He presented a case to those assembled for reviving the mill, but swarming mosquitoes made listening too difficult. From here he would head by boat to Capurganá and then Panama or walk through the jungle; he’d heard the hike was anywhere from two to four days. From end to end, shack-rattling salsa thumps blasted from bar speakers that never went silent, day or night. Squeezed in among the migrants were backpackers from England, Australia, Japan, and Brazil, who would soon be drinking coconut cocktails on the same beaches that some of these refugees would tramp across.From the edge of the dock, I watched the boat rumble into the channel.
I attended good public schools, played baseball, and graduated from college debt-free.

At the time, no Panamanian security forces were in the vicinity. After Spanish conquistadors discovered the region in 1501, they consolidated their first mainland colony by slaughtering tens of thousands of natives, often by turning ravenous dogs loose on villages.By land or sea, the main jumping-off point for crossings into Panama is Turbo, a dodgy Colombian port town on the Gulf of Urabá that has a bad reputation for violence. Their long, very sharp, bacteria-covered spines can be pretty nasty if you’re not careful. Streets are thronged with stranded Cubans, Haitians, Africans, and South Asians. With more than 4,000 Cubans and other migrants blocked from advancing north, he says, social pressures were mounting that forced the government to airlift scores of them to Mexico. The most powerful is the Clan Úsuga, a.k.a. Like this old house. For a boost, I stuff a plug of dried coca leaves into my cheek with a chunk of quicklime. Morro is close on his heels, followed by the Nepalis, who stick together and move at a steady clip. The Darien Gap is a remote, road-less swath of jungle on the border of Panama & Colombia. We turned southwest and the water narrowed into the Atrato, whose vast wetlands comprise half of Los Katíos National Park, a Unesco World Heritage site. Rahim from Pakistan had been here, along with Ahmed from Ethiopia and Yahya from Kenya. The added burden of carrying all our gear is taking its toll, forcing us to stop at shorter intervals, until we finally run out of water. FARC’s command has repeatedly delayed the process to avoid the same fate.Meanwhile, we had a new concern: on May 9, Panama abruptly closed its border with Colombia to stem the flow of migrants. It's used as a conduit for drugs. Expect to be stopped by the police repeatedly. A few minutes after this photo was taken, the kids helped me save our canoe from floating down the river with all my gear inside… Private Wilson here guards a Senafront checkpoint on the road into the Darien. A mestizo woman was hacking open tortoises for stew; pigs rooted around for scraps in muddy alleyways. Jairo and his light-skinned deputy, Haiber, listen, motionless. A river broke its bank and submerged the road, forcing everyone to pay for boat rides over to the next dry section of land about 300 yards away.The Darien isn’t only populated with indigenous people. In addition to our expensive camera gear, battery packs, laptops, medical kit, and communications equipment, including a sat phone and GPS, we also have lots of cash. George Meegan of England went even farther, getting shot at in the Gap during an unbroken trek across the Western Hemisphere that he started in 1977. De Sedas says his men had been expecting us for a week—we’d informed them what we were doing ahead of time—and feared that we may have lost our way, like the four Somalis who strayed from their group on reaching Panama and wandered the jungle for 15 days, only to end up back in Colombia.We’re crushed when he confirms that the migrants we traveled with were being sent back. i would not be here. “Colombia is no good.” I ask if he’s heard of the Darién Gap and he shakes his head. The river is dark & swollen from heavy October rains. While I’m not sure, this is possibly a Harlequin Toad — also known as a clown frog. If all went well, Mohammad could be in the U.S. by now.The Darién Gap in Panama is such dense jungle that the only sensible way through is by boat, and in the morning we climb into a piragua for a ten-hour glide upriver. Now I could buy a one-way ticket to the Third World with a sure return. The Gap is veined with dozens of trails and detours to nowhere, and my GPS device lost its signal the day before. Ten bucks for a night in the barracks where we’re staying, mosquito net included. But there is no way of knowing.” He paused. The Nepalis bathe in their underwear and complain that the Bangladeshis complain too much and don’t share. Before I could explore the Darien, I needed to request permission from Senafront in Panama City, and they informed me on how far I could travel into the jungle.The situation is always changing, depending on what’s going on at the time. He’d spent more than $1,500, paying for one leg of the trip at a time, to get this far. Head down, chin dug into the pack on my stomach, I stumble on.I’m lying in a shallow creek trying to cool my body temperature when Roger, our videographer, drops the news: in my stupor, I’d somehow walked right past a human head on a stake. They were held for nine months and threatened with execution before being released unharmed.
The absence of any controlling authority in this wilderness has given free rein to armed groups. Our search is starting to feel futile.For centuries the lure of the unknown has attracted explorers, scientists, criminals, and other dubious characters to the Gap, a 10,000-square-mile rectangle of swamp, mountains, and rainforest that spans both sides of the border between Colombia and Panama. The paras went on to steal livestock, slaughter dogs, and land-mine the hamlet’s periphery to prevent people from leaving.


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