I appreciate your comments and it is true there are some beautiful places in Central/South America but I spent a lot of time there and have to wonder why everyone there wants to come to the U.S. I have also spent a lot of time in Europe, Africa, SE Asia, the Golden Triangle near Burma, Home of "Thai Horse" and a in my line of work saw the worst part of all those countries to be sure. However, I plan to spend the rest of my life in the good ole USA and Canada seeing the sights in the RV or the airplane stashed in the back corner awaiting a rebuild. I wish you good luck and happy travels my friend!
Darien Gap Jungle Expedition (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Allen Stanion
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I appreciate your comments and it is true there are some beautiful places in Central/South America but I spent a lot of time there and have to wonder why everyone there wants to come to the U.S. I have also spent a lot of time in Europe, Africa, SE Asia, the Golden Triangle near Burma, Home of "Thai Horse" and a in my line of work saw the worst part of all those countries to be sure. However, I plan to spend the rest of my life in the good ole USA and Canada seeing the sights in the RV or the airplane stashed in the back corner awaiting a rebuild. I wish you good luck and happy travels my friend!
Andrew St. Pierre White may have plans in the future. Would be interesting to see if he could pull that off.
Somehow I got dropped from following this thread. I was wondering why I hadn't heard anything about the trip, since last I knew, I was one who was being considered as a ride along. Even though I guessed that it must have fizzled out, I'm still sorry to hear it.
Nobody needs to be a billionaire to do this kind of thing, it takes guts, resourcefulness, good research, and what used to be considered "common" sense. A certain amount of "luck", (I personally don't believe in luck, but I'll use the term here anyway), is also helpful.
Perhaps some time in the future, hopefully BEFORE somebody builds a road through the Gap. Otherwise what would be the point?
Nobody needs to be a billionaire to do this kind of thing, it takes guts, resourcefulness, good research, and what used to be considered "common" sense. A certain amount of "luck", (I personally don't believe in luck, but I'll use the term here anyway), is also helpful.
Perhaps some time in the future, hopefully BEFORE somebody builds a road through the Gap. Otherwise what would be the point?
Whatever happened here? Dead in the water?
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- #226
Quite a while ago I'm afraid. Colombian authorities indicated that they'd confiscate our vehicles if we crossed the border.
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- #227
At exactly 11:00 he posts a statement on the screen.
Haha, must have missed that part
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- #229
It's a daunting task... I'm not surprised that he ferried around.Haha, must have missed that part
Sorry to hear that!
I find it interesting with threads like this how much emphasis is put on the 1978 expeditions and how little on the 1971/72.
The 1971/2 was a military expedition with 64 people, three vehicles, pack horses, motorised wheelbarrows (abandoned), rafts and airdropped supplies. They medivacced half the people at different times. Many locals died helping. Some drowned, some shot.
The 1971/2 expedition went from Alaska to Cape Horn. They reconfigured vehicles and crew for each part of the expedition and only just beat weather/seasonal windows in the middle and the end.
The 1971/2 was a military expedition with 64 people, three vehicles, pack horses, motorised wheelbarrows (abandoned), rafts and airdropped supplies. They medivacced half the people at different times. Many locals died helping. Some drowned, some shot.
The 1971/2 expedition went from Alaska to Cape Horn. They reconfigured vehicles and crew for each part of the expedition and only just beat weather/seasonal windows in the middle and the end.
After starting from page 1 of this thread and reading through to here, it is quite the disappointment. I've spent more time on Expedition Portal forum for overlanding info when it comes to the efforts discussed in this thread. I didn't look much through the "Trails-Events-Expeditions" section here on this forum. But, when the previous post bumped this thread to the top, from July of 2021, it caught my attention. I considered Mud more of an off road or rock crawling forum for Toyota. I've been intrigued with the Darien Gap since I heard of it several years ago when overlanding got into my blood. In this tread: The Land Cruiser hut, I asked the OP (who lives in Medellin, Columbia,) what locals thought about the Darien Gap (on page 9). His reply didn't quite answer what I was hoping for, but he mentioned:
"Medellin is close to Urabá, a region that homes the Darién Gap, this region has been beaten with conflict for decades, and the jungles around it make things easier for traffikers, people, drugs, etc."
To me, that kinda sums up that locals tend to ignore or stay away from the Panama border, unless they want to join a cartel or have a death wish. As with many places, most locals have very little understanding or appreciation of how unique or special the geography of their environment truly is. Disregarding the drug cartel influence and political and cultural differences, this area joins 2 continents together. And dispite the jungle environment through southern Panama and Northwest Columbia, the technological level for road building that exists today, it's a no brainer that there should be a road, if not highway by now, in place for commerce, tourism, overlanding and just plain traveling. But, reality strikes again and we have, for all practical purposes, an impassible border where there shouldn't be (Columbia/Panama), and conversely, in other places, a non-existing border where there should be (effectively - southern U.S./Mexico). In both cases, politics weighs in heavily and I can imagine that the OP of this thread would agree that it affected the plans for his expedition. Not to mention how it negatively affects travel in many places today.
"Medellin is close to Urabá, a region that homes the Darién Gap, this region has been beaten with conflict for decades, and the jungles around it make things easier for traffikers, people, drugs, etc."
To me, that kinda sums up that locals tend to ignore or stay away from the Panama border, unless they want to join a cartel or have a death wish. As with many places, most locals have very little understanding or appreciation of how unique or special the geography of their environment truly is. Disregarding the drug cartel influence and political and cultural differences, this area joins 2 continents together. And dispite the jungle environment through southern Panama and Northwest Columbia, the technological level for road building that exists today, it's a no brainer that there should be a road, if not highway by now, in place for commerce, tourism, overlanding and just plain traveling. But, reality strikes again and we have, for all practical purposes, an impassible border where there shouldn't be (Columbia/Panama), and conversely, in other places, a non-existing border where there should be (effectively - southern U.S./Mexico). In both cases, politics weighs in heavily and I can imagine that the OP of this thread would agree that it affected the plans for his expedition. Not to mention how it negatively affects travel in many places today.
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