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ABOUT LETICIA AND THE SURROUNDINGS
As the capital of the Colombian Amazonas, Leticia is the jumping off point for most visitors entering the region at the borders of Colombia, Brazil and Peru. Situated at just 315 feet above sea level, the town is a steamy lowland settlement centered on the river where wooden canoes piled high with sacks of rice, plantains and strings of fish ferry goods downstream.  Leticia is characterized as a melting pot of linguistic, cultural and gastronomic ethnicities. Domestic migrants from Cali, Medellin and Bogota who set up home here in the 1950's live among neighbors from several dozen indigenous Amazon communities, plus a mix of citizens of Peruvian and Brasilian descent.

A WORLD AWAY
There is a certain charm about Leticia's humid streets and its melee of motorbikes and road battles for control of rush-hour traffic. With a backdrop of wild, inaccessible jungle, Leticia boasts plenty of the colors of nature, albeit faded by the searing heat in part.

Wind along a jumble of restaurants, shops and painted houses set on a neat grid of pavement-lined streets that have expanded considerably in recent years to include an eclectic collection of tourist-friendly bars and hotels.

Yet, as bustling as it is, Leticia remains very much an isolated frontier town, stretching south of the Putumayo River and seemingly lost in time. Despite good flight connections with Bogota, in Leticia the rest of the country seems far away, with the nearest Colombian highway a 500 mile trudge.

Here are a few of the SIGHTS around Leticia:

IN TOWN

PARQUE SANTANDER
Leticia's bustling social hub is famous for its colorful flock of tiny resident parrots. Each day, at dawn and sunset, the entire plaza becomes a cacophony of sound at several thousand screeching pericos (small parrots) entertain park-goers with a magnificent swooping display.  Every aspect of life plays out in the Parque Santander, which serves as a meeting place, playground and teenage hangout, place of courtship and stage for local gossip.

MUSEO ALFONSO GALINDO
Peer beyond the souvenirs and handicrafts of Leticia's Galeria Arte Indigen and you will spot an impressive ethnography and zoology collection. Among the items displayed are preserved animals, turtle shells, snake skins, dead insects, pickled birds and various artifacts.

SURROUNDINGS

TABATINGA (BRASIL)
Though it lacks the quaint charm of its Colombian sister city, Tabatinga has an inviting collection of bars, restaurants and street markets that make it well worth a visit. Tabatinga, population 45,293, is the largest of the tres frontiers Amazonian trio.

Though this busy border outpost is less focused on tourism than Leticia, Tabatinga does have a schedule of daily boat departures to Iquitos, Manaus and Benjamin Constant, and is a popular point from which to explore the indigenous communities along the Yavari, Curuca and Quixito rivers.

UPSTREAM - ISLA DE LOS MICOS
Scientists admit that they may never record every Amazon rainforest monkey species, so great are their numbers. Visitors hoping to interact with pygmy marmosets should find these 1,112 acres of primary forest are definitely the right place.

Monkey Island's former owner was arrested for cocaine smuggling in 1989, which gave it a controversial reputation. Today, however, it has become a regular stopping-off point for Amazon tours operating out of Leticia.

The place is primarily home to capuchin monkeys. It is also rich in bird life and has several ecological hiking trails, with walks to Huitoto and Ticuna settlements.

UPSTREAM - PARQUE NACIONAL NATURAL AMAZCAYACU
This 725,254 acres expanse of rain forest occupies a large part of the Amazon trapezoid and is accessed by an exhilarating boat ride to the Quebrada Matamata, at the edge of the park. Once the ancestral lad of more than a dozen indigenous Amazon communities, only the Ticunas remain in this magnificent jungle stretch where two very different landscapes are a major characteristic.

Rolling and relatively dry scrubland supports a wealth of vegetation, including an array of trees that can reach up to 130 feet ion height. Mammoth ceiba trees need up to 30 people to fully encircle their girth. Other species - such as red and white cedar, mahogany, rubber, balsam, caoba and uvo   flourish on drier terrain.

In the boggy wetlands, the spectacular Victoria Lily, and capiron and munguaba trees are typically found, along with 150 mammals and dozens of reptiles and snakes, including the caiman, boa snake, anaconda and coral snake, as well as jaguars, otters, pink dolphins, black alligators, monkeys and the world's largest fresh-water tortoise.

Fish at Amacayacu also make up a diversified group; they are found in abundance in waters rich with gray and pink dolphins and hovering insects and butterflies.

UPSTREAM - PUERTO NARINO
Named after famous Colombian general Antonio Narino, who fought in the war of independence against the Spanish, the Amazonian town of Puerto Narino (pop. 6,816) sits at the confluence of the Amazon and the Loretoyacu rivers. Founded in 1961, it is home to about5,000 people of an ethnic mix of Ticuna, Cocoma and Yagua peoples.

Today the city is renowned throughout Colombia for its pro-environmental stance and eco-friendly initiatives. Beautifully maintained, Puerto Narino is a neat, traffic free jungle town, quite unlike any other in the country. Rather improbably, "green" issues are at the forefront in this pioneering community, possibly because of so many biologists, ecologists and conservationists who have passed through over the years. Sustainable living projects focus on community-based waste management and rainwater collection.

Puerto Narino is also the only place in Colombia where recycling has been  embraces as a citizen-led initiative - everybody plays a part in one way or the other. Fisherman from Puerto Narino help conservationists transfer turtle eggs laid at night to the safety of the Natutama beach, and protect trees important for heron nesting.

They also survey river dolphins and manatees and educate hunters in other communities about the importance of these species to the eco-balance of the Amazon region.

UPSTREAM - LAGO DE TARAPOTO
Surrounded by enormous Ficus trees, this sacred lake for local indigenous communities is steeped in ancient myths and legends. It is often visited by tourists seeking to spot rare pink river dolphins. Lake Tarapoto is also home to feeding manatees and is rich in giant lilies.