We finally arrive at the village of Dois Rios. Tall palm trees form a long corridor along the road. This passageway transports me into daydreams. I imagine a lost battle where the villagers try to impede nature and time from invading their space. The truck passes damaged houses lined up side to side. They are the ruins of a village once built to be a great community for the Caldron's guards and their families.

We pass a large courtyard covered with weeds. Its structures and benches are deteriorated but, in its center, a broken concrete water fountain still throws water to the heights. I think of how an abundant element of nature can cause so much damage. Ilha Grande has an average of 120 days of rain a year and, because of this water, 70% of the structures in the village are destroyed.

Disputing with the noise of the truck, the driver Marcos bellows to me, "Here, they say, if you put in the ground a piece of a broomstick, in a few days, it is going to transform into a plant and, in a few weeks, into an enormous tree." He points to a mountain in front of the village. "I remember when this mountain was covered with banana trees planted by the prisoners." It is now densely covered with dark jungle vegetation.

The truck moves slowly in the direction of the prison. I notice dozens of Urubus vultures flying high in the sky, while others rest on trees and on the ruined houses. Boldly, one of the big carnivorous birds swoops low across the road only a few meters ahead of us.

Inside one of the houses, in the ruined living room, is an elegant white sheep with its wool full of weed-balls. It stops eating to take a look at us. "It is Xuxa" laughs the driver, referring to the most famous entertainer for children in South America. Until that moment, I felt as if I was travelling through a ghost city.

The truck leaves me at the end of the forbidden road, right at the Caldron's door. Here, I again meet the visitors that traveled with me from Rio. For the last time, they pass through a long bureaucratic procedure in which officials review their papers, as well as search their bodies and belongings. Finally, the families will be able to spend their dreamed moments with their men.