Leticia, Columbia day 1

I was pretty tired and sleep deprived from my days on the boat, so I went to bed early last night. I slept pretty good, but nature called early and I ended up getting up about 5 am. It was late enough that it didn't seem worth going back to bed.

I will use this early time to do some blog journaling.  I set myself up at a table poolside. What? Poolside? Yes, this hostel has a pool, and it is clean. I am not a big pool person, but I think I will be taking daily dips for the next few days.

The sound track to accompany my jounalling are the birds, lots of birds including parakeets and parrots all going crazy this morning. They are really chatting it up

The slow boat from Iquitos actually docks in Santa Rosa de Yavari, Peru, on Isla Chineria in the Amazon River. On the other side of the river is Leticia, Columbia and  Tabatinga, Brazil. The blue dot is the location of Casa de las Palmas, the hostel I am staying at.

I wasn't planning on staying in Leticia very long, just a transit stop. This is a return to Leticia for me. I stayed here 2 years ago on my first visit to the Amazon. Do to a booking error by my very mistake prone travel agent (me), A flight was booked that could not be used. Now my options are open again.

This morning, however, I did book a new flight to Medellin, Colombia on Saturday mid day. This gives me 4 1/2 days to chill here, catch up on blogging, catch up on sleep, take a few dips in the pool, go to immigration and get laundry done.

Breakfast is included at this hostel. A nice breakfast, including: Coffee, eggs, a few pieces of papaya, banana, and toast.

After breakfast, I went back to the room to sort my cloths for laundering. I hailed a tuk-tuk to take me to drop off my laundry, and take me to the airport to go to immigration. 

The airport is only about a 10 minute ride out from the the hostel. Once at the airport, it only took a few minutes to get my passport stamped, then I returned to the hostel. 

Back at the hostel, it was time to try out the pool. My minimum water temperature for going into a pool is 84 degrees. The pool definitely was within my pool comfort range, maybe even a few degrees to warm. Still really refreshing. 

Leticia is in the rain forest and humid, so it doesn't take long to break into a sweat.

After my swim it was time for my first siesta of the day.

After my siesta, it is now early afternoon and head out on a walk back towards the river. The central market is in that area. I headed in that direction planning to find a place to eat. I settled on a restaurant in the central market. I ordered what I thought was fried breaded chicken. Even now, I am not certain that is what I ate. Certainly nothing to write home about.

I stayed down by the river for awhile, just wandering among and about the shops and river front. When the afternoon rains started, I headed back to the central market for cover and soon after, caught a tuk-tuk back to the hostel for siesta number 2.

After waking, I again worked on blog updates until about 6 when it was time to pick up my laundry. I took yet another tuk-tuk back to the laundry. I is always a happy time to have clean clothes again.

I decided to walk back to the hostel. Stopping by the park on the way, I bought some grill beef skewers for an evening snack.

By the time I got back to the hostel, I was again overheated and took my 2nd dip in the pool for the day.

I am now refreshed and showered. In the shower, I was able to wash the clothes I wore today that didn't go the laundry. Nice, 100 percent of my cloths are fresh, for a few hours anyway.