Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Darién Gap

en.wikipedia.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 93 posts

Re: The Darién Gap

#11

Post by nocoiner »

grecy wrote: post #9
urbandw311er wrote: post #3

I’ve always been fascinated by the Darien gap. There’s a TV show here in the Uk called “race across the world” and in last season they had to cross the gap. Was really hoping for racing jeeps and armed militia but sadly (and sensibly) they took a boat.

I drove the entire Pan-American Highway (shipped around the Darien). Getting to see the Panama Canal and the whole region was just one of hundreds of highlights. It's commonly done now, and you can totally do it yourself in any vehicle.

Sounds like a very cool experience. Is it safe? My naive impression is that northern Mexico and perhaps parts of Central America could be dicey, but I also suppose in Mexico at least the cartels are rational enough to generally avoid targeting foreigners.

Re: The Darién Gap

#13

Post by jrmg »

dfawcus wrote: post #7
f5ve wrote: post #5

In the 1690's the Scottish invested an enormous sum of money and human capital to settle this region. The goal was to build and profit from an overland route to ferry cargo from the Pacific to the Atlantic, similar to the Panama Canal today. Due to disease, less-than-accommodating natives, and geopolitical climate, the scheme failed miserably. Many argue the crippling financial effect on Scotland was a key factor in…

There was more to the Scottish colony in Darien failing than just that, the English state had a hand in it, and an incentive to ensure it failed. As to the post failure financial effect, that was mainly on a bunch of rich folks. Scotland per-se was not in any financial distress after the failure of the scheme, as it was private individuals, not the state which had invested. Have a read of this piece, which covers a l…

I enjoyed this book about it:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18271029-the-darien-disa....

It was written in the late 60s, but it looks like it's been republished more than a few times since then:

https://www.alibris.com/booksearch?mtype=B&keyword=%93Darien...

Re: The Darién Gap

#14

Post by my12parsecs »

bogota wrote: post #10
mytailorisrich wrote: post #2

I've always thought that " too expensive and detrimental to the environment " was a bit 'too simple, sometimes naive' for an explanation. Panama was split from Colombia thanks to the US right before the Panama Canal was built. So an obvious line of thought is that the Gap has a defensive purpose to keep both sides well apart. It also helps reduce the flow of people.

Seems like recently that hasn’t been the case as the economic situation in South America continues to worsen more people are crossing on foot. Strange to be downvoted for pointing out the stats on the linked wiki article.

I wonder whether the Darien Gap or the US-Mexico border (and surrounding deserts) is more dangerous to cross illegally.

Re: The Darién Gap

#15

Post by readthenotes1 »

bogota wrote: post #10
mytailorisrich wrote: post #2

I've always thought that " too expensive and detrimental to the environment " was a bit 'too simple, sometimes naive' for an explanation. Panama was split from Colombia thanks to the US right before the Panama Canal was built. So an obvious line of thought is that the Gap has a defensive purpose to keep both sides well apart. It also helps reduce the flow of people.

Seems like recently that hasn’t been the case as the economic situation in South America continues to worsen more people are crossing on foot. Strange to be downvoted for pointing out the stats on the linked wiki article.

In the other thread posted on this Gap, I commented that over a quarter of a million people have crossed it already this year, over 60,000 of them being children.

It may be dangerous in an absolutist sense, but it is no longer apparently as dangerous as it was 10 years ago.

Re: The Darién Gap

#16

Post by hermitcrab »

andrewjf wrote: post #8
urbandw311er wrote: post #3

I’ve always been fascinated by the Darien gap. There’s a TV show here in the Uk called “race across the world” and in last season they had to cross the gap. Was really hoping for racing jeeps and armed militia but sadly (and sensibly) they took a boat.

May I recommend “long way up” as well (although they also took a boat). They travel from Ushuaia to Canada, and talked about the Darién Gap, I don’t recall how in depth.

The whole trilogy of 'long way round', 'long way down' and 'long way up' are well worth a watch. Especially if you like travel and motorbikes.

Re: The Darién Gap

#18

Post by paulgerhardt »

Recommend the 1970’s Land Rover documentary of a British expedition supported by 60 army core engineers successfully crossing the gap: https://youtu.be/u31yhCmIJ5E?si=GlpzSSvKZzxTn2FE

There’s a lot of YouTube spam of people talking about the gap but precious little content from people who have done it.

Re: The Darién Gap

#20

Post by grecy »

nocoiner wrote: post #11
grecy wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I drove the entire Pan-American Highway (shipped around the Darien). Getting to see the Panama Canal and the whole region was just one of hundreds of highlights. It's commonly done now, and you can totally do it yourself in any vehicle.

Sounds like a very cool experience. Is it safe? My naive impression is that northern Mexico and perhaps parts of Central America could be dicey, but I also suppose in Mexico at least the cartels are rational enough to generally avoid targeting foreigners.

Many thousands of people do it every year, and just a few experience pick pocketing or a vehicle smash and grab.

If you're smart, don't drive at night and don't go looking for trouble, there's no reason to think you'll have problems.

After driving the Pan-Am I drove right around Africa through 35 countries. Never had a single "bad" moment, never heard a single gunshot. I was in LA a couple of months ago, heard gunshots.

Post reply on HN