Part 2 - Stuck in the Darien Gap

This is another story from 2006 when 3 friends and I spent a month in Panama and Colombia after college graduation. We decided to rent a car and go hiking into the Darien Gap. For those who don't know, the Darien Gap is the 30+ miles of dense jungle that separates Panama and Colombia. It is the one and only reason that it is not feasible to drive a car all the way down to South America. The Darien Gap is inhabited by the Embera indians, a few VERY small little villages, and roaming FARC guerrilas and other Colombian rebel militias.



Our plan was to hike into the Darien Gap to a ranger station called Rancho Frio. We would spend the night there and spend the next morning seeing animals, taking cool pictures and exploring the jungle. Then we'd hike back to our car and return to Panama City.

So we rent the car and set off down the Pan-American Highway. Well, the Highway eventually turns into more of a road, then a dirt road, then just dirt. Finally, you are bumping along a pitted dirt path that cuts through the jungle. We went through no less than 3 different police checkpoints before we finally arrived to a small little village called Yaviza. This is where the Pan-American Highway stops. We asked some local police if we could leave our rented car at their camouflage-covered police station, and they obliged. Then we found a store to stock up on some "supplies".

Most guidebooks recommend that you do NOT go to the Darien Gap. The guidebooks then give you helpful advice in case you decide to go anyway. I think our guidebook recommended that we take plenty of food, water, a First-Aid kit, satellite phone, camping equipment, etc. Well, here is what we took into the Darien Gap: a bag of rice, a can of mixed vegetables, 4 cans of tuna, some bottled water.

Not the least bit prepared for our hike, the 4 of us set off on a 1-and-a-half hour canoe ride down a river toward an even smaller village called El Real. Here, we found a local guy who said he would be our guide to take us to Rancho Frio. For an additional U$S 10, he provided a malnourished horse to help carry our bags.

As it turns out, we were out of shape. Even worse - it was rainy season, so we were hiking through mud during most of the trek. Believe me, at some point I began questioning whether this was a trip I really wanted to make. Unfortunately, I was already in the middle of the jungle, and it was late in the day. We had passed the "point of no return", and we really had no choice but to keep hiking deeper into the jungle toward this Rancho Frio ranger station that we had only read about in a guidebook. We were stuck in the Darien, and I really hoped that this place actually existed.

It turned out that Rancho Frio did exist, and we arrived after dark. We were very tired and extremely hungry after hiking through the mud for 7+ hours. Unfortunately, all we had to eat was a bag of rice, and the mixed veggies and canned tuna. We found some wild bananas to supplement our meal. Also, while Rancho Frio had beds available for us, the beds did not come with sheets, so we spent the night on thin, bare plastic mattresses. Lemme tell you, the weather in Panama is extremely hot and humid, which causes a gringo to sweat. So I do not recommend sleeping on a bare plastic mattress.

The next day we were sore and very tired, but we started our hike first thing in the morning so that we would have time to make it back to El Real, take the canoe back to Yaviza, and start the drive back toward civilization. We spent zero time exploring the beautiful wonders of the Darien jungle. The hike back took even longer, because we were so tired. By the time we finally got back to our car, we all smelled sort of like sewer rats.


Just to be clear, we only suffered some discomfort, but this is another situation that could have potentially turned out worse. It is another example of gringos heading off on adventures with the naive idea that someone will look out for them. The truth is that it is NOT Disney World, and chances are that there is no life guard on duty and the hospital is a long way away. Let me reaffirm what the guidebooks say - DO NOT GO TO THE DARIEN GAP. If you do go, take the potential dangers seriously and go prepared.