The Darien Gap
Ever dream of driving from Alaska to the Cape Horn? Crusing the Pan-American highway with the top down in your '66 Mustang? Or more realistically, cruising with the windows down in your '06 Winnebago?
You can't.
This came as some surprise to me actually. I would have though that you would be able to drive all the way. It would seem to make sense economically, to have a road that connected all the way. Actually, I will go one step further, what you are about to learn astounded me in the sense of its total anachronism in the modern world that we live in. There is a gap, just one gap, in the Pan-American highway.
And no, the answer is not the cute one: "the panama canal." There is a heaping big bridge over that, called (ironically, since the road does not go much further) the Bridge of the Americas.
No, what I am referring to is the Darien Gap.
The gap is the section of land where the long thin strip of Central America links up with the continent of South America.
And it looks like this:
Thats it, for miles and miles. It is one of the most dangerous places on earth. Every guide that you can read on the subject tells you absolutely do not, under any circumstances, try to get across it. For 90km, the Pan-American highway gives up the game, and disappears. Which does of course call into question naming it the "Pan-American" highway, rather than the "Highway which runs all the way through North and Central America, and also all the way along South America, but has a gap." It would be like calling this the worlds longest bridge:
The area is covered in swaps, full of drug traffickers, home to Colombian gangs who favor kidnapping and ransom, and has absolutely no marked trails. Nothing. Nothing at all. Unless you find one of the drug routes. In which case you are probably going to die.
This is from a Nat Geo writer who was kidnapped in the gap and held for 10 days back in 2003:
"The Darien Gap is one of the last—not only unexplored—but one of the last places people really hesitate to venture to... It's also one of the most rugged places. The basic problem of the Darien Gap is that it's one of the toughest hikes there is. It's an absolute pristine jungle but it's got some nasty sections with thorns, wasps, snakes, thieves, criminals, you name it. Everything that's bad for you is in there."
The first expedition across it was by Land Rover, in 1960, and used waterways wherever possible. The Rover was known as "the affectionate cockroach" and has Land Rovers have the world over, it kicked ass and took names.
The first all-land auto crossing was in 1985. It 714 days to travel 201 kilometers in a CJ-5 Jeep. That is 0.28km/day or put another way (with a 16hr day) 0.015mph (yes, I did the conversion). According to Wolfram Alpha, this is = 0.38 x speed of a garden snail. In other words, yes, it is technically possible, but a snail would have gotten to the other side and back before you made it across. Literally.
It is possible to go some of the way by boat - to the town of Yaviza.
After that, you are on the water to Piaogana. Which looks.. exciting.
(image credit: Student Charity)
At which point, your travels are going to look a lot like below, because there are no big easy waterways to take, typically transport is on small streams.
According to the Nat Geo writer:
"You have to hire a boat man, who will take you while he can. Then somebody else is supposed to guide you across some dry land to the next boat owner, and so on. So you should carry lots of cash to pay to these people... "
also according to him:
"The Darien Gap is an extremely dangerous place—it's probably the most dangerous place in the Western Hemisphere, definitely in Colombia. It's used as a conduit for drugs. There are no police there, there's no military, the trails aren't marked. Unless you have a lot of experience in Colombia, I wouldn't suggest it.
[For the most part] the jungle there is not viewed as a place that is pristine and beautiful—it's looked at as a place where you get killed... I mean, I know how you can hike the Darien now. But you have to have a group of armed men with you."
It is quite literally, the end of the road. And it will likely remain that way. There are indigenous populations to protect, and the area is incredibly ecologically diverse and one of the few blank spots on the development map still left in the Western Hemisphere. But perhaps the biggest reason why you wont be seeing anything soon is that the US does not really support the building of a road. A road would make trafficking from Columbia up through central America and into Mexico much much easier. And that is not seen as a good thing. So until the regions leading exports no longer come off the posters of the DEA, it looks like the Pan-American highway will retain its one 90km gap.
Unique giant iguana species:
(image credit: David Olson)
Great plants like this Hot Lips, Psychotria and another white "not-sure-what-it-is":
(image credit: Diana Bradshaw)
Insects are weird there too: see these tree-hoppers and harversters:
You can't.
This came as some surprise to me actually. I would have though that you would be able to drive all the way. It would seem to make sense economically, to have a road that connected all the way. Actually, I will go one step further, what you are about to learn astounded me in the sense of its total anachronism in the modern world that we live in. There is a gap, just one gap, in the Pan-American highway.
And no, the answer is not the cute one: "the panama canal." There is a heaping big bridge over that, called (ironically, since the road does not go much further) the Bridge of the Americas.
No, what I am referring to is the Darien Gap.
The gap is the section of land where the long thin strip of Central America links up with the continent of South America.
And it looks like this:
Thats it, for miles and miles. It is one of the most dangerous places on earth. Every guide that you can read on the subject tells you absolutely do not, under any circumstances, try to get across it. For 90km, the Pan-American highway gives up the game, and disappears. Which does of course call into question naming it the "Pan-American" highway, rather than the "Highway which runs all the way through North and Central America, and also all the way along South America, but has a gap." It would be like calling this the worlds longest bridge:
The area is covered in swaps, full of drug traffickers, home to Colombian gangs who favor kidnapping and ransom, and has absolutely no marked trails. Nothing. Nothing at all. Unless you find one of the drug routes. In which case you are probably going to die.
This is from a Nat Geo writer who was kidnapped in the gap and held for 10 days back in 2003:
"The Darien Gap is one of the last—not only unexplored—but one of the last places people really hesitate to venture to... It's also one of the most rugged places. The basic problem of the Darien Gap is that it's one of the toughest hikes there is. It's an absolute pristine jungle but it's got some nasty sections with thorns, wasps, snakes, thieves, criminals, you name it. Everything that's bad for you is in there."
The first expedition across it was by Land Rover, in 1960, and used waterways wherever possible. The Rover was known as "the affectionate cockroach" and has Land Rovers have the world over, it kicked ass and took names.
The first all-land auto crossing was in 1985. It 714 days to travel 201 kilometers in a CJ-5 Jeep. That is 0.28km/day or put another way (with a 16hr day) 0.015mph (yes, I did the conversion). According to Wolfram Alpha, this is = 0.38 x speed of a garden snail. In other words, yes, it is technically possible, but a snail would have gotten to the other side and back before you made it across. Literally.
It is possible to go some of the way by boat - to the town of Yaviza.
After that, you are on the water to Piaogana. Which looks.. exciting.
(image credit: Student Charity)
At which point, your travels are going to look a lot like below, because there are no big easy waterways to take, typically transport is on small streams.
According to the Nat Geo writer:
"You have to hire a boat man, who will take you while he can. Then somebody else is supposed to guide you across some dry land to the next boat owner, and so on. So you should carry lots of cash to pay to these people... "
also according to him:
"The Darien Gap is an extremely dangerous place—it's probably the most dangerous place in the Western Hemisphere, definitely in Colombia. It's used as a conduit for drugs. There are no police there, there's no military, the trails aren't marked. Unless you have a lot of experience in Colombia, I wouldn't suggest it.
[For the most part] the jungle there is not viewed as a place that is pristine and beautiful—it's looked at as a place where you get killed... I mean, I know how you can hike the Darien now. But you have to have a group of armed men with you."
It is quite literally, the end of the road. And it will likely remain that way. There are indigenous populations to protect, and the area is incredibly ecologically diverse and one of the few blank spots on the development map still left in the Western Hemisphere. But perhaps the biggest reason why you wont be seeing anything soon is that the US does not really support the building of a road. A road would make trafficking from Columbia up through central America and into Mexico much much easier. And that is not seen as a good thing. So until the regions leading exports no longer come off the posters of the DEA, it looks like the Pan-American highway will retain its one 90km gap.
Unique giant iguana species:
(image credit: David Olson)
Great plants like this Hot Lips, Psychotria and another white "not-sure-what-it-is":
(image credit: Diana Bradshaw)
Insects are weird there too: see these tree-hoppers and harversters:
THANK YOU for posting this!! Really really cool.
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