Iñapari, PeruNearly everyone agreed that the changes started when the road was built. Just ten years ago, the first interstate highway to run through Iñapari, a small southern Peruvian town on the border of Brazil and Bolivia, was paved. The Interoceanic Highway connects the coast of Peru to the coast of Brazil, and it opened the Amazon to the rest of South America.

Peru's part of the Amazon, dense with towering trees and winding rivers, had previously been populated by pockets of native communities and small towns of people lured into the jungle by lucrative natural resource industries.

With more connectivity, Iñapari's economy is growing.

From a newly built tower in the town plaza, visitors can stand at the intersection of Brazil, Bolivia, and