Reports by Douglas Gunzelmann

Inspired by an article in National Geographic, Gunzelmann hoped his personal adventure and real-time blogs would help bring awareness to the rainforest destruction occurring along the unfinished "TransAmazonica" highway he traveled. Though not entirely paved, the highway already connects Brazil and Peru from coast to coast. In a journey filled with vivid stories of swarming ants, scorching heat, violent political riots, poachers, a river crossing in the bucket of a bulldozer, and a daring escape from a cougar on top of a speeding fuel truck, Gunzelmann would have never guessed what would be the most dangerous thing of all he would encounter—that the very people he blamed for the destruction of the Amazon were often also the people who would also help him the most.