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‘It’s a bit «caliente» down there, be careful.’
That was the general response from Bogotá-based acquaintances when I told them I was heading to the town of Puerto Asís in Colombia’s Putumayo department, close to the border with Ecuador.
Dearth of delinquents
Caliente, hot that is, wasn’t in reference to the weather (although, with afternoon temperatures regularly reaching over 30 degrees Celsius and high humidity, it certainly is sultry). No, hot in this context refers to the security situation, as in it’s dangerous.
There’s nothing too shocking in that. Frontier towns tend to come with a negative reputation. I have, though, been to enough of them in Colombia to know that this label is not always warranted; just don’t expect them to feature high in lists of best places to live.
Yet, of the border towns I’ve stayed in across the world, Puerto Asís ranks as one of the more livable ones — along with Cúcuta. OK, recency bias together with my quite low expectations might be at play in this, however from a safety perspective — often the most pressing concern in such places — Puerto Asís seems almost crime-free.
With the town’s population around the 50,000 mark in an area covering roughly six square kilometres — excluding the hinterland, that is — I walked practically every bit of it. Nowhere did I feel unsafe. What’s more, none of the residents ever advised me to exercise caution in certain parts, as often happens in other big towns and cities.
‘The moto taxi drivers are the most irksome, offering their services by beeping, gesturing and/or calling out ‘moto’ as they pass by. It’s almost as if it’s an offence to walk.’
The place appeared delinquent-free. It was even largely devoid of the Colombian-standard, in-your-face wandering street vendors and beggars. (A local tienda bar owner told me that the area has been controlled by non-state actors, hence less obvious delinquency on the streets. Obligatory payments to officially proscribed armed groups come with certain benefits, akin to the days when the IRA allegedly kept drug pushers out of the neighbourhoods it managed in Northern Ireland.)
The most irksome element is the motorbike, or moto, taxi drivers who frequently offer their services by beeping, gesturing and/or calling out ‘moto’ as they pass one by. It’s almost as if it’s an offence to walk anywhere or merely stand around. It also seems that the humble bicycle is frowned upon. This is Moto Town, or Motown if you will.
Truck luck
Now, if you ask me what Puerto Asís’s unique selling point is, well outside of what I’ve already described, I struggle to come up with anything. The town itself has no outstanding landmarks and there isn’t much on the must-do/visit list.
What’s more, the closest water courses, the Putumayo and Cocaya rivers, don’t entice one in for a dip. Quite a shame that, considering the heat. Also, the sands on the Putumayo River’s banks are inviting, so it’s unfortunate its waters don’t follow suit.
It’s even on the more expensive side when it comes to my BBC (beer, bread, coffee) staples — more expensive than Bogotá’s working-class barrios that is. This, though, isn’t unusual. Unlike in some other countries, Colombia’s capital is cheaper for certain essentials compared to the country’s provincial towns. (A special mention to Panadería Mickey, all the same. It offers a decent enough tinto, small black coffee, for a very reasonable 1,200 pesos.)
My most eventful moment was seeing the efforts of a few lorry drivers trying to free a truck stuck in the aforementioned sands of the Putumayo River. The episode did merit a YouTube Shorts video.
Chasing La Chorrera
My visit to Puerto Asís was to use it as a departure point to go by river to La Chorrera, the Roger Casement village as I call it, deep in the Amazon.
Alas, trying to get to La Chorrera from Puerto Asís by boat proved complicated and costly. In fact, it’s more straightforward and currently cheaper to fly from San José del Guaviare. From a carbon footprint perspective, the flights might have a bigger impact but I did try to take the more environmentally friendly option. If only the most vociferous climate activists were more like me, eh?
Others may visit or pass through Puerto Asís for similar reasons i.e. to get a taste of the Amazon jungle by boat. And there are more hassle-free places to get to than the isolated La Chorrera. So as a river-port town close to Ecuador and within two days’ boat ride of Peru, Puerto Asís is probably an unavoidable town for certain travellers. That it has countless hotels and motels is evidence of that.
Nonetheless, few seem to stay in the town for longer than necessary. A day or two at most.
The nine days I spent in Puerto Asís were less of a ringing endorsement of the place and more a reflection of my current ‘wherever I am is my home’ state of mind.
However, if I had to base myself in Puerto Asís for an indefinite time, I’d have no complaints about that. I can cope with its caliente air.
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