An Unusual Journey Deep into a Colombian Amazon Town
A journey to the heart of the Colombian Amazon, where the mysticism of the jungle meets the discipline of the Navy, and history sails quietly down the river.
Photo by Nicolas Castellar Visbal
by Nicolas Castellar Visbal
27 de ago de 2025
Deep in the Colombian Amazon jungle, where you can’t see a soul, lies a place cut off from the world. It is only accessible by two ways: the mighty Putumayo River, which borders Peru and Ecuador, or aboard a turboprop plane, whose airworthiness seems like a miracle amid the vast expanse of the jungle. Today, I arrived in Puerto Leguízamo, this corner where time moves at its own pace.
Puerto Leguízamo: from Bogotá to the Amazon
This city is commonly reached by plane from El Dorado International Airport. The round-trip cost a total of 700,000 COP ($175). My flight is full of locals and two foreigners; you can tell by their language. The cabin buzzed with chatter. I confess I was afraid to board that plane; I'd never flown on a propeller-driven plane before, but the passengers' conversations made me feel more confident: for most, it wasn’t their first time on this flight. Still, that didn't prevent me from having micro-heart attacks, especially upon takeoff. My God, I'd never heard such a loud, rumbling sound on a plane taking off. I felt like it was going to fall apart.
I got off the plane, grateful to be safe and sound. My first breath smelled of jungle and forest, welcoming me and making me realize that I was far from home. I felt like an adventurer. The airport is just a small house and is full of Marines. I waited for my bags and got ready to take the tuk-tuk to town, the transport par excellence, which looked like it was going to fall apart but was as solid as a tank, and only cost $2.
The tuk-tuk rattled along a paved road from the airport, and for the first 30 seconds, all I saw were Marines, which gave me a sense of security, of not being alone. The driver took a curve as if he were in a Formula 1 race, and my bags almost flew out, but luckily, I grabbed them quickly. In five minutes, the landscape changed: cracked houses, neglected roads, and when I least expected it, a giant square with shady trees and lots of businesses and people around. It was a town like so many others in Colombia, but something in the air, perhaps the aura of the jungle, made me feel like I was in another world.
Puerto Leguízamo has the usual attractions that you would find in other towns. The urban area was, to my surprise, larger than expected. Everyone drives motorcycles, there is commercial life, but the pace is slow and leisurely: here, people live without rushing.
My destination was the ARC Leguízamo Naval Base, but as I rode through the Amazonian streets in the tuk-tuk, I couldn't stop thinking about the two foreigners I saw on the plane. What brought them to such an inhospitable place? My curiosity was growing. My driver, shouting over the wind, gave me a clue: “They're here for the Yagé! The mystical plant foreigners chase for an indigenous-spiritual experience."
It wasn't my plan to immerse myself in that, but hey, a place in the middle of the jungle with mystical plants that heal your soul? Maybe an adventure for another day. In the meantime, my mind was focused on something else: the Naval Base.
Sunset at the River | Photo by Nicolas Castellar Visbal
ARC Leguízamo Naval Base
After exploring the town, with its bustle of motorcycles and its jungle air, my destination was just a few minutes away: the ARC Leguízamo Naval Base. As the tuk-tuk skirted the river and I could see Peruvian territory, I imagined what this naval post I had heard so much about would be like.
Upon arriving at the base, an officer told me that this place was founded in 1944, after a war with Peru in 1932 that made it clear how vital it was to have a naval post on the Putumayo River. I registered and walked along the pier, with the immense river on one side and Peru, a few hundred meters away, peeking out on the other. The ships, from the imposing ARC Leticia to gunboats, seemed ready for anything.
The same officer told me that this base is part of the Amazon Naval Force, where the Southern River Flotilla is located. It is a surveillance and logistics post on the Putumayo River, serving the surrounding communities. I saw civilians entering the base to work alongside the navy personnel, which indicated to me that it is a source of employment for people in the region.
The base houses several heavy river patrol boats, motorboats, and gunboats, sailors in training, white buildings, flagpoles, and flags, and, to my surprise, a natural aviary! The atmosphere was filled with a bustle of birds singing and fluttering from tree to tree, yellow, blue and red macaws, birds with yellow-tails, parakeets and parrots, the ground littered with droppings, the sunset and the river in the background, Peru on the horizon, and monuments to the fallen on either side. I never imagined that this lost place in the south of the country would turn out to be such a beautiful paradise.
Farewell ceremony | Photo by Nicolas Castellar Visbal
Puerto Leguízamo's Heartbeat Endures
Several days later, at 7:30 in the morning on August 22, 2025, I attended the farewell ceremony for a light river patrol boat that had served in the Navy for four decades. Forty years! That old scrap had seen more jungle than I had in my entire life.
The weather was not only humid but cloudy, making for a pleasant day. I am on a small mound on the banks of the river, surrounded by officers and non-commissioned officers dressed in ceremonial uniforms, and in front of me, across the river, the Republic of Peru, I felt like I was in a movie.
The ship docked at the port on the river opened a spectacular and impeccable ceremony with a simulation of cannon salvos that awakened the entire jungle, and the national anthems were sung. The ceremony flowed naturally and precisely, as if the river itself were paying its respects.
As the master of ceremonies brought the event to a close, I thought about the paradox of Puerto Leguízamo: a town that breathes the calm of the jungle but beats to the rhythm of its military history and its connection to the outside world. Here, Yagé—the plant that promises to heal your soul—coexists with gunboats that guard the border. And in that farewell, I was reminded that this isolated green dot on the map is not just a remote town, but a vital heartbeat of Colombia.
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