In the year of 1976 a man called Alberto Lesmes Rojas, swam a distance of 800 miles in the Magdalena river (of Neiva to Barranquilla), for the overwhelmed surprise of the Colombians and the world. He have swam in the Magdalena, the Amazon, the Putumayo rivers. Lesmes is known as Kapax or the “ Tarzan criollo” of the amazonas.
This man who was born in Puero Leguízamo, Putumayo, son of a German and an indigena woman, has been living in Leticia, Amazonas for more than 30 years, he has dedicated his life to protect, to take care of ,and to defend the nature.
Martyred activist Chico Mendes (1944-1988) devoted much of his life to bring literacy to the natives of the Amazon jungle, and was the guiding force behind the movement to organize the laborers of the rubber plantations in the South American rainforest. He alerted the world to the danger of ongoing deforestation in the Amazon jungle.Francisco "Chico" Mendes was a native of the Amazon rubber plantations and a rubber tapper by trade. As an adolescent he developed a keen awareness of the injustice imposed on his family and his community by wealthy rubber barons who owned the rainforest lands. Despite a stringent ban against education for the rubber workers, Mendes learned to read and spent much of his life in sharing that knowledge with other members of his community.


