Where Three Countries Meet in the Amazon — the Colombian jungle city at the Brazil-Peru-Colombia triple border where pink river dolphins swim past the waterfront, piranhas are on every restaurant menu, and indigenous Tikuna communities live within walking distance of the duty-free shops
Leticia is Colombia's southernmost city — an isolated Amazon River port at the exact point where Colombia, Brazil, and Peru meet in a three-country border zone. It is accessible only by air (1.5-hour flight from Bogotá) or by riverboat from Iquitos, Peru (2–3 days). Leticia and the adjacent Brazilian city of Tabatinga are functionally a single twin city separated only by an unmarked border that pedestrians cross freely; the Peruvian town of Santa Rosa sits on an island in the Amazon River opposite. The tri-national border means Leticia has a distinctly international character — Colombian peso…
The Leticia area has been inhabited by the Tikuna, Huitoto, and other Amazonian Indigenous peoples for thousands of years. European explorers reached the upper Amazon in the 16th century, but the extreme isolation of the region meant that colonial penetration was minimal compared to the coast and highlands. The modern border arrangement in this region dates from a series of 19th-century treaties between Colombia, Peru, and Brazil that defined the tri-frontier. The most dramatic modern event in Leticia's history was the Leticia Conflict (1932–1933), when Peruvian irregular forces seized Letici…