Category: Beyond Cities

Useful Relics

English + Español
In the Colombian village where I grew up, the most common way to tell the time was seeing Don Noé’s chiva going up and down the road. A short and colorful bus with a wooden body, it connected the local peasants with the town of Sonsón for more than thirty years…

From Inroads to Transportation

Early Amazonian trade and transportation generally floated along the vast lower riverine system or was trekked on backs across many rapidly moving headwaters.  In the mid- to late- 20th century, the first roads opened, leading largely to resource extraction, not…

Rural Roads in Peru

English + Español
In the heart of the Peruvian Amazon, the rainy season—three months a year—ruins the access to a rudimentary local road. The villagers of Masisea, near Pucallpa, couldn’t leave. Outside…

The Challenges of Rural Transportation in Mexico

English + Español
I remember my first encounter with rural transportation. I’d left my job in the Secretariat of Urban Development and Ecology of the Mexican federal government, and founded a nonprofit civil association, together with some colleagues I’d met through that job…

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