Nonesuch Expeditions - Features The New Amazonia

NONESUCH EXPEDITIONS FOUNDED IN 1962

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The New Amazonia - A foretaste of the future

Immense changes - the road to Cotoca Bolivia in 1961 and now

Building the Interoceanic Highway

A Bridge too Far

The Missing Link

Tower blocks are growing everywhere such as this 40 storey giant in Belém, Brasil, the tallest in Amazonia 2008

Tony Morrison first visited Amazonia in 1961 with the University of Bristol Trans-Continental Expedition.

The Bristol team followed one of the first major roads to penetrate Amazonia. Built in 1954 the Cochabamba - Santa Cruz highway made a pioneering link between the highlands of the Andes mountains and the lowland Amazon region of Bolivia. Back in the dry season of 1961 the 300km road took two days and a trip along one 20 km extension to Cotoca took another 12 hours. Today that extension is a two lane highway being doubled and and complete with toll booths. Santa Cruz is now the largest city in Bolivia and possibly the fastest growing in Amazonia.

READ- Expedition reports —Hacking through The Land of one Road

A short film of Cotoca and the forest near Santa Cruz in 1961

The road to Santos A paved road now links the heart of Amazonia with the industrial southeast of Brasil and the port of Santos on the Atlantic coast.

Here one section of the road descends the low mountain range - the Serra do Mar [800m]still covered with remnants of 'Atlantic Rainforest'. This part of the highway known as 'Imigrantes' or SP160 is a marvel of engineering. The road spans valleys and passes through long tunnels to link the giant city of São Paulo with the sea. A journey from here to the centre of Amazonia takes about 24 hours and to the beginning of Interoceanic Highway at the border of Peru is two or three days and two nights non-stop - a distance of 3968 km.

The InterOceanic Highway, a major Amazon Road will be the first to link the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The road is nearing completion in Peru close to the Manú National Park. Theoretically goods can be moved from the economically rich New Amazonia to Asia either westwards over the Andes Mountains to the Pacific or south via Santos.

Tony Morrison and his wife Marion made a film for BBC Television in this rich part of the Amazon forest before any permanent road was made. The 50 minute film produced 1969 and titled 'Park in Peru' and was the first to introduce the river Manú and its pristine environment to the world's television audiences.