Leticia

Leticia began as a Peruvian settlement. Captain Benigno Bustamante, governor of the Peruvian department of Loreto, founded it on 25 April 1867 as the river port of San Antonio, and in December of that year the engineer Manuel Charón renamed it Leticia, by Peruvian records after his wife, Leticia Smith of Iquitos. Other stories credit a Colombian soldier in love with an Indigenous woman of that name, or a saint.

After border incidents in 1911, Peru and Colombia signed a secret agreement in 1922 that gave the Leticia area to Colombia in return for Colombian recognition of Peru's claims south of the Putumayo. It was ratified in 1928 but remained unpopular in Peru. In September 1932 two hundred Peruvians, followed by troops, occupied the town's public buildings, starting the Colombia–Peru War. Fighting lasted until a ceasefire negotiated by the League of Nations in May 1933, and in June 1934 the League awarded the area to Colombia.

Wary of Peru, the Colombian government then settled Leticia with people from Bogotá, many of whom arrived between the 1940s and 1965 and stayed. The town grew, gained a new main street, and became capital of the Amazonas department. Tourism has since boomed, and students come to study the Amazon and to learn Spanish. The border question has not entirely gone: since 2024 Colombia has disputed Peru's administration of Santa Rosa island, across the river.

Leticia's culture is shaped by the three-border setting known as Tres Fronteras. Brazilian Tabatinga runs straight into the town, Peruvian Santa Rosa sits on an island across the river, and together the three settlements have more than 100,000 people. Colombian, Brazilian and Peruvian money all change hands in the three towns, and Leticia and Tabatinga cooperate closely.

The town is also a meeting place of peoples. Most residents have migrated from elsewhere in Colombia, many from Bogotá, Medellín and Tolima, while a significant part of the population is Indigenous. The region is home to the Ticuna, Uitoto, Inga, Tucano and other peoples, and Yagua families from Peru settled in the riverside village of La Libertad in the 1990s. Many Indigenous people have moved into town from distant villages in search of a better living.

Leticia has long been Colombia's shipping point for tropical aquarium fish, and it is an important centre for the study of the Amazon, with a campus of the National University of Colombia among its colleges. Its daily rituals are tied to nature: at sunset thousands of parrots fly into the trees of Parque Santander, one of the town's best-known sights.

Leticia had more than 42,000 inhabitants in 2018 and is the largest Colombian settlement in the Southern Hemisphere. Agriculture and tourism remain the main sources of income. Leticia and Tabatinga lie so close together that they form a single urban area of a little over 100,000 people, and the two towns keep the same time. The town is the area's main hub, with its only large hospital, airport and secondary schools.

Life turns on the river. Mototaxis are the main way around town, and boats link it with the villages and lodges along the river. The Amazon rises in the high-water months and falls in the dry season, changing which channels and lakes boats can reach and which beaches appear.

The town is still growing as people move in from rural communities. Cross-border trade is central to the local economy, the triple frontier is also a trafficking route, and deforestation along the frontier between the Andes and the Amazon is one of the region's biggest environmental concerns.

Leticia eats from the river. Fish such as gamitana, dorado, tucunaré and pirarucú, or arapaima, one of the largest freshwater fish in the world, are the base of the region's main dishes. They are served with casabe, a bread made from bitter cassava, plantain and exotic fruit. The pirarucú and the pink river dolphin appear together on the town's coat of arms as symbols of the Amazon.

Everyday cooking also reflects a town of migrants. Families from across Colombia bring their own versions of dishes such as sancocho, a hearty soup, and Brazilian and Peruvian influences are strong in this border town. Staples include river fish, meat, rice, plantain, potatoes and locally grown vegetables, and a typical Sunday meal might be meat grilled over charcoal with rice and plantain.

Amazonian fruits such as arazá, copoazú and açaí are part of the local diet. Across the border, Tabatinga adds Brazilian dishes and drinks to the mix.