Finally made it out of Peru. But not before Peru took its final revenge. The main road between Peru and Brazil connects the cities of Cusco and Rio Branco. This road rises to a peak elevation of 15,530 feet (4735 meters) above sea level. However, there is not a single sign to warn travelers about the dramatic elevation change. We toughed it out and made it actoss, but my wife had serious symptoms from the altitude. On the Brazil side, the road drops down through a tremendous elevation change to the low jungle of the Amazon. Peru needs to wake up, and put some warning signs on the road ... giving visitors a real heads-up.

The State of Acre in Brazil was a big surprise to me. I was expecting a vista with Amazon forest and rivers. But what you actually see .. is green pastures, horses, and a lot of white cows. The farmers have cleared most of the tropical forest, and replaced it with grass. If this trend continues, Acre will look more like Missouri (USA) in another 10-20 years. There are still large groves of tropical forest, but the farmland is bigger. Please keep in mind, this is just the view from the main highway. But the trend is not good.

On the roads in Peru we saw large logging trucks, carrying logs that are 6-8 feet on diameter. These were old-growth trees ... maybe hundreds of years old. Its a real tragedy to see this process in action. If Brazil and Peru dont get serious about protecting the Amazon, they are going to lose a very precious resource.