Colombia has the most brutal geography in the world
But arguably the coolest people
The Darién Gap
71–80 of 93 posts
Re: The Darién Gap
#72Re: The Darién Gap
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
I drove the length of the Pan-American, and shipped my Jeep around in a shipping container. Even back in 2008 when I did it, I met a few backpackers that had crossed the Darien on foot. You take a bus and then hitchhike as far south as you possibly can. Talk to locals, figure something out. Someone will know of a crappy boat or canoe or something to take you a few hours through the swap and then you're on land again.…
> Talk to locals, figure something out. That's a very optimistic approach for such a deadly trip.
> That's a very optimistic approach for such a deadly trip
Yes, optimism is a requirement for any major undertaking.
That is exactly how I spent two years driving 40,000 miles from Alaska to Argentina, and also how I spent three years driving 54,000 miles right around the coastline of Africa.
Re: The Darién Gap
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
For sure, a garmin gps would help. They're not 100% though. I have a property in the mountains with jungle and there were steep drops that did not show up on my topographic map. I imagine someone could easily die if they didn't pay attention. Also, slipping and falling is a serious risk during the wet season, even on well known paths.
Surely lidar would be valuable, given how it has already proven its effectiveness for archaeology in this region
How is this a response to that comment? What does LiDAR have to do with hikers using a GPS?
Re: The Darién Gap
#75Re: The Darién Gap
#76This guy claims to have ridden his bike from Alaska to Argentina and doesn't even mention crossing the gap. https://explorersweb.com/teen-cycles-alaska-argentina/ I thought the story was problematic the moment I heard it. I met someone who crossed the gap while migrating to the United States from Africa. When I asked what they thought about someone riding a bicycle through it, they shook their head. They said even ca…
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Re: The Darién Gap
#77Colombia has the most brutal geography in the world
It's cheaper to ship something from Shanghai to Los Angeles than from Bogotá to Cartagena, or so my classes taught me when I took a class on Colombia's economy.
Re: The Darién Gap
#78Hey there. I'm from Panama. The Darien Gap still has foreigners (including wealthy tourists) going there with the crazy idea they can hike through it. The trash being left behind in just the past couple years is just heartbreaking. Mountainous jungles in Panama are extremely easy to get lost in the overgrown vegetation. Tourists have died in hiking trails in Boquete, Veraguas or Cerro Azul by only going a few hundred…
Sounds like an incredibly risky area but in terms of navigation can they not use gps?
GPS can tell you exactly where you are, and nothing more. It can’t tell anyone else where you are, it can’t teach you to read a map if you don’t have the skills. It can’t tell you the best route through dense jungle terrain if you don’t have the skillset.
Re: The Darién Gap
#79Hey there. I'm from Panama. The Darien Gap still has foreigners (including wealthy tourists) going there with the crazy idea they can hike through it. The trash being left behind in just the past couple years is just heartbreaking. Mountainous jungles in Panama are extremely easy to get lost in the overgrown vegetation. Tourists have died in hiking trails in Boquete, Veraguas or Cerro Azul by only going a few hundred…
Desperate people trying to escape brutal regimes are one thing but rich tourists are just asking to become victims of DG bandits.
Re: The Darién Gap
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
How much of it is about preserving jungles and how much is about keeping Colombians out? From the article yesterday about the failed pan American highway due to the Darien gap, it pointed out that Colombia and Panama are the only two neighboring countries in the world without a road between them. It also explicitly stated that many citizens support that to reduce undocumented immigrants from Colombia.
Interestingly, reading this thread has made me realise that roads more-often-than-not are a path for exploitation (equally as you might describe them as a path for opportunity). Without roads, you cannot build mines or forestries within the area to extract the resources from the land. Just interesting because I've never thought about roads in this way. Feels like not building roads is a good thing if preserving the l…
The US Forest Service agrees with you.