The first set of arrives include Geoff and the satellite engineers, who bring with them 45 of crates and containers for the satellite earth station. The earth station has actually had a longer trip than any of the human participants, as it started its journey overland by truck from Cleveland to Miami! Once in Miami, the equipment is reunited with John and Greg, and together with Geoff, they began the stop and go trip to Manaus—including a whirlwind tour of Rio during a long layover (no, the earth station had to stay at the airport).

So, now, the “easy” part was done, and John, Greg and Geoff sit with the 2,200 kilos of gear at the Manaus airport. Now to get it to the heart of the rainforest— that’s tricky.

The Ariau Amazon Towers Lodge, where the live television programs would be broadcast from, is located on the Ariau River, which is a small tributary of the Rio Negro, itself a major tributary of the Amazon. The lodge is only accessible by boat, and is about 2 hours ride from the city of Manaus. The boats that go to the lodge are of the scenic river-cruise variety, picturesque double-deckers with lots of bench seats and windows for sightseeing. The earth station, in its 45 cases, filled up the entire bottom deck of such a boat, blocking the aisles and hogging all the windows.