Brazil May Begin Paving Trans-Amazon Highway In 2005 - NYT

[hatrack]

EDIT

"But now, the road that stretches from the Brazilian border east of here and climbs into the heart of Peru could be widened and paved in what its proponents are calling South America's infrastructure project of the century. Once completed, it would deliver a prize that Brazil has long sought: access to the Pacific.

If planners across South America have their way, it will be the cornerstone of a mammoth continentwide plan to link countries long isolated by rugged topography through a network of rivers and roadways.

EDIT

Optimistic projections are that paving could begin in 2005, and be completed three years later at a cost of nearly $600 million, thanks largely to Brazil's plan to finance a third of the project. "This is the first step to forming a South American common market," said Miguel Vega, president of the Peru-Brazil Chamber of Commerce in Lima. "This is an irreversible process."

EDIT

Brazil recently completed paving of the highway all the way to Assis, making the possibility of access to the Pacific all the more tantalizing to Brazilian soybean farmers, loggers and ranchers who have long wanted a more direct trade route with Asia. "

EDIT

And in light of the last paragraph pasted here, no further commentary is really necessary.

[blindpig]

1. it looks as though

it may take Peak Oil to save us.
I spent a week 100k down stream from Iquitos 5 years ago and only saw 1 game size animal all week with a good guide, though mega small stuff. The river people had hunted the area out. A reseacher there said you had to go 200k further downstream to see megafauna.