TUESDAY MARCH 21
We bid adios to Alvaro and the big city and headed off on the Road to El Dorado to the aptly named El Dorado airport. Here we took a domestic connection southward to Leticia, a two-hour plane ride to the southernmost point of Colombia where Colombia, Peru, and Brazil all meet up.
When we landed, we were met with a 35,000 cop tourist tax before we met our host. That comes out to around 8.40 usd per person. Not bad. Hopefully it pays for something useful.
Eventually we met our jungle guide for the next few days-Gloria. She had us jump into two small yellow cabs where we drove for around 15 min into town to the port.
At the port, people swarm you to carry your bags and make some coin. We told them to beat it. On second thought that walkway looks a bit rickety.
Once we launched we stopped midway in the water. Here we are at the meeting point of Colombia, Brazil and Peru. The floating stuff is mostly floating pond plants and loose chunks of wood floating around.
Looking at the map, I imagined our boat ride would take 15 min to get from Leticia to where we were staying-the Calanoa Lodge. It ended up being more like an hour plus to get here. This is what we pulled up to.
Hopping off the boat, we scrambled across two wooden planks to reach the stairs.
We’re participating in what’s known as an “eco-tour.” The lodge or camp is made from local materials and can be pretty minimal. The day trips consist of experiencing anything in the area-local villages, foliage and animal spotting etc. The Calanoa lodge is already built on higher up ground so the buildings aren’t on stilts to avoid the rising waterline during rainy season. This is known as a “high land” area. There are wooden walkways connecting all areas from the kitchen to the open dining area to each of the guest rooms. They make getting around easy and you feel separated from the many ground creatures.
This communal dining area is where we met many other visitors for meals.
And here’s our room. I shall call you bungalow. Sounds more exotic.
This is the upstairs (at nighttime) which looked out onto the water through a screen window.
Here’s the bathroom, cold showers only but that felt great with the humid weather. We brought a citronella soap which I’m pretty sure didn’t do jack for repelling mosquitoes.
We checked out the kitchen and made a rough itinerary of two activities per day for the rest of our stay. Planning felt a bit unorganized but it held throughout our stay and the staff were also very flexible to changes.
We had a lunch of chicken, plantains, rice, beans and veggies while listening to the sounds of frogs and birds humming away. We drank a juice made of the coco bean. That cone-shaped red thing on the right is used to listen to the wildlife. Cool huh? Only thing is there was this odd humming beating sound that made everything sound haunted like a spooky movie.
… And cue the monkey. This guy (or gal) was looking for bananas. Not fresh cut papayas-we tried. This monkey is called bebeleche for its white markings around its mouth, leches meaning milk.
Our first event for the day was spotting the grey or pink dolphins. You’ll have to take my word that we saw plenty of them. Filming or taking pictures of them was harder that I thought it’d be.
I also took the opportunity to assemble my travel fishing poles and give them some exercise. No luck, but awesome anyway. The waters are currently rising with the rainfall making fishing not ideal. The fish aren’t as concentrated as they could be and the water is cloudy. That’s my excuse.
*Note to self-come back during dry season.
Along the way back we netted rubbish floating in the river.
And we spotted random animals, maccaws and a sloth.
Back at the lodge we got ready for dinner. We sat at the main dining area and met several Colombians, a New Zealander and a Seattleite before being told that we were supposed to be sitting at a different area. Boo. I mean VIP only. Yah. Tonight was catfish, hopefully no mercury from upstream gold mining.
We finished with a slice of cake that was baked in their wood oven.
Then we grabbed our boots that the lodge provided for all guests and went on the night nature walk.
Our native guide George of the jungle tickled this guy out of its hole like a tako fisherman. This is a tarantula; they bite, are quite fuzzy and will irritate the skin when poked by its quills.
Poison dart frog. Small and vibrant.
Don’t touch this guy. Danger.
Blue webbing
Back at our room, there’s some crazy sounds coming out of the jungle tonight. Grasshoppers, frogs and birds all chirping and humming in unison.
Even though there are a few small bugs in my net I’ve never felt more thankful for bug nets than tonight. See below. And holy smokes there’s a firefly outside of my net as I write this. Neat-o.
Our guide wasn’t joking when she said to check the beds for tarantulas before getting in.
And on that note, goodnight and sweet dreams.
The WOO family page 