Leticia: on the Amazon where three countries meet

At Colombia's southernmost tip, where the country borders Brazil and Peru along the Amazon River, Leticia lives almost entirely in function of the rainforest that surrounds it.

Forest explorations require a boat; the center can be explored on foot.

Mundo Amazónico, an ethnobotanical park just outside the city, presents Amazonian plants cultivated according to indigenous techniques, from wild cacao to traditional medicinal herbs.

Going upriver by boat you reach Amacayacu National Park, a rainforest reserve where pink river dolphins and various species of monkeys live.

Returning to Leticia, the city market sells river fish and Amazonian fruit difficult to find elsewhere in Colombia, such as camu camu and cocona.

At sunset, thousands of small parrots gather noisily on trees in Santander Park, in the heart of the city, before roosting for the night.

The spectacle of the parrots in Parque Santander repeats punctually every evening, free and without needing reservation: one just needs to sit on a bench in the square a little before sunset.

From Leticia, a taxi in a few minutes reaches Tabatinga, already in Brazilian territory, while a brief boat crossing reaches Santa Rosa, on the other side of the river, already in Peru.