The Highway is a symbol for our times. Our 21st century obsession with high-speed connections, global and local knowledge, free flowing information, mass movement, exchange, social advancement, and in some cases, personal escape, are all delivered by man’s ubiquitous highways.
But the Highway is an archetype of transformation too. It’s a place where people find and lose themselves in the shifting scenery of great unknowns.
This is a blog about one particular highway, the Carretera Interamericana, or Interamerican Highway – which forms the Central American section of the Panamerican highway, a road linking North and South America entirely.
Traversing some 6,000 kilometres of wildly divergent landscapes – deserts, mountains, canyons and rainforests among them – the Carretera Interamericana connects the disparate lives of eight different nations: Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama.
Scheme of the Interamerican Highway, 1933. Click on the image for a more detailed view.
By publishing engaging and off-beat stories live from this legendary stretch of road, Interamericana seeks to connect you with the kinds of people, places and experiences that mainstream media can’t.
From the teeming US-Mexico border to the impassable rainforests of Panama, Interamericana is a constantly roaming, inquisitive presence.
And whether reporting on the social and environmental challenges facing local communities, the work of expert anthropologists, a random encounter with a stranger, or simply the sights and sounds of unusual locations, Interamericana aims to provide the best in alternative travel writing.
Interamericana is proud to be a non-commercial, not-for-profit, and entirely self-published venture. Its content is wholly uninfluenced by external advertising, PR, marketing, tourism boards, editorial demands or the general needs of the hospitality industry. It hopes to put the ‘journalism’ back into travel journalism.
Utilising the latest multimedia technology, Interamericana is pleased to offer its readers the following:
- Fresh, lively prose from a new voice in travel writing.
- Dozens of beautifully animated slideshows.
- Video clips shot from the hip on the streets of Mexico and Central America.
- Thousands of travel photos.
- Exciting, interactive maps supplying a unique overview of the region.
- Short films and documentaries (coming in December 2009).
- Innovative and insightful virtual tours (coming in December 2009).
- A rolling asides section featuring the web’s latest stories and hottest sites.
- A growing links directory to take you in interesting new directions.
- Extensive, well-organised archives and search tools.
- Full integration with web 2.0 tools and social media.
- Free updates by e-mail or RSS (what’s RSS?).
