AMAZON ADVENTURE - The best way to do this trip

The Amazon is one of the most spectacular adventures you can have in Colombia. It is a nature destination where to share with indigenous cultures, see their flora and fauna, and to increase our love and respect for our planet. Stay till the end that I'm going to show you how to make the most of a trip through the Colombian Amazon. Are you planning a trip in Colombia? I'm here to help! I'm Jaime Rincón from Medellín, Colombia. I'm a professional tour guide and I really know my country. This is Cachai, Colombia. Hi there! Welcome! Today we're gonna go on an expedition to the jungle. Before exploring our destination, let me clarify something. This is an adventure trip with hot weather, insects, mud, and there will be no much luxury. When you go to the Amazon, you have to be willing to get a little uncomfortable and you need to have a decent physical capacity. I'm not saying you have to be a sport person, but you must be able to walk a few miles and overcome some obstacles. If you can meet these conditions, you'll be rewarded with a unique and unforgettable experience. Today we are going to concentrate on an area known as the triple border between Colombia, Peru, and Brazil, and our center of operations is the city of Letizia in Colombia. Our trip starts in Bogotá, where flights depart to the city of Letizia. Remember that it's not possible to reach this area by other means because there are no roads from the interior of the country and by river it would be too long and complicated. Letizia is a small town located near the Amazon river on the Colombian side, where we can find hotels, travel agencies, restaurants, etc. In the rest of the territory, there won't be so many comforts. The options in the Amazon are endless. Some people stay only in Letizia and do tours from there, others travel through different villages staying in them. There are activities with different levels of adventure. So to make this easier, what I'm going to tell you is what we do on the tour of Cachai Colombia, and that will give you a clear idea of what you can do in the Amazon. In Letizia, there is a wide variety of accommodations. On our tour, we think that as we are going to suffer a little in our adventures during the day, it is good to have a place that has the greatest possible comforts. That is why we stay in this hotel that has air-conditioned rooms, swimming pool, and a buffet breakfast. The first day in Letizia is an introduction to the Amazon. So we start with a good lunch in a restaurant that offers dishes from the region where river fish and exotic fruit drinks stand out. The food of this area is a fusion of indigenous gastronomy with touches of Colombia, Peru, and Brazil. It's very interesting. So we are recharged to take a small tour of Letizia. First, we visit the Ethnographic Museum, which tells us about the indigenous cultures that inhabited the Amazon, their customs, clothing, tools, etc. This prepares us a little for when we have contact with them during the visits to their communities. Then we're going to cool off with a good Amazon ice cream. In this place, they prepare ice cream with exotic flavors of the region where in addition to their fruits, we find flavors such as mambe, which is made with coca leaves, mohohoi, which is a worm, and ants. Then we walk through the city center to see its market where the most daring can have the experience of eating a mohohoi, this worm that is extracted alive from the jungle. Would you do it? We better continue the tour. We arrive at Santander Park, which is the main square of Letizia, where we can see a little of local life and where sometimes there are events with crafts and gastronomy. We'll be there at sunset to appreciate an unmissable show. When the sun goes down, thousands of birds begin to arrive and return to their nest. To be able to appreciate it well, we're going to climb the church tower by a staircase. This is the best place where to see the natural show and to be able to go up, you must pay 5000 pesos. From there, we will see this cloud of birds that are reaching the trees of the park with the colors of the sunset as a background. This is an experience that allows us to have a first contact with the fauna of the Amazon, which is something that will surprise us throughout the trip. At night, we can enjoy a dish of Amazonian street food, such as beiju, which is a kind of burrito where the tortilla is a quesada adult, which is filled to your liking with meat, chicken, calabresa, which is a Brazilian sausage, vegetables, cheese, etc. So we are well fed to go to rest because the next day the real adventure begins. This day, our goal is to make an expedition into the jungle. We leave Leticia by car and about 30 minutes later, we meet our expedition guides, the indigenous people who will show us the wonders of the jungle. With them, we start a very entertaining hike. We will have to pass different types of paths and bridges to cross streams and obstacles. For these activities, it is necessary to wear rubber boots because due to the conditions of the terrain, with normal boots or sneakers, your feet will get wet and they could be stuck in the mud. The Amazon is an area that floods for several months of the year, so the terrain is constantly changing. Depending on the season, we can find the area completely flooded and we'll have to move by canoe. At another time, it will be full of paddles and mud and in the dry season, it is more walkable. This tour that we are seeing is done during the dry season. During the hike, they also teach us about their customs and plants. Some that are dangerous and we must avoid and some that can benefit us. For example, the water creeper, which helps us to keep hydrated in the jungle or the leaves with which we can make a fan to relieve the heat. We also learn other uses of nature. This tour is a true masterclass on living with nature and the good use of it for the human benefit with respect and moderation. After a couple of hours of hiking, we arrived at the small hamlet where these indigenous people live. The region is inhabited by the cultures and many others. There, we began to know how they live in harmony with nature and an example of this is their pet efa, a macaw that they found with a wounded wing in the jungle and that they adopted to give it a decent life. Then we are going to enter the maloca or ceremonial house to learn much more about their customs. But since it is such a solemn place, we must do it showing respect with a ceremonial dance. The maloca is their school, temple and meeting place. There we learn about their beliefs, use of medicinal plants, etc. For when we go out to take a break, our hostess have prepared a small buffet with a typical lunch of fish, rice, plantain and vegetables where the plates and spoons are completely natural. For our safety, everything is made with bottled water and very hygienic processes. Then comes a good swim in the river to cool off and have fun and at sunset we will learn how to make crafts with leaves. With their waving technique, we made bracelets, crowns and other things. It's a pretty entertaining activity. By now it's totally dark, so it's time to leave. We are going to walk at night in the jungle which is very different from how we saw it earlier. There are new animals that show up such as tarantulas and luminous plants. At every step, nature continues to surprise us. When we're back on the car road, the fatigue is compensated with a prize given by our guides to all the brave ones who overcame this adventure and made it till the end. That way we end a great day and we were ready to rest at the hotel. What a spectacular day! Lots of fun and a lot of learning and our next day is not very different. Now we're gonna sail the impressive Amazon river to see other very interesting places. We take a boat at the Leticia Dock and head to the town of Puerto Nariño which is two and a half hours away. On the way, we marvel at the landscape of two countries. On one side is Colombia and on the other side is Peru. It is possible that we see pink dolphins and we will also make two very interesting stops. In Leticia, you can take public transport boats or in this case that we have a group, we hired a private boat. The first stop is halfway in an indigenous community called Macedonia where they receive visitors very well. We disembark and walk for a few minutes not knowing exactly what we were going to find there. After crossing a quiet village, we find its community Maloca which is where they receive visitors. There, we notice the incredible kindness of these communities. They play music for us, they offer us fruits, they show us their dances, they let us model their cloths, they put ceremonial makeup on us and for a moment, they make us feel part of their community. Without realizing it, we ended up in a tremendous park. There is also time to look at the crafts they make themselves and to get to know their pets such as this cute capybara or chigüiro as we call it in Colombia. This time, something very nice happened when we were going back to the boat. An indigenous woman noticed that a girl from our group was not well. The girl came with discomfort and fever so she talked to the girl's mom and offered the medicine. Look, these are the leaves when you have so much fever. One prepares leaves of mucura, guanabana, lemon. This is what we have here, we put it like this. Leaf of matarratón. And you bathe it with that? You wash the head of the girl. This was done to our little explorer and indeed, her fever went down and she got better throughout the day. We continue the journey and the second stop is on the other side of the river in Peruvian territory on an island known as San Antonio del Cacao. Here, we will explore a little of the Peruvian jungle guided by locals. On the way, we can try exotic fruits and see a representative plant of the Amazon the victoria regia which is a lotus flower that transforms into a round leaf that floats on the water and decorates the lagoons of the region. Later, we find the target of this stop sloths watching or pelejos as they are called in Peru that live free in this area. Then, we get out of the jungle seeing other little animals until we arrive at a small village where they invite us to have a snack and where we can try Peruvian drinks. We return to the boat to cross the river again to the Colombian side and arrive at our destination, Puerto Nariño. When we disembark we must pay an entrance tax of 20,000 Colombian pesos and first of all we are going to settle in our hotel which will be a little more basic but very natural and pleasant. The rest of the day is dedicated to touring this town that is quite particular. It is located in the middle of the nature and is very quiet but it has paved streets to walk through. It is so natural that all the time we are surrounded by wildlife and even squirrel monkeys can be seen. Something particular is that in the whole town there are only two motorized vehicles. One is the motorcycle ambulance which they created to attend to a possible emergency and the other is a tractor to collect garbage. During the tour, we find a lookout tower that offers a spectacular view of the town including the Amazon River and the Peruvian side. There, you can stay for a long time taking pictures and relaxing with the sounds of the birds. We also find a small market and a park with representations of the most typical animals of the area. Walking through Puerto Nariño is a very pleasant activity. To cool off, we can try the local fruit popsicles and when hunger strikes we can visit the restaurants or street vendors that offer delicious typical food. This way, we end another great day in the Amazon. Let's go to day four. It's time to go on an excursion to the lakes of Tarapoto. This is a trip that we take by boat from Puerto Nariño entering a small river to reach two lakes. This time, in addition to our local guide we are accompanied by a little stray dog from the town that loves to join the groups that do this tour. On the way, we appreciate the landscape and the local fauna like the birds and some dolphins that go out to breath from time to time. We also get off the boat for a moment to take a little walk through the forest where we can see the grandpa trees of the region. Trees hundreds of years old that are highly respected by the locals and considered the guardians of the jungle. After the walk, we feel a little hot so it's time to cool off jumping into the water of one of the lakes. It is a fun time in these calm waters although you have to keep in mind that if a woman has her period as prevention she shouldn't get into the water because it could attract the attention of the dolphins that can come close to smell her and give her a good scare or it could even attract some piranhas that reach where there is blood. The rest of the day we relax in Puerto Nariño and the next day we take the boat back to Leticia. That day our explorers were tired with the rubber boots and we didn't need them anymore so they decided to give them away. That's why we made a stop in La Libertad where we talked to the leader of this indigenous community to see if they wanted the boots and very happy he said yes. Although most of them didn't use them they could sell or rent them to tourists so he organized a meeting of his people with us in the Maloca where we could share some time with them take photos and learn a little more. This was a spontaneous stop on the tour that was quite rewarding. Sometimes it's good to leave a space for fate to surprise you. We returned to Leticia and after settling in the same hotel of the first nights we went for the last excursion of this trip a tour to the territory of Brazil. Leticia borders the city of Tabatinga, Brazil and this is a free border where you can cross by walking or by vehicle without having to show documents. At the border we take motorcycle taxis or tuk-tuks to cross the city of Tabatinga and reach the Comara viewpoint a place from where you can appreciate a spectacular sunset where you can take some beautiful photos with the sign of Brazil and from where you can see the triple border. So from Comara we can see three different countries we are sending in Brazil that's Colombia on the other side of the river Peru! In addition the atmosphere is totally Brazilian there they prepare Calpirinhas which is the typical cocktail of Brazil which consists of a liquid called cachaça with lime, ice and sugar all crushed. They also sell other Brazilian foods and drinks and on the weekends there is a show of Garotas the typical Brazilian dance. At night we go back to Leticia and get ready to return to Bogotá the next day. Amigos, this is more or less what we do on our tour of Cachai Colombia in the Amazon but remember that there are other options for you to customize your trip. If you want more information about our tour visit CachaiColombia.com and if you want to suggest any other activity you can leave it in the comments. Remember on my channel Cachai Colombia you can find different videos about destinations in Colombia and on my website there are articles and much more information. Guys, Colombia is waiting for you! ¡Suerte pues!