Traveling by land to Colombia? Think again!

Map of Darien Gap

I thought it would be straightforward taking on a road trip to Colombia after my two-week cycling tour of Central America was over. I had looked at the map. Colombia sat next to Panama it was true, and it did not look too far. There must be regular buses plying the route? But no. On closer examination, I found taking the journey overland was notoriously difficult, and highly dangerous, not to say foolhardy in the extreme. 

Crossing the inhospitable disease-ridden, virtually impenetrable 150km tract of jungle extending to some half a million hectares, home to predatory wild animals, and venomous snakes would certainly not be a picnic. Much of the terrain is formed of treacherous,precipitous mountain peaks and the region is crisscrossed by unforgiving rivers prone to flash floods. There are also vast areas of boggy, pestilential swamps, and in the rainy season, extensive tracts of land become an unpassable sea of sweltering, impenetrable mud. 

Crossing the Darien Gap to reach sanctuary eventually in Central or North America however is the dream of the thousands of desperate economic and political migrants, over half of them originating from pitifully poor and trouble-torn Venezuela ruled with an iron fist by the autocrat and dictator Nicolas Maduro. For them, the risk appears to be worth it. 

The impenetrable Jungle!

However, as well as the natural hazards, and the serious likelihood of death from falls, animal attacks, snake bites, disease or drowning, those attempting the crossing must ensure they avoid the considerable numbers of ruthless human ‘coyotes’ as they are termed, intent on murder, kidnap, robbery or rape as an opportunistic byproduct of their primary business of drug or people trafficking. 

Hundreds of asylum seekers and economic migrants die attempting the perilous route annually, but official figures would just register a tiny fraction of the actual number of fatalities.

We had travelled along lengthy sections of the Pan American highway when transferring through Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama on our cycling trip. I had assumed this major road continued into Colombia. But, looking closely at a map, I saw it just fizzled out in Panama’s Darien province. The authorities felt having the road go all the way into Colombia would only make the route easier for criminals to affect their abominable business, so had always steered away from the option of undertaking such a construction project. 

It is amazing that a highway which runs 19,000 miles from Prudhoe Bay in Alaska to Ushuaia in Argentina just disappears into the jungle for a considerable section before being picked up again in Colombia.

Even the Spanish colonists who mastered the Andes and the Amazon failed to subdue the toxic wilderness that is the Darien Gap.

Now you see why!

I still wanted to visit Columbia without taking a plane. Was there another way? We would see.