Cool air, a pool, and parrots at five o'clock
You come back from a day on the river soaked in sweat, walk two blocks up Calle 10, and drop into a small courtyard pool under palms. Then at about five in the afternoon you walk three hundred and fifty metres to Parque Santander and watch several thousand parakeets come in to roost, screaming, until it gets dark. Those two things are what Zuruma is for.
It is a small, family-run hotel of around nine rooms on a quiet street in the middle of Leticia, run by Zuruma Tours and registered on Colombia's national tourism register. The rooms are simple and white with a brick-red accent wall, each with air conditioning, a private bathroom with a shower, a television, a fridge and a desk. There is a covered breakfast terrace, a coffee bar and a small garden.
The front desk runs around the clock, and the staff are the highest-rated thing on the listing by a clear margin. Guests write about them finding a tuk-tuk driver they could trust, arranging tours, refilling water bottles and generally making a slightly chaotic border town feel manageable. In Leticia that is worth more than a fresh coat of paint.
What the photographs are not telling you
The pictures on the listing are older than the rooms are now, and guests say so plainly. A traveller in June 2026 wrote that the photos did not reflect how the hotel actually looks. Others describe beds that sag, rooms that are tired, hot water that is not always hot, and a pool that is sometimes green rather than the blue in the gallery.
None of that makes it a bad place to stay, and the scores bear that out: the same guests praise the staff, the position and the breakfast. It makes it a simple budget hotel that has been open a long time in a hot, wet climate. Book it on that basis and you will be fine. Book it expecting the gallery and you will be the next person to write a five out of ten.
The other practical trap is money. Payment is taken in cash at the property, so bring Colombian pesos with you rather than relying on finding a working machine. A card sticker on the front door suggests otherwise, so it is worth asking when you book, but arrive with cash either way. Leticia also charges a tourism entry fee of about 35,000 pesos a person, in cash, at the airport.
Two Zurumas, and one Parque Santander
Two corrections before you book. The first is the name. The same family also runs Ecolodge Zuruma, a jungle farm-stay at kilometre 13 on the road to Tarapacá, with a hot tub and a very different atmosphere. Google, the listing sites and the owner's own social media blur the two constantly. This page is about the hotel in town, on Calle 10. If you booked the lodge, you are booked somewhere else entirely.
The second is the geography. The reservation listing shows Parque Santander twice, once at fifty metres and once at 1.7 kilometres. There is one Parque Santander in Leticia and it is about 350 to 400 metres away, a five-minute walk. The same listing puts the Museo Etnográfico at 150 metres; it is more like 400 to 500, a six-minute walk, and it is free to enter.
Neither error is anyone's fault exactly, but both make a small town look confusing when it is in fact entirely walkable. Almost everything you will want in Leticia is within fifteen minutes on foot of this door, including Brazil.
Why book Zuruma Hotel?
A small hotel with a pool in the middle of Leticia, five minutes from the parrots. Here is what it does well, and what the photographs are not telling you.
Five minutes from the parrot roost
Parque Santander is about 350 metres away, and at five or half past five every evening thousands of parakeets pour in to roost in its trees until dark. It is free, it is Leticia's signature sight, and it is the reason to be central rather than out in the jungle.
A pool and air conditioning
Both matter here more than they would anywhere else. The pool sits in a courtyard of palms with loungers and umbrellas, open all year, and every room has air conditioning. Guests coming back sweating from a river trip mention them in that order.
Staff who fix things for you
The highest-scoring thing on the listing is the people. Guests describe the desk finding them a trustworthy tuk-tuk driver, arranging tours, refilling water bottles and generally solving problems in a town where that is worth a lot. The front desk is staffed around the clock.
The photos are older than the rooms
This is the thing to know. Recent guests, into June 2026, say the pictures do not reflect how the hotel looks now: beds sag, rooms are tired, the hot water is not always hot and the pool is sometimes green. Book it as a clean, simple, well-placed budget hotel and it delivers.
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Interesting Points About Zuruma Hotel
- The same family runs a second, separate property: Ecolodge Zuruma, a jungle farm-stay at kilometre 13 on the road to Tarapacá. It is not this hotel and it is not in town
- The company behind both is Zuruma Tours, registered on Colombia's national tourism register as RNT 112070
- The reservation listing shows Parque Santander twice, at 50 metres and at 1.7 kilometres. There is only one, about 350 to 400 metres away
- The listing puts the Museo Etnográfico at 150 metres. It is about 400 to 500 metres, a six-minute walk
- Payment is taken in cash at the property, though a card sticker on the front door suggests otherwise. Ask when you book and bring pesos regardless
- Tourists staying under sixty days in Amazonas are exempt from Colombia's 19 per cent national sales tax
- Leticia charges a tourism entry fee of about 35,000 Colombian pesos per person, paid in cash at the airport on arrival
- Every room type on the listing shows the same 27 square metres and the same bed-comfort figure. That is a data artefact rather than five identical rooms
- Leticia can only be reached by air or by river. There is no road to the rest of Colombia
Rooms & Accommodation at Zuruma Hotel
Double or Twin Room
About 27 m², a double and a single bed
The standard room, around twenty-seven square metres with a double and a single bed. Best for a couple, or a couple with a child, using Leticia as a base between river trips. Air conditioning is the thing that matters here and every room has it. Ask for a ground-floor room if stairs are difficult, since accessibility is not documented anywhere.
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Triple Room
About 27 m², sleeps three plus a sofa bed
The same footprint with more beds in it: two singles, a double and a sofa bed. Best for three friends or a small family travelling together who would rather share than take two rooms. Note that all five room types on the listing show the same twenty-seven square metres, which is a data artefact rather than five identical rooms, so expect the triple to feel tighter than the double.
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Quadruple Room
Sleeps four, with a sofa and a fold-up bed
The four-person option, with a sofa and a fold-up bed making up the numbers. Best for a family or a group of four on a short Amazon trip who want one bill and one air-conditioning unit. There are no cots and no extra beds beyond what is in the room, so the published occupancy is the ceiling.
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Family Room
The largest configuration, with sofa and fold-up beds
The most beds in one room: a sofa, a fold-up bed and a sofa bed alongside the fixed beds. Best for a family who want to stay together and will be out on the river most of the day anyway. Children of any age are welcome, though those aged six and over are charged as adults.
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Large Single Room
About 27 m², for one
A room to yourself at around twenty-seven square metres, which is generous for a single. Best for a solo traveller doing jungle trips who wants somewhere cool and quiet to come back to. The listing's facility set for this room omits a toilet, which is almost certainly a gap in their data rather than a missing toilet, but worth confirming when you book.
Check PricesIs Zuruma Hotel right for you?
Best Suited For
- Travellers using Leticia as a base for jungle trips, Puerto Nariño and Monkey Island
- Anyone who wants to be at Parque Santander for the parrots at five in the afternoon
- Families and groups, given rooms that take three, four or five
- Budget travellers who want air conditioning and a pool rather than polish
Worth Considering Alternatives If
- Anyone booking from the listing photographs, which are older than the rooms
- Travellers without cash, since payment is taken in cash at the property
- Guests who need a reliably clean pool, which several reviews say is not guaranteed
- Anyone wanting a jungle lodge, which is the owners' other property outside town
Amenities and policies
In Your Room
- Air conditioning, which is the amenity that matters most here
- Private bathroom with a shower
- Flat-screen TV with cable channels
- Minibar and fridge
- Desk and wardrobe
- Patio
- Free Wi-Fi
- Non-smoking
- Not available: Balcony
- Hot water
The Hotel
- Outdoor swimming pool, free, open all year and to all ages
- Sun terrace with loungers and umbrellas, and a small garden
- Shared lounge and TV area
- 24-hour front desk
- Tour desk
- Luggage storage
- Laundry
- Room service and daily housekeeping
- Not available: Lift or documented step-free access
Food and Drink
- Free breakfast
- Snack bar and coffee bar on the breakfast terrace
- Minibar in every room
- Not available: Restaurant
Parking and Transport
- Free private parking on site, with no reservation possible and no published size limit
- Alfredo Vásquez Cobo airport is about 2.5 km, a five-minute ride
- Not available: Airport shuttle
- Mototaxis and tuk-tuks are the way to get around, at a few thousand pesos a hop. Agree the price first
- Not available: Ride-hailing apps
Policies
- Payment
- Not available: Pets
- Non-smoking throughout
- Children of any age are welcome, and those aged six and over are charged as adults
- Not available: Cots and extra beds
- There is no minimum check-in age
- Registered on Colombia's national tourism register as RNT 112070
Location and getting around
Leticia is Colombia's southernmost city, the capital of Amazonas, and it sits on a triple frontier: Tabatinga in Brazil is a walk away and Santa Rosa in Peru is a short boat ride. About thirty-three thousand people live here, it averages twenty-seven degrees, and there is no road to the rest of the country. You arrive by air or by river.
The hotel is on Calle 10 in the middle of town, which means everything is on foot. Parque Santander and its parrots are 350 to 400 metres away, five minutes. Parque Francisco de Orellana is about the same. The Museo Etnográfico del Banco de la República, free to enter and holding more than two hundred objects from the Uitoto, Yukuna and Ticuna peoples, is 400 to 500 metres, six minutes. The Amazon waterfront and the tourist wharf are 600 to 900 metres, about ten minutes.
The airport is about 2.5 kilometres, five minutes by car; a taxi runs around 20,000 pesos and a mototaxi about 3,500. The Brazilian border at Tabatinga is a fifteen-minute walk or a cheap mototaxi and the crossing is open. Puerto Nariño, the car-free indigenous town upriver, is about eighty kilometres and two hours by fast boat from the wharf, and Monkey Island roughly forty-five minutes.
- Mossh Bar: About 150 m, a 2-minute walk
- Parque Santander, the parrot roost: About 350 m, a 5-minute walk
- Parque Francisco de Orellana: About 400 m, a 5-minute walk
- Museo Etnográfico del Banco de la República: About 450 m, a 6-minute walk
- The Amazon waterfront and tourist wharf: About 800 m, a 10-minute walk
- Tabatinga, Brazil: About a 15-minute walk or a short mototaxi
- Alfredo Vásquez Cobo airport: About 2.5 km, a 5-minute ride
- Santa Rosa, Peru: A few minutes by boat from the port
- Isla de los Micos, Monkey Island: About 35 km, a 45-minute boat upriver
- Puerto Nariño: About 80 km, a 2-hour fast boat
Getting to Key Locations
Within a 15-minute walk: all 3 places below.
Photo: Alex matiz, CC BY-SA 4.0
Parque Santander
5 min walk
A 5-minute walk from the door, Parque Santander is where several thousand parakeets come in to roost every evening, filling the trees and the sky from about five o'clock until dark. It has happened here for well over a decade, it is free, and the church tower beside it charges a few thousand pesos for the best view of it.
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The streets and the river
10 min walk
A 10-minute walk south, Leticia's waterfront runs down to the tourist wharf where cargo canoes tie up and the fast boats leave for Puerto Nariño. The town between here and there is workaday and busy with mototaxis, and the sunset over the river is the other free thing everybody does.
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The Brazilian border
15 min walk
A 15-minute walk east, or a very cheap mototaxi, the road simply becomes Brazil. Tabatinga runs into Leticia with no fence and no formality for a short visit, and from the port there you can be in Peru by boat in a few minutes. Three countries in an afternoon is the trick everyone here performs.
View on MapGetting to Zuruma Hotel
- Getting to Leticia at all: By air or by river, and nothing else. There is no road connecting Leticia to the rest of Colombia. Flights land at Alfredo Vásquez Cobo, mostly from Bogotá. A yellow fever vaccination is strongly recommended and should be done at least ten days before you fly, since airlines sometimes check at the gate.
- From the airport: About 2.5 kilometres and five minutes. A taxi costs around 20,000 Colombian pesos and a mototaxi about 3,500. There is no shuttle from the hotel, though the desk will help arrange a transfer if you ask ahead. On arrival you pay Leticia's tourism entry fee, about 35,000 pesos a person, in cash at the airport.
- Getting around town: On foot for almost everything, and by mototaxi or tuk-tuk for the rest, at a few thousand pesos a hop. Agree the fare before you set off, because there are no meters and no ride-hailing apps operate here. The hotel desk will point you at drivers they trust, which several guests single out as the most useful thing about staying here.
- Onward to the river: The tourist wharf is about ten minutes on foot. Fast boats leave for Puerto Nariño, roughly two hours upriver, and private boats run to Monkey Island in about forty-five minutes and across to Santa Rosa in Peru in a few. Puerto Nariño charges its own small entry tax on arrival, in cash.
Leticia and the triple frontier
Leticia is not a pretty town and it does not pretend to be. It is a hot, busy, workaday river port where Colombia, Brazil and Peru meet, and the reason to come is what it opens onto: the Amazon, the flooded forest, the pink dolphins at Lake Tarapoto, the car-free town of Puerto Nariño and the Ticuna, Uitoto and Yagua communities along the river.
Two things in town are free and unmissable. The parakeets come in to roost at Parque Santander every evening from about five, in numbers that have to be seen. And the sun goes down over the Amazon from the waterfront ten minutes away. Between them, eat at Mossh Bar two minutes from the hotel or El Santo Angel a few minutes further, both of which do Amazonian cooking properly.
Come at any time, but choose your season deliberately. From roughly December to May the river is high, the forest floods, and you see wildlife from a canoe. From July to November the water drops, the temperature climbs towards thirty-seven degrees, and you walk jungle trails and river beaches instead. Late July brings the Festival de la Confraternidad Amazónica, which celebrates all three border cultures at once.
Watch: five things to do in Leticia
A guide to the town and the river trips that start from it, filmed in 2026 and in Spanish.
Who is Zuruma Hotel for?
Book it if you want to be five minutes from the parrots with a pool to fall into and cold air in your room, and you are here for the Amazon rather than the hotel. The staff will sort out your drivers and your tours, and the breakfast is a genuine pleasure. Do not book it on the strength of the gallery, do not arrive without cash, and do not plan your week around the pool being blue.
What guests say about Zuruma Hotel
Scores and review counts are aggregated from verified guest bookings on major travel platforms.
Good
Read enough of these and the same hotel appears twice. One is the place guests love: central, walkable, with a pool and air conditioning, a free breakfast of fresh Amazonian fruit and staff who go out of their way to find a driver you can trust. The other is the place that disappoints: tired rooms, sagging beds, a pool that is sometimes green, inconsistent hot water, and photographs that flatter. Both are true. The Wi-Fi complaints are worth discounting slightly, since guests themselves point out that the internet in Leticia is a town-wide problem rather than the hotel's.
Valued being right by Parque Santander above everything else. His only complaint was the internet, and he noted himself that this is a problem across the whole town rather than something the hotel could fix.
Edgar
Valued being right by Parque Santander above everything else. His only complaint was the internet, and he noted himself that this is a problem across the whole town rather than something the hotel could fix.
2024-01-15Found it an easy stroll into town and thought having a pool and air conditioning that close was a real advantage. The staff were genuinely helpful, and she appreciated the poolside seating and being able to refill water for nothing.
2023-11-29Happy with the stay overall, and even enjoyed the political campaign talk that was held there one evening. The only thing that underwhelmed him was the pool.
2023-08-25Really enjoyed the breakfast and found the staff consistently friendly and the central position convenient. She thought the pool lovely and the air conditioning in the room a blessing.
2023-08-24Loved the central spot and how easy communication was. The staff even lined up a tuk-tuk driver they trusted, who then showed the family around Leticia and Tabatinga, and the breakfast was generous with fresh fruit. Against that, he found the hotel aging and the pool poorly maintained.
2024-11-26Booked it for the air conditioning and the pool, and liked having a free breakfast and an easy walk into town. She found the rooms worn, the beds saggy, and the breakfast a fixed menu with no toast, only a microwave to hand.
2024-04-08Appreciated the quiet street and called the staff excellent and friendly, but found the beds uncomfortable and the pool green and unusable, and said the photographs did not reflect how the hotel actually looks.
2026-06-18Found the staff friendly and the air conditioning good, and was let down by no hot water and a small, basic breakfast.
2023-09-12Good to Know Before You Book
Bring cash, in pesos
Payment is taken in cash at the property. A card sticker on the front door suggests otherwise, so it is worth asking when you book, but arrive with Colombian pesos either way. You will also pay Leticia's tourism entry fee of about 35,000 pesos a person in cash at the airport, and some operators now quote up to 45,000.
The photos are older than the rooms
This is the most consistent criticism in the reviews and it runs into June 2026. The rooms are clean and simple but tired: beds sag, fittings show their age, hot water is not always hot. Nobody who arrived expecting a budget hotel has been disappointed; the disappointed ones arrived expecting the gallery.
The pool is not always blue
Some guests describe it as lovely and others as green and unusable, which suggests maintenance is intermittent rather than absent. If the pool is a deciding factor for you, message the hotel before you book and ask about it directly. The air conditioning, which matters more, gets no such complaints.
Breakfast is included but fixed
It comes with the room, it includes fresh Amazonian fruit and guests mention it warmly. What it is not is a choice: it is a set menu, and a guest who wanted toast found only a microwave available. Take it as it comes and it is one of the better things here.
Check-in, check-out and the front desk
Arrivals are taken from two in the afternoon and rooms are given up by eleven in the morning, though the hotel's own site shows midday and a late check-out at one o'clock can be granted on request. The front desk is staffed around the clock, which in a town with no ride-hailing and a lot of arranging to do is genuinely useful.
Cancellation terms depend on your rate
Prepayment and cancellation conditions vary by the option you pick and appear once you have entered your dates. Worth reading before you commit, particularly if you are connecting through Bogotá on a single daily flight.
Call Zuruma Hotel
Call or message the hotel to ask about the pool, arrange an airport transfer, book a tour through the desk, or check what they can take in payment. Two numbers circulate and both work; the one here is the one on the hotel's own site.
+57 310 302 0616Photos of Zuruma Hotel
Frequently asked questions
It is at Calle 10 no. 7-62, in the middle of Leticia. Parque Santander, where the parakeets roost every evening, is about 350 to 400 metres away, a five-minute walk. The Museo Etnográfico is about 450 metres and the Amazon waterfront around 800. The reservation listing shows Parque Santander twice, at 50 metres and at 1.7 kilometres; there is only one, and neither figure is right.
Yes, an outdoor pool in a courtyard of palms, free to guests, open all year and to all ages, with loungers and umbrellas around it. Be aware that guests describe its condition inconsistently: some found it lovely and at least one found it green and unusable. If the pool is a deciding factor, ask the hotel directly before you book.
Yes, and it is one of the better things here. It comes with the room and includes fresh Amazonian fruit, and guests mention it unprompted. It is a fixed menu rather than a choice, so do not expect to order: one guest who wanted toast found only a microwave available. There is a coffee bar on the breakfast terrace.
Plan on cash. Payment is taken in cash at the property, and you should arrive with Colombian pesos rather than relying on finding a working machine in town. A card sticker on the front door suggests cards may be possible, so it is worth asking when you book, but do not depend on it. Note also that tourists staying under sixty days in Amazonas are exempt from Colombia's 19 per cent national sales tax.
Alfredo Vásquez Cobo is about 2.5 kilometres away, a five-minute ride. A taxi costs around 20,000 Colombian pesos and a mototaxi about 3,500. There is no hotel shuttle, though the front desk will help arrange a transfer if you ask in advance. Leticia's tourism entry fee, about 35,000 pesos a person, is paid in cash at the airport when you land.
Yes, free private parking on site. No reservation is possible and no vehicle size limit is published. In practice most guests here arrive by air and get around by mototaxi, since there is no road connecting Leticia to the rest of Colombia.
Pets are not allowed and the hotel is non-smoking throughout. There are family rooms: the triple, quadruple and family configurations take three, four and five people using sofa beds and fold-up beds. Children of any age are welcome, though those aged six and over are charged as adults, and there are no cots or extra beds.
Air conditioning is in every room and it draws no complaints, which in the Amazon is the amenity that counts. Free Wi-Fi covers the hotel but scores modestly, and guests are fair about why: the internet across Leticia is slow, and one reviewer said plainly that it is a town-wide problem rather than the hotel's fault. Do not plan on video calls.
No. The same family runs both, but Ecolodge Zuruma is a jungle farm-stay at kilometre 13 on the road to Tarapacá, with a hot tub and an entirely different atmosphere. This is the hotel in town, on Calle 10, with the pool. The two are blurred constantly across Google, listing sites and the owners' own social media, so check which one you have booked.
Around nine, though sources disagree: some directories say nine, one guest counted twelve studio units, and the reservation listing shows five room types. It is a small family-run hotel either way. All five room types are listed at the same twenty-seven square metres, which is a data artefact rather than five identical rooms.
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A pool, cold air and parrots at five
Five minutes from Parque Santander in the middle of the Colombian Amazon, with breakfast included and a front desk that will find you a driver. Bring cash.
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