The two-lane Interoceanic Highway climbs from the humid flatlands of Peru’s Amazon rainforest upward toward the famed Incan city of Cuzco. Along the way, it serpentines across rivers, through clouds, past rocky hillsides stippled with grazing llamas and alpacas. The air at the very crest of the highway—at more than 15,500 feet—is so thin, everything seems to move in slow motion.

In 2011, when the highway was completed, it connected the Brazilian state of Acre, in Brazil’s western Amazon, to the coast of Peru. The road runs 1,600 miles from Brazil, westward through the city of Puerto Maldonado, then winds up the Andes to Cuzco, and back down to Lima.

The intent of the developers was to boost commerce between the two countries by finally connecting them by road. Brazil, in particular, want

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