva Natural Marashá. Lachlan Page ©
Uninvited guest at Lunch in Marashá. Lachlan Page ©
Capybara. Lachlan Page ©
Dinner in Brazil
It was at this stage that I realised that we had breakfast-ed in Colombia, lunch-ed in Peru, and now, of course, we should have dinner in Brazil. We were both exhausted, but I was determined and managed to convince my wife to slide into a tuk-tuk and head across the border. I know this seems like a ‘box ticking’ exercise but I was also genuinely interested in checking out Tabatinga as we’d only briefly driven through a few days earlier to a popular river lookout. So we set off as the sun was about to descend for our last cross-border meal.
We easily crossed the border, stopping to take some photos (it’s nothing spectacular) and I chatted to two of the bored Colombian soldiers there who couldn’t have cared less that we were going across. No passport checks, no stamps (although if you plan to stay in Brazil you need to get it stamped in a small office a few blocks away) and no customs. Just walk, drive, ride or crawl across and you’re in! In some ways, it feels as if Leticia and Tabatinga are both the same city as you’d never really noticed that you were even crossing an international border with people moving freely across day in, day out.
This is the Colombia-Brazil border! Lachlan Page ©
Foreign Exchange Booth at border. Lachlan Page ©
Within 10 minutes we pulled up at the aptly named Restaurante Três Fronteiras where we ate (I can’t actually remember what?) and drank a caprihina and a local beer complete with camisinha de cerveja (vital you add the ‘de cerveja’ part when googling this…) for the beer. A Brazilian beer pocket to ensure it’s icy cold.
Dinner in Brazil (Tabatinga). Lachlan Page ©
After dinner, we rode back to the hotel (in Colombia) on the back of moto-taxi and slept soundly before our flight the next morning.
So that’s how it’s possible to eat three meals in three different countries in one day!