Drive east and you see the same, an undulent landscape carpeted with buildings completed or under construction, roads thick with traffic, and a few forlorn patches of the original Atlantic Forest or more recently transplanted eucalyptus trees to break up the relentless jumble of concrete.
Though the camp was less than 2 miles away, getting there involved hiking up more than 2, 000 feet while traversing a jumble of steep rock and ice chutes, all of which required careful handwork.