When we awoke this morning we were stopped at Santa Rosa, the last Peruvian town before Brazil. After breakfast we all piled into the little boat and crossed the river to land in Letitcia, Columbia. We made our way to La Hotel Anaconda where the travel company had connections and we could rest in their patio and swim in the pool. Segundo made arrangements for a bus to take us all to Brazil, the border being only a few miles away. We stopped at the border of Columbia and Brazil and stood with one foot on either side then continued on to the town of Tabatinga, Brazil. We tried Brazilian beer, shopped in the market and walked around for a while before returning to Letitcia. In Letitcia we had a few hours to shop, see the town or use the hotel pool.

Brazil and Columbia didn’t differ that much from Peru, but we were only just across the border. A few major differences were the money and the language. In Brazil the money was reals, one real was about one American dollar, although things generally cost much less. In Columbia the money was pesos. The exchange was about 1400 pesos to the dollar. In Peru the money we used was called soles, valued at about 3.3 soles per dollar. Although the primary language in Columbia is Spanish, as soon as we crossed into Brazil, everything changed into Portuguese.
Although Tabatinga and Letitcia were bigger towns and there were more vehicles, they were certainly not "modern cities". In these two towns as in all of the towns along the river that we had a chance to see, it seemed as if everybody had what they needed and were pretty content, but there were certainly things that would make their lives easier. Carol later had a great reflection along these lines, she said “I think there’s about 90% of the world’s population that would swap places with me tomorrow, but I think that these people have everything that they need. There’s no doubt about it, they’re well fed, their health is pretty good, but there’s a big difference between need and want. Perhaps by us coming here they realize their primitive status. I think that it’s sort of a burden for them because we’re bringing them things they want, so we’re making life easier, but at the same time we’re making them see how little they have.”

After leaving Columbia we watched part of a soccer tournament in Santa Rosa and returned to El Arca. This was the furthest point we went down the river so the boat turned around and started the 350-mile trip back toward Iquitos. The rest of the day we spent relaxing and taking in the sights of the jungle. Some time in the afternoon an oil line broke in the engine and the crew tried to stick the nose of the boat in the mud on the bank but the current was too strong and we were steadily getting pushed backwards. Geraldo jumped in the small boat and pushed with full power against the back of El Arca to keep us from drifting. Luckily the mechanics got the engine fixed in record time and we were back on our way.

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