After a 12 hour speed boat journey down the Amazon, I arrived in Santa Rosa, Peru where Tabatinga Brazil and Leticia Colombia make up the tri-border region. I received my exit stamp from Peru immigration and headed over to Leticia where the best hotels, restaurants and services are. From here, I found a tour operator to get me into the jungle to have a look around and I also met up with my friend Martha from Colombia who is spending her vacation in this area.

The jungle tour was simply amazing . Our guides were excellent and were great at locating and spotting the local wildlife which included several different types of monkeys, sloths, birds, grey and pink dolphins, eagles, alligators, and everything but an Anaconda snake. At one point during the trip on one of our canoe excursions, I asked to go for a quick swim in one of the flooded areas that formed a lake... the response was an immediate `NO!!!`, in unison, from all the guides. Upon asking why the response was `Boa Negra` (Black Boa or Anaconda). Other adventures on the tour included visiting small villages along the river, pirahna fishing, swimming, alligator hunting... hmm, perhaps I shouldn´t put swimming between the fishing and hunting... in the Amazon, it isn´t really clear who is the hunter/fisher and who is the huntee/fishee ... sunset viewing and eating great food.

From here, I need to catch up with my friends from Lima. They are in Manaus Brazil for Carnival and if I want to get there in time, I will need to suck up the cost of a flight. I don´t have time for the 4 day boat journey downriver. The jungle experience was awesome and I´ll miss having Martha around to hang out with. But Brazil is the next country and this means a new language (Portuguese) and a country almost the same size as the continental United States. How I will cover the 5th largest country in the world remains a mystery but i´m ready to go....check out the pix, there are plenty.