This is Amazon Country.

While in the Amazon Basin Kathy and I were relegated to the safe parts, namely Leticia and it`s "eco conscious" neighbor Peurto Nariño. Leticia is a laid back river town with a million motorcycles and maybe more scooters. Of course juice a plenty and my first experience of a Colombian churro. Which is a ring of bread stuffed with caramel banana delicousness that is not conveyable in words, particularily if you get one while it is still hot. It is funny because Leticia felt particularly safe everywhere we went even though we were told to be pàrticularily careful. It is in full due to the strong military presence in Leticia and the surrounding area. Hey, Leticia even has its own brand of soda!

To get to Puerto Nariño we took a speed boat back towards Iquitos about 80km or so. This little town has a ton a character. It has no roads! Simple sidewalks to get everywhere. It is small enough so it`s okay. Walking around town we saw a bunch of neat stuff like grains being toasted, and a craftsman building a new canoe. We also saw a huge militray presence and understand why this area of the Amazon is safe for tourists.

The part of the Rio Amazonas and surrounding channels that Puerto Narino sits on is home of the fabled pink dolphin. Our initial attempt to see the dolphins included us paddling a huge canoe on our own out into the great wild yonder. But after paddling to town and back we realized that we suck at paddling and were already tired after the half hour jaunt. And on top of that everyone said that is was "only" about 4 hours there and back. So, Kathy and I decided to hire a guide to take us out with a motorized canoe, but dolphin spotting is pretty hard. Kathy did see a dorsal fin though, and we both heard them come to the surface to breath. My favorite part of the tour was the short cut through the forest.

What is cuter than kittens? Kittens and monkeys. At Las Casas de Friar the owner had an abundance of pets including 3 kittens, 1 dog, a big bird, and two MONKEYS! I can`t get enough of these little bastards, Matteo and Pedro. The kittens are nameless. And the dogs name is Satcha, short for Satcha NO! As she was always getting demerits for something or other. The owner Fri is also the principle of the academy that the hostel is built on. Calling Casa de Fri a hostel is short selling it, as it has a great lookout with a hammock, breakfast, and most importantly monkeys.
The monkeys are ridiculous. They bite everything to see if it is food. Then they fall in love with your wife. If you try to remove them from her shoulders they go bananas, screaming and pulling on everything and biting your hand as hard as possible, which isn`t very hard. And when you are relaxing they come up and pull your armpit hair. But for some reason I love them. There so cute. I want one. They have little fingerprints if you look closely!