Does he look like a spy from Greenpeace to you?

We arrived back in Santarém early this morning after a more annoying than harrowing 36-hour voyage North. The road was not in such bad shape despite some bad whether. The greater delay was an overturned 16-wheeler loaded up with wood, broken and stuck in the middle of the road. We watched as a tractor cleared the scene, and we considered the recent report we had watched on Globo (the national TV network) about how Western Pará leads the nation in illegal lumber extractions. In this part of the Amazonian forest, "greenpeace" is one of the worst insults you can have hurled at you; most of the trucks feature bumper stickers saying "Greenpeace out of the Amazon, Amazonia is owned by the Brazilians!" Though Jeremy had never been openly accused of working for "them," we seemed to garner more suspicion walking down the streets of Castelo as a couple. More than once, muscle-bound cow-jerks rode by in pick-ups or motorcycles with the casual greeting, "E aí, Greenpeace!?!" Since they didn't stop to discuss environmental and development policy with us, we could only laugh at the accusations, and continue whistling along.