I got up at 6:00 and packed up my tent. I was glad that everything was dry since I probably won't use it again for awhile. It became evident during breakfast that many of the students were not feeling well. We loaded the bus for the long drive to Concepción . As the crow (toucan?) flies, it is only 55 km or so to the east but the layout of the roads requires several hundred km of driving.

Along the way, we made bathroom stops at every place possible and at least one emergency stop. We crossed over several of the Serrianas Chiquitanias including one which had an impressive natural monolith looming above a building. Callie and I collected a sample from a road cut and found a porphyritic granite. We could see a long way across the top of the forest to other low monadnocks of the serrianas, some of which rise several hundred meters above the canopy.

We had lunch in San Javier, a town founded by Jesuit missionaries in the late 1600's. We toured the mission, built in 1730. It has numerous, thick wooden columns with elegant spiral patterns cut into the hard wood. Toward sunset, we arrived at a high tech sawmill on the outskirts of Concepción . It is owned by Paul Roosenboom, an expatriate Dutchman who lives in Paraguay . He bought 30,000 Hectares east of Concepción and is conducting a certified logging operation there. His company cuts wood for Parkay flooring for sale in Europe and North America . There are also several charcoal ovens which are used to process the waste wood into something useful. He has a problem contracting workers to make the charcoal so there is a lot of wood waiting to be processed. On his aerial photos, I noticed a probable meteor impact site deep in the forest near the company concession.

We pulled into Concepción after dark. Our hotel, the Missiones, was beautiful. I had a single with a private bath. The shower felt so good. I had been pulling ticks off of me throughout the day and found several more.

We ate a buffet style dinner at a nearby restaurant. We were joined by Paul and by William Patrianos, Paul's forester and a good friend of Todd's. Two local teenage boys played violin and cello and were quite good. After dinner, Anne, Callie, Jessica, Marydale, Adam, Todd William, and I went to the local karaoke bar. I did a couple of songs; Todd clowned for a couple of others; and the women did several, the last of which was really good.

We left around midnight and walked the several blocks back to the hotel.