Leticia hostel and boat from Tabatinga to Manaus photos

Peru, Colombia and Brazil all in one day.

These pictures show Peru, Colombia and Brazil from a boat connecting the three countries. I flew from Bogota to Leticia still in Colombia right on the border with Peru and Brazil. It's quite a dodgy town. At the airport for some reason I was the only gringo let through without having to pay for an extortionate tourist charge, and that was even after I had a chat with the official. I befriended two aussies and we walked the rather too long walk into town to Hostel Mahahtu. It was a nice setting but the owner was a dickhead. After two days I finally managed to book my 4 day boat trip to Manaus (where I am writing this from). I was terrified. There were reports of theft, violance, delays of up to weeks with breakdowns and all this when I was supposed to hang my own hammock up in a cargo ship and stay there for 4 days. It was cheap. About 100 US dollars including food for 4 days. Thankfully I met a nice English boy Chris in the queue who then saved me a space next to his hammock. This space got smaller and smaller as more and more people arrived. I befriended an older Brazilian lady who took it upon herself to look after me thankfully. It would have taken a while otherwise to figure out that the loud bell meant food was being served, that the loud horns meant we were approaching port and that lights on could mean anything from alighting passengers / onions / bananas or military checks.

There were only about 10 gringoes aboard but unusually many of them are solo travellers and a really good bunch of people. After many many card games, laughs, drinks, some vomit and plenty of stories we arrived in Manaus.

We all checked into the same hostel, hot, tired and sweaty. The next day the aussie girl Catelyn and I booked to go on a jungle tour the following day - that will be the next post. Manaus is a pretty busy, hot city in the middle of the amazon. Weird place.

Villa de Leyva, Colombia

Villa de Leyva is a cute little town in Colombia with pretty waterfalls. Heading onto Bogota tomorrow. Nirmal will head back to Venezuela. We've had a pretty active few weeks together but I will have time to recuperate on a hammock down the rio negro and into Brazil.

La Ciudad Perdida

So on Sunday morning we left bright and early to go to the pueblo called Machete Pelado. It used to be called Mamey after the fruit, but 20 something years ago so many people killed each other by machete due to cocaine wars that it was renamed....We started the trek up to La Ciudad Perdida and all was good. It rained hard, and we finally made it around 6pm to our camp. The mules however had got stuck the other side of the river. I found out the next day, having overheard a conversation between two guides that the mule man had got drunk and forgotten to tie the mules up, so lost them and consequently lost our food. They only reappeared at 1pm the next day. So we set off very late and didn't make it to camp 2 before it got dark so stayed somewhere very very basic having not had any lunch and dinner was again very late. Day three began with less enthusiasm and a slight disdain for the useless guide but our group was great and we rallied together and had a laugh - mainly at the guides expense. There were many river crossings, some waist deep. They were actually quite nice as they kept us cool for at least 10 minutes. The trek was long, hot and pretty difficult and quite hairy at times.

The worst moment was on the way back we had to cross by "cable car" which is more or less a wooden cart on a pulley that is operated by two guys. You can see a picture of it above - in the sun - on the way there, when the river was low enough for us to cross through the river, rather than over it. On our way back there was torrential rain and the river was raging, it was dark and wet. I found out that quite a few people pissed themselves with fear, and many other girls cried. For the first time on the trip I felt a little more hard! I just didn't look down. But anyway I digress. Nirmal couldn't see a thing as he was wearing glasses and with the rain they were all steamed up. At the other end there is a sheer drop down a cliff and into the river. He crossed infront of me and I saw him go to get out of the side - onto AIR - rather than the v. small ledge and I just heard the guide scream "Nirmal NOOOOOOOOOOOOO" and thankfully he put his foot back in and got out the front, in some sort of safety. I actually thought he was going to die!

We celebrated in style when we got back to Taganga. We spent the day on the beach today with Carlos - the guide who shouted to Nirmal not to kill himself, and coincidentally he'd also taken him to hospital two weeks previously when he had severe dehydration. Just before we got in the sea he said "I'm not a v. good swimmer, so I can't save your life here too Nirmal". Ah a Colombian with a great sense of humour. We loved him.

It took us time to rest up, get clean and dry and we're about to head to a night bus to San Gil for some more adventure. We're going to try spelunking on my birthday - whatever that may be!

Alcatraz Tour - whatever were we thinking

So Nirmal, the German guy and I decided to go on a trip to La Playa Blanca. We were sold a tour that sounded too good to be true at the hostel. We didn't know the company was called Alcatraz until we got to the boat. Never go on a tour that is named after a prison is all I can say on this one. Awful. Awful.