Bogotá and Leticia (Amazon) – Colombia

After an amazing time in Chile it was sadly time to leave but we were super excited for our next destination...Colombia! We had decided to dedicate 5 weeks off our trip to Colombia meaning it would be somewhere we spend more time compared to other places. This is because Rory came here in 2015 on a two-week holiday and was keen to go back to the places he visited with Liv as well as exploring many other incredible places the country has to offer.

Our flight from Santiago was took about 6 hours and was a night flight so we arrived in Bogotá early in the morning. Our plan was to spend one night in Bogotá, fly south to the Amazon rainforest and then back to Bogotá to explore the city properly. Mike, a good friend of Rory’s from the UK, lives in Bogotá and kindly said we could stay at his apartment during our time there. This was great mainly because we got to catch up with Mike, but it was also so nice to stay in someone’s home for a change; we love hostels, but you can’t beat home comforts! Mike got us set up with Colombian SIM cards and gave us valuable local knowledge. He has lived in Colombia for 10 years! He also kindly fed Liv endless amounts of Marmite toast and multiple cups of English tea, both of which she had be craving! Tired from our flight, we got all our things ready for our trip to the Amazon and had an early night.

The next day we flew down to Leticia which is the southernmost town in Colombia and deep in the Amazon jungle. The flight offered amazing views of the jungle and Amazon River. Leticia sits on the border with Peru and Brazil and in the local area you can walk (or boat) freely between the three countries without your passports or going through immigration. This free movement system encourages trade and applies to about a 50km radius from the three main towns in each country. On our first day we met a local Colombian man who took us in his boat down the river to the towns in Peru and Brazil and like classic Brits we had a beer in each of them! It was amusing having a drink in 3 different countries all within a couple of hours, all with different currencies. Luckily each country accepted all currencies and we managed to exchange the Brazilian change we got back into Colombian Pesos. The rest of the day was spent organising our activities that we would be doing over the next couple of days and acclimatising to the heat and humidity.

On our first full day we hired a boat with a driver who took us down the Amazon River as wells as many of its distributaries. The main part of the river was so wide, with extremely brown murky water with huge logs floating in it, but as we moved into its distributaries in Peru it was much narrower, and we could see the banks clearly. The Amazon is the world’s widest river and during the dry season it averages 2 to 6 miles in width, but in the wet season it can reach an astonishing 30 miles wide. The wildlife and lush vegetation we saw was amazing and included tropical birds, monkeys, dolphins, snakes and piranhas. We visited an Anaconda sanctuary in Peru where they keep the snakes safe as local poachers hunt them for their skin and had lunch with a local community. We had a go at Piranha fishing (we both caught some) and went to a beautiful beach on the Brazilian side of the river. Our guide and his girlfriend went swimming but considering we were just catching PIRANHAS up stream we both decided to sit safely on the beach and give the swimming a miss. On the way back to Leticia we saw a massive storm in the distance, which was incredible to view, luckily, we managed to miss it and were also treated to a beautiful entire double rainbow. Sadly, there was no pot of gold at the end of it though.

The next day we did a trek in the Amazon jungle and despite getting very wet feet, it was a wonderfully unique experience. Our tuk-tuk driver, John, (who we met on the flight down to Leticia) picked us up from our hotel and drove us deep into the jungle and introduced us to a local community that he knew who lived there and offered guided tours. At first, we were a bit sceptical about how authentic this was going be, but it turned out to be amazing, a real challenge and one of the best things we have done. The day would consist of doing a daytime trek, night-time trek and also learning about the community and more specifically their use of the coca plant.

After a brief introduction to how the day would pan out, we put on our wellies and started the day trek. Fortunately for us there was a Colombia family on the tour and one of the men, Carlos, kindly translated into English for us. After about five minutes most people had soaking feet as we were trekking though swamps which flooded over the top of our boots. The trek was incredible and seriously hard work, we had to be careful not to fall into the water as we shimmied across submerged logs, slip of a bridge with rotten slats, get bitten by creepy crawlies, stand on a snake and not grab onto any thorny trees, of which there were many. It took us about 4 hours, and we only went 4km. Our guide told us about the local plants whilst using a machete to clear the path. It was hot, wet, humid and sweaty. Everything you would imagine the Amazon to be and more. Everywhere we looked we saw amazing colours, mainly the bright greens from the plants and the vibrant blood red tree roots.

We got back to the camp and had lunch and later found out that the main bit of the meal was pig fat although we thought it was fish! After lunch our guide showed us how his community use coca leaves in their lives. With the main use being consuming them to help them see in the dark and work for longer hours, we thought this was handy as he was later taking us back into the jungle but this time at night! He heated the leaves up and once dried ground them into a fine green powder. At this point a Colombian tourist joked in Spanish that we should take this to London and sell it! Someone then asked where we were from, and everyone laughed when we replied “London!” As we all know the coca leaf is used for other things to!

When the sun went down, we went back to the jungle for our night trek. Armed only with what seemed like the worst torches. Surprisingly we saw way more wildlife than on the day trek. The main creature being Tarantulas, something Liv didn’t enjoy much! At times we turned our torches off and just listened to the sounds of the jungle. We even saw glow in the dark mushroom stems. After a couple of hours, we were back at the camp and had a celebratory drink with the Colombian family who had kindly translated for us all day. Visiting the Amazon has been a lifelong dream of Rory’s and it certainly didn’t disappoint.

We flew back to Bogotá where we enjoyed the home comforts of Mike’s apartment again. We visited the main historic square, Plaza de Bolívar in the area called La Candelaria, which has lots of narrow cobbled streets. The square is surrounded by many impressive buildings such as the Palace of Justice and the Cathedral. The Cathedral was very beautiful and built in 1807 in a neoclassical style and reminded us of the Cathedrals we had seen in Sicily. After a very good lunch at an Italian restaurant, we headed to the Botero museum. This gallery held a superb collection of works by the Colombian artist Fernando Botero who is famous for paining fat and out of proportion people. The gallery was free to enter and also contained original works by artists such as, Renoir, Monet, Degas, Matisse, Miro and Picasso.

Along with sightseeing we also went to a lot of good restaurants with Mike. On Friday night after going bowling with some friends of Mikes we headed to Chicheria Demente a really good restaurant where we tried lots of Colombian specialities. On Saturday we went to the famous ‘Andres Carne de Res’, which is a multi-floor restaurant / bar with eccentric décor that plays live music and has entertainers. We had a great meal and lots of fun spending the rest of the night dancing.

Bogotá is a large city with poor public transportation, so we got Ubers everywhere, even though the traffic was pretty awful. We did note that lots of people were cycling and on Sundays a lot of roads are closed to be used just by cyclists. The weather in Bogota is generally grey and cloudy and it can be cold as the city is at high altitude (2,640 above sea level). If you are in Colombia for an extended period, we say it’s worth visiting but if not, we suggest using Medellin as your main entry / exit city. We were lucky to have a Mike who lived here, as his local knowledge and catching up with him made going there totally worth it and it was a real highlight of our trip.