Colombia 2024, part 15 (Puerto Nariño, Leticia, Bogota)
The rain that had often fallen during the night continued into the morning, causing the planned outing to be cancelled, although I was personally absolutely drained and had no energy for anything. I managed to drag myself to the dining room for breakfast, but all I could do was to drink some tea and eat a little bread, not because I had stomach issues, but simply because I had no appetite whatsoever. Besides that, I frequently had to rush to the toilet and since I was completely exhausted, I spent most of the morning lying in my room.
The return by speedboat to Leticia was scheduled for 3 PM and I packed my things by putting one item at the time into my backpack each time I returned to bed from the frequent trips to the toilet. I simply didn't have the strength to pack everything at once.
Around 2 PM, we set off by boat (Jessica and a young German woman with whom we occasionally spoke within the accommodation were also returning to Leticia at the same time). I asked the young man in charge of transportation to carry my large backpack to the boat and to take it out when we arrived at the Puerto Nariño dock. While waiting for the speedboat, I sat on some steps because I couldn't stand on my feet.
When the speedboat arrived, I asked the crew to let me board first because I wasn't feeling well, so I just showed them which backpack was mine.
All guides and internet sources advise bringing cash to the Amazon area settlements because using cards can be problematic, as can exchanging money or finding ATMs. This turned out to be a lifesaver for me because I had enough cash to pay for all the services of carrying my backpack. It was the same when I arrived in Leticia, where tuk-tuk drivers were waiting and I could just show them my backpack and drag myself to the given tuk-tuk.
Before that, I said goodbye to Jessica and apologised once again for waking her up, thanking her for her help.
Miraculously, during the journey to Leticia, I didn't need to use the toilet at all and I don't know what would have happened if I had needed to. I guess it's all in the mind and I also took a few activated charcoal capsules. At one point, I even managed to take another photo of the Amazon "as a farewell."
I already had a room reservation in Leticia, so after dropping off my things and resting a bit, I went to find something to eat because I realised I needed to eat and it wasn't normal to spend the whole day with just two cups of tea. However, I still wanted to have some soup and luckily there is plenty of that in Colombia. Fortunately, there was a local restaurant just a few dozen metres from the guesthouse where I was staying.
In addition to the soup, I also had some bread with cheese and it was tasty, but I only ate a little because I still didn't have much of an appetite.
I spent the night relatively peacefully (only had to go to the toilet once), so I woke up with hope and climbed to the top of the guesthouse where I had breakfast. It was nice because from the height, I could overlook Leticia that I would later leave by plane for Bogotá.
My flight to Bogotá was in the morning and I took a taxi to the airport. I had occasional issues with my stomach, but there were enough toilets at the airport, so I didn't encounter any major problems. Before boarding the plane, I even took a photo of myself and concluded that I looked much, much better than I felt. However, I didn't have any issues during the flight either.
Once in Bogotá, I found there were wildfires burning on the surrounding hills at that time, but I settled into a good hotel in a nice part of the city. Since I wasn't sure how my issues would progress, it was important to me that the hotel had its own restaurant and room service.
I booked the hotel for two nights with the intention of resting well there. It was clear to me that I had picked up some kind of bacteria somewhere, which was causing ongoing stomach issues, although not as intense as the first night. As a result, I felt extremely weak and I also had a persistent dry cough that sometimes intensified, further draining me of strength and energy.
So, after settling in, I went straight to the hotel restaurant to have soup again, as it seemed to be the most comforting for me.
By the way, when I returned to Belgrade, I tried to make this soup and succeeded, although I had to improvise. I found it very tasty, and here’s the recipe.
AJIACO SOUP
- 1 piece of chicken breast
- 2 l of water
- 2 fresh ears of corn, cut into 3–4 pieces each
- 2 white potatoes
- 2 red potatoes
- 1 sweet potato or piece of pumpkin (if Andean potatoes are unavailable)
- 1 large carrot
- 1 small onion
- 1 cube of chicken broth
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 2 tablespoons chopped coriander leaves
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano leaves
- 1 tablespoon dried mint leaves
- sour cream
- capers
- salt and pepper to taste
Place the chicken, corn, coarsely chopped onion and carrot, coriander leaves, garlic, salt, and pepper in a large pot. Pour in the water and bring to a boil, then add the chicken broth cube. Let it cook over medium heat for about 35 minutes, until the chicken is tender.
Remove the chicken and separate the meat from the bones and skin, shredding it into pieces. Eventually, only the meat is used in the soup. Add the chopped potatoes, dried oregano and mint to the remaining soup, then continue cooking.
When the potatoes are cooked, return the chicken to the soup. Serve with sour cream and capers.
And as for my time in Bogota, I spent the rest of the day mostly lying down and sleeping, and in the end I felt somewhat stable.
However, the next day I woke up feeling so exhausted that I could barely stand. After much internal debate, I managed to make it down to the hotel breakfast room and ate a little fruit because my body seemed to crave it. I even tried to venture outside the hotel with the intention of going to a nearby convenience store about 50 metres away, but after a few steps, I realised I wasn't sure if I could manage it.
Distressed by my condition, I returned slowly to my room. This was definitely not good and at first I didn't know what to do. Then I remembered I had travel insurance, so I started researching how it actually worked, as I had never needed it before.
This trip to Colombia was quite unusual for me. Apart from experiencing Colombia itself and my interactions with its people, nothing else seemed to go right.
I “bought” the plane ticket in November and ten days before the trip, I found out I didn't actually have it because for some reason the airline hadn't taken the money from my bank (via card). The fact that the airline sent me an email, confirming my reservation and wishing me a pleasant journey meant nothing because I didn't receive the actual electronic ticket. The fact that the bank informed me that the money had been deducted from my account also meant nothing because the funds were held as "reserved" but unusable. So, I had to buy a new ticket (which I even found at a lower price) and file a complaint with the bank to release my funds.
When I finally arrived in Bogotá, my luggage didn't arrive on the same flight and they told me it would arrive the next day. It didn't. It arrived two days later and in the meantime, due to stress and lack of sleep, I caught something like a cold.
Even the small laptop I carry for travel started to malfunction (there were some contact issues), so I avoided using it because I didn't know if it would stop working altogether at some point and I needed it.
I also ordered a guidebook for Colombia online well before the trip. It was supposed to arrive within a maximum of 2 weeks, but it didn't arrive even after four weeks. I wrote to the company and they promptly refunded me. Then the guidebook finally arrived, so I had to return the money, but even that process wasn't smooth and involved a few steps, including a visit to the bank.
Upon arriving in Colombia, the credit card I use during my travels was working, but I wasn't receiving any SMS notifications, which meant I had no insight into my account balance or if someone had potentially stolen my card or data and started spending. It turned out the reason for this was that I didn't have roaming activated. I reported the issue to my mobile operator via email and for nearly two weeks, we exchanged messages. Their (useless) technical support gave me instructions like "turn it off and on again," but nothing worked. By the way, I should mention that when it comes to technical matters I am quite proficient for someone of my generation, although it's not my profession. So, the roaming never started working throughout my stay in Colombia, which was crucial for me to be able to make online purchases (an explanation follows).
For the time being, I wanted to call my insurance company's contact centre, but they only had a landline in Belgrade and my roaming wasn't working. So, I contacted a friend who is savvy with such things and she called them, providing them with my email address. That way, I ended up communicating through email with doctors in Belgrade who work for that insurance company.
I reported to them the type of problem I was having and then they began organising a visit by a doctor. It turned out that there was a possibility for the doctor to come to my hotel room, which was exceptional because I still didn't have the strength to stand, let alone go around Bogotá looking for doctors. I had to wait a bit longer and in the meantime I even felt the need to eat something.
So, I ordered a nice ceviche through room service. It wasn't Peruvian, but it was excellent and I was happy that I even felt like eating something because that is usually a good sign for me.
After several hours, the doctor arrived, examined me and the conclusion was as I had suspected - I had ingested something through water or food that caused the problem. My other health indicators were good and she prescribed what I needed to buy from the pharmacy the next day.
This all happened in the evening and by then I was feeling slightly better than in the morning, but I still went to sleep early. The next morning, I wasn't energetic, but I felt significantly better than the previous day. Enough to slowly make it down to breakfast and later I went to a nearby pharmacy to start taking probiotics and a supplement to restore electrolytes.
As the day progressed, I started feeling better and better. I wasn't back to my usual self yet, but around lunchtime, I took a short walk around the area and then began making plans for the continuation of my journey. I had come to Colombia with the intention of staying for a month, so there were still many places I had planned to visit. Due to the issues with my stomach, I had to change my plans and itinerary, so now I was figuring out how to fly to Medellín the next day, with the idea that I could take things slowly there and give myself time to rest and recover further.
Later in the afternoon, I actually felt well enough to decide to go sightseeing. I wanted to see the last building in Bogotá that remained from the series of works by the renowned Franco-Colombian architect Rogelio Salmona (1927-2007), which is on UNESCO's Tentative List of World Heritage Sites.
This was a straightforward endeavour; I called an Uber and their vehicle picked me up in front of the hotel and took me to the desired location. I walked around for about half an hour and then returned to the hotel the same way. It was necessary for me to test and see how realistically I could move around and I was pleased.
As for the building, it's the Residential buildings El Parque (Residencias El Parque), constructed between 1965 and 1970.
By now, I was already quite familiar with the architectural style of Rogelio Salmona, but I was still glad I came here.
The buildings are located on the edge of the historical centre of Bogotá and near Monserrate Hill, but right next to them, on the slope, there is also a beautiful park. However, what was particularly interesting to me here was that they were built right next to a bullfighting arena from 1931. Bullfighting was banned in Bogotá for a few years, but it was reinstated in 2017.
As for the park, it is called Independence Park (Parque de la Independencia) and it is one of the oldest parks in the city and was founded in 1910.
In the park, there are several monuments and interesting structures. I walked past the monument to Nicolaus Copernicus, while nearby I saw the Kiosk of Light (Quiosco de la Luz) that was built here as an exact replica of the structure erected in Versailles for Marie Antoinette.
I also walked past the equestrian monument to Simón Bolívar. As far as I understand, this monument was recently moved here from another location.
Within this popular park or in its immediate vicinity there are important national cultural institutions such as the National Library (Biblioteca Nacional), the Museum of Modern Art of Bogotá (Museo del Arte Moderno de Bogotá), the District Planetarium (Planetario Distrital) and the National Museum of Colombia (Museo Nacional de Colombia).
None of these interested me at the moment and I wanted to return to the hotel, so I walked a bit further to reach one of the main streets. Along the way, I passed by the bullfighting arena and arrived at the National Museum.
I even felt well enough to consider taking a bus back to the hotel. However, I changed my mind and waited for an Uber instead.
Instead of going to a travel agency the next day to buy a plane ticket to Medellín, I woke up again without any energy at all. I continued to rest that day and in the afternoon, I made a decision – I am returning home, more than two weeks earlier than planned. Here's what I managed to visit in Colombia during this short stay:
Of course, the issue with my roaming not working persisted, which meant I couldn't purchase a ticket online by myself because I needed to receive an SMS with a security code during the transaction, something I couldn't receive. This realisation was horrifying because it can happen to anyone, at any time and anywhere. No amount of "turn it off and on again" advice from the technical support helped. Nowadays, we all rely heavily on our devices and modern technology, and when this works, everything is smooth and easy. But when it doesn't, it becomes a huge problem.
So, the next morning, I coordinated with my nephew Nikola in Belgrade to buy the ticket online for me, while I received it on my email in Bogota. In the afternoon, I was already flying back. By the way, my mobile phone worked perfectly fine and I had roaming both in Panama City and Istanbul, where I had layovers.
A day later, I was back in Belgrade and in my own flat. Despite regretting not exploring Colombia more thoroughly, given the circumstances, I was extremely happy to be home.
Did I regret that I went on this trip, even though everything went awry right from the start? Absolutely not. Not in the least. Colombia is an exceptionally beautiful country and I only saw such a small part of it. Moreover, the experience in the Amazonia, despite the issues I faced there, was so magical that even weeks later, I felt immense excitement as I wrote these stories.
Speaking of the stories, I want to emphasise that I described my problems in detail not in order to discourage others from travelling, but to show that challenges are part of the journey – both those that take us to distant lands and those we encounter in life. It's important to learn how to face problems, learn from the experience and move forward.
And as for Colombia...? Well, I hope it will welcome me with open arms whenever I decide to visit again.