Since the boat trip from Tabatinga was leaving a day later than I had hoped, I ended up with an extra day in Leticia, which I used to take a rather expensive day trip. I didn't sound like it was going to be anything too exciting, but I needed something to do so I did it. The main attraction of the trip was a visit to the little river town of Puerto Narin, about 75 km up the river from Leticia. We would also make stops in a native village and look for pink dolphins in the river.
The tour group had about 20 tourists, all of whom spoke Spanish as a first language. In some areas down here, you still don't see a lot of English-speaking tourists, and thus many tours do not come with English-speaking guides. Which is cause or effect I do not know. At any rate, if you are staying on the "gringo trail" you will see plenty of English-speaking backpackers, but you will not really see any other type of traveler. I am trying to kind of straddle the worlds of the backpacker and the traveler who is willing to spend a little more and do more nice things. For that reason, I brought clothes that can be worn in any circumstance and not look too out of place (or draw too much attention for that matter), like standards slacks and shirts with collars. This day trip was definitely for the more high-end traveler, as all the other guests were staying at the two nicest hotels in town.
We headed off in a fast boat and paused briefly in the middle of the river where the borders of Brazil, Colombia, and Peru meet. Our first stop was at a kind of jungle lodge along the banks of the river, where we saw some pretty large trees, which were amazing to some, but not so amazing compared to the mighty Sequoias. We received some lectures and commentary about ecotourism and so forth, but most of us were too distracted by the heat and mosquitoes to pay the guides much mind. Like any river, we learned that the level of the Amazon River varies greatly from season to season and can vary by as much as 10 to 15 meters, April being a time when the river is fairly high and getting higher.
Our next stop was at a village called Macedonia, which is inhabited strictly by native people. A dance was performed by the old women of the tribe, which served to embarrass me quite a bit, though the other travelers seemed to get a kick out of it. Something about a group of older women dressing up in native clothes (of the type I am sure they do not wear all the time, if ever, except for tourists), walking around, chanting, banging on drums and making a bunch of noise - all for the viewing pleasure of a bunch of people who have nothing in common with them...I don't know...it just bothered me. I resented my own presence there and the fact of people being made out to be an exhibit. I often feel the same way when I am a tourist walking around amongst poverty, although I have never felt that way when I have worked on poor countries. It kind of felt like being in a zoo...not to compare the native people to animals, but my connection with them was about as much as I would have with an animal in a zoo. I did greatly enjoy a conversation I had with a young man as he drew a temporary tattoo on my right arm. We talked briefly about his military service with the Colombian military (natives not being required to serve like other Colombian youth) and life in the village. He had a lot of positive things to say about his time with the nearby Jungle Battalion.
We finally got out to Puerto Narin about 2pm. Puerto Narin is known for being a quaint little town, where the people make an environmentally sound existence by not having hardly any motor vehicles, turning off the power at night, and picking up and sorting their garbage. I am not sure if all of this was done to attract tourists or if they have been behaving this way for awhile out of necessity, but whatever the case may be, the town was indeed probably the cleanest I have seen in Latin America, and the view from the tower they'd constructed was quite striking.
Our return down the river was spent looking for pink dolphins (yes, they are pink, and they are one of 8 species of dolphin that lives in fresh water), which we finally found as we were nearing Leticia. We were able to get close enough to them to be able to hear them exhale as they returned to the surface. After 30 minutes of moving around to get the best views of the dolphins, we headed back home, and I headed back to my hotel for a dip in the pool.
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