Leticia

On Friday morning, Breanna and I took at super early flight from Bogota to Leticia--a town on the Amazon and on the border of Peru, Brazil, and Colombia. Highlights:

• Motorcycles...they are everywhere. There are almost no acutal cars in the city. When we got off of our plane, we walked out the door with backpacks on and hopped on the back of two motorcycles. So much fun. Everyone in the town drives them and when they`re waiting at stoplights it always looks like a really exciting race is starting.
• Hotel...unlike any hotel so far. It was actually more like staying with a host family. We were one of very few people staying there and Francisco (the ¨dad¨) really acted like a Dad. He would just walk into our room to do things like turn the fan on or replace the air freshener, and always brought us new things to try or see like fruits from the region. Cute. And, he preferred way of watching tv was lounging in a hammock in the dining room. Hilarious :)
• Sunset over the Amazon...I just like sunsets and love that I´ve been able to appreciate them so much here.
• ¨Market¨. Francisco told us that there was a cool market 6 km out of town. We got some motos to take us and they brought us to a house with one table with some stuff on it and another box with more stuff in it...not a market. So, we hopped back on the motos. The ride was cool enough as is, and then it rained. Not like a pouring down cold rain, but a warm soft rain that was so amazing on a motorcycle.
• Park... we sat in the town´s park for most of the afternoon and mostly just watched people and then a military band came to play music in this little ampitheatre thing. It was fun to just watch, but then it got better when two soldiers asked us to dance. So, we got up and danced with 2 colombian soldiers in the middle of all of these families on a lovely Saturday afternoon...fun.
• Brazil... we got to go to Brazil. No border crossing craziness necessary. The town was called Tabatinga and was really just a dusty town with not too much more than a port to the Amazon river. But, it was Brazil! We could just walk from Leticia... I enjoyed the fact that I could go and that I could be around Portuguese, which I want to learn more and more everyday. Such a fun challenge.

We left Leticia Sunday morning on a 12 hour long boat ride down the amazon to Iquitos, Peru. It was the most comfortable boat ride ever that felt downright posh. Some may say that I have lower standards than ever before...I wouldn´t disagree :) They even gave us two meals and water. The tv entertainment: mexican mariachi music videos, salsa music videos, a jackie chan movie, and american 80s music videos to top it all off.

So, we`re in iquitos and heading out on a two day jungle tour tomorrow. I´m hoping for monkeys, dolphins, bullfrogs, and pirahnas.