As we crossed the border into Colombia, we completed one of our aims of the year - to visit every country on the South American continent...

Colombia's Amazon makes up a third of the national territory but with hardly a trace of infrastructure . Leticia could be considered the end of the road in Colombia, that is if it wasn't located more than 800km from the nearest national highway. Lying in splendid isolation in the far south of the country, it's an outpost of cold beer and grilled fish. The city sits on the Colombia - Brazil - Peru border but, unlike many border towns, it was actually a pleasant and welcoming destination to begin our Colombian adventure.

The city had a friendly and bustling vibe and was great for spending time in sidewalk cafes to people watch over a 'tinto' (black coffee). Each day we were treated to an impressive, almost deafening, sunset spectacle at the Parque Santander as thousands of screeching 'pericos' (parrots) arrived for their nightly rest in the park's trees. Culinary highlights in Leticia included the local fish 'gamitana' and 'pirarucu'.

We felt obliged to make another excursion into the Amazon Rainforest and headed to Puerto Narino for a day, a charming small town 60km up the Amazon from Leticia and an appealing oddity . It's the second biggest settlement in the Colombian Amazon but there are no motor vehicles and all rain water is recycled - as is all garbage. Its narrow 'streets' are kept incredibly clean thanks to daily sweeping patrols by proud local women, known as 'escobitas'. The day involved visiting some indigenous people with pet sloths and anacondas, a traditional lunch of coconut rice and plantain with grilled fish, colourful parrots, playful monkeys and pink river dolphins. The pink dolphins of the Amazon have brains that are 40% bigger than humans' and local myth believes that the dolphins shift shape to leave the water at night to impregnate girls while in human form. They obviously take this myth seriously as we saw a very well endowed large wooden dolphin in an indigenous home.

Onward flight via the BBC in Bogota airport to Cartagena.