The Complete Guide To Leticia, Colombia

Deep in the jungle, all the way at the southernmost tip of Colombia is a city called Leticia. Leticia is a place where three countries meet. Here you can have breakfast in Colombia, lunch in Brazil, and dinner in Peru. Well, with how close they really are, you can have breakfast in Colombia, second breakfast in Brazil, and then third breakfast in Peru. For those who are planning on exploring Leticia I wrote the complete guide to this city with all the necessary information on how to get there, and the best things to do.

Leticia city was my starting point to one of the best trips in my life. My multi day Amazon adventure is likely to be an excursion I’ll never forget.  

How To Get To Leticia

You cannot take a bus or drive to Leticia. To get there you need to take a plane, or get on a boat (but that is mostly for those of you coming from Brazil or Peru). 

There are quite a lot of flights from Bogota to Leticia. However if you are coming from another city you will just have to do a transfer in Bogota.

Note: the flight from Bogota to Leticia takes two hours and will cost you around $100 – $150 round trip. If you are coming from another major city like Medellin or Cartagena, the price will most likely be around the same, but you will have a layover.

Things To Do In Leticia

Usually people arrive in Leticia and leave the next morning to explore the Amazon river, so there is not a lot of time left to see this city. However if you are like me and you decide to stay an extra day in Leticia then you might want to know what is there to do. To be honest there is not much to do here except a few key things.

Have A Meal In Tabatinga (city in Brazil)

The area around Leticia is known as Tres Fronteras (three borders). People here don’t really care about the different country borders (at least other than general national pride). It doesn’t matter that this street is Colombia and the one next to it is Brazil. This is a place where you don’t need a passport to cross the border. So you can just walk to Brazil, or take a boat across the river to Peru. 

While spending our time in Leticia, we of course couldn’t lose this opportunity and try to visit another country sans passport. So one afternoon we walked to Brazil. The Brazilian city is called Tabatinga and we just went for some delicious ceviche and Brazilian beer.

I was worried that someone might stop us and ask to see our passports, but no one paid any attention to us. Because this place is so remote and there are no roads around it, just thick jungles, you cannot leave without taking a plane or a boat (where they do check your passport). 

In Tabatinga, just like in Leticia, people speak Spanish and Portuguese, and you can pay on both sides with Colombian peso or Brazilian real. 

Visit Parque Santander And Watch The Parrot Show

Between 5 and 6 PM a huge number of different birds including parrots come to the park to settle down for the night. 

The process takes around half an hour while the birds are flying around. The noise that follows that process takes you aback. It is really a great natural show that you can see just in this park with such a large number of birds. 

Across the park Santander there is a cute church that has a belltower. It is possible to climb this belltower and watch the bird show from there as well. 

Enjoy Local Food

Although Leticia is a small city, there are still a lot of great restaurants. You can find lots of great dishes with very exotic fish like Arapaima (it is illegal to fish for Arapaima in Colombia, but completely legal in Brazil, so they bring it from there). Or you can try the most popular dish in Leticia – the rotisserie chicken. 

For some reason on every corner in Leticia you can find a place that makes rotisserie chicken. We went to such a place twice and had a great meal. All the sides were just 1,000 COP and a whole chicken was just 35,000 COP which is enough for 4 people. 

For those who would like to go out at night Leticia offers a few night clubs and a casino as well. The best time to visit these places are on Friday, but you can try other days as well. 

Take A Day Trip On A Boat

If you came to Leticia, and are not planning on having a few days trip along the Amazon river, you can still explore it by taking a day trip that people offer at the docks. 

The boat will take you to a few locations including tiny villages along the river, and a spot to see monkeys.

Such a trip won’t compare to the ones that last a few days, but if you don’t have time it is a good choice. 

Take A Multi-day Amazon Trek 

One of the reasons why people visit Leticia in the first place is to do a multi-day trek exploring the Amazon jungle. This is one of the best things to do here, and I highly recommend it.

During such a trek you will explore the Amazon river, Puerto Narino village and jungle around it, swim in the beautiful Tarapota lake, and see many exotic animals. 

The trek I did was two nights and three days and it was one of the best trips I’ve taken in my life. 

Such an adventure would not necessarily cost you a lot. We paid $260 USD per person (with accommodation and food included). Be sure to book this excursion in advance since the groups can get filled up very fast (we booked this excursion two weeks in advance). 

The Complete Guide To Leticia, Colombia