By the time the sun began to burn through the blanket of fog coating the Rio Branco Farm, our team had the cars packed. A 5 minute drive brought us to the Rio Branco. We quickly unloaded all of our supplies. Tonico, Eurico, and Baca headed back down the primitive road to drop off the three cars in Cacoal. If everything goes as planned, they will hire a car to drive them back to our campsite this evening. The rest of our team is waiting at the campsite. I can’t imagine driving that road three times – we will have to do something special for the drivers.

Hercilio caught and cooked the first Piranha this morning and we marched into the rainforest and harvested a heart of palm to eat for dinner.

The water’s edge is laced with Tapir tracks, and hundreds of butterflies dot our campsite. It feels so good to be in the rainforest, surrounded by towering tees. We’re all looking forward to launching our canoes and heading deeper into the forest.