Panama to Colombia: The Darien Gap, SKETCHY Bridges & Near Assault.

The Pan American Highway is the longest drivable line on the map. But there’s a catch. Between Panama and Colombia there is no road. There exists only the impenetrable Darien National Forest. This area of land has become the most dangerous migration route in the world. The roadless, lawless stretch of terrain is frequented by cartel drug runners, human traffickers, and northbound illegal emigrants. Not exactly the things we’re looking to find.

The documented vehicle attempts are few, the success’ even fewer – backed by militaries, governments, bottomless budgets and indigenous tribes.

However alluring the mysteries of an unconquered terrain, we’ll be crossing the Darien at sea.

This episode is a crescendo that begins with the process of crossing the Darien Gap, and ends at one of the most exciting routes we’ve driven on four wheel. Let’s get into it.

Toyota World Runners vs. The Pan American Highway.

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We’re almost there really yeah okay cool that wasn’t uh wasn’t too far you sure this is it that’s what the map says H I don’t know I expected it to be like more jungly I guess you sure it’s right here yeah right there if you say

So I think I see an old Land Rover down there the Pan-American Highway is the longest drivable line on the map but there’s a catch between Panama and Colombia there is no Road there exists only the impenetrable Darian National Forest this area of land has become the most dangerous migration route in the

World this roadless Lawless stretch of terrain is frequented by Cartel drug Runners human traffickers and Northbound illegal immigrants not exactly the things we’re looking to find mind the documented vehicle attempts are few the successes even fewer and backed by militaries governments bottomless budgets and Indigenous tribes however alluring the mysteries of

An unconquered terrain we’ll be crossing the Darion at Sea this episode is a crescendo that begins with the process of crossing the Darion Gap and ends at the most exciting off-road route we’ve driven on four wheels let’s get into it if driving the longest road in the world

Wasn’t enough give yourself a 100 days to build a 4×4 motor home capable of such a task 40,000 Mi Crossing every type of terrain imaginable through some of the most feared and remote regions on Earth just for something to do no for something to write books about something

To Relish in the aliveness of living on the edge of the unknown Insanity something to radically expand our perspective of what the world is actually like and what is possible with than one Lifetime I’m Matthew and I’m Stacy and this is Toyota World Runners proudly presented by westcan Overland off-road in design so we tried to do laundry at the truck stop because they offer laundry but they didn’t tell us that the dryer is broken oh man the joys of language barriers

Yep that’s what we listened to all last night I’ve heard you not a real Overlander till you can’t get a truck shop so there you go we have one day to get to Panama City to complete our mandatory police inspection one week before our vehicle gets loaded on the Ship we made it to Panama City now it’s currently 6 a.m. and we have to go get a police inspection on our vehicle cool 6 a.m. weather report can you see how the lens is all foggy it’s because it’s 30° and it’s like 80% humidity at 6:00 a.m. and we had our air

Condition bu hence why we’re in a hotel had to get this guy washed yesterday Mak them all pretty for the police and it looks like we’re in like a music video it’s all foggy and stuff look at those lights all right wow off to Overland embassy it’s crazy I messaged

Them like 3 years ago saying like how much is shipping blah blah blah when we were first planing this trip before Co so like wow it’s crazy to actually be finally going there yeah it’s very surreal to even be in Panama yeah we’ve come so far yeah it’s cool couple stops

On the way and that is so sick a Cavalry blue troopy rad another troopy another troopy okay we got a Defender 130 and we got Overland Embassy right there check it out wow [Applause] cool loading Day loading our vehicle into a shipping container to cross to another continent is a completely surreal experience definitely the greatest surrender experiment we’ve done thus far huge thanks to Overland Embassy for making the Panama side of this experience very easy Easy okay we got everything Stak y hopefully if you’re half as stoked as we are to explore a new continent together then hit that like button and smash subscribe if you haven’t already it’s free and it really does help us out What a relief the truck showed up on the right continent at the right Port we didn’t realize how much we would miss these four walls on big tires that we call a home and the safety that it provides that safety was definitely tested as Backpackers in Cenna where back

Had the dehumidifier at the back too and that one’s full just filling up water got gas first time in Colombia we’re full we’re so full we’re full of gas and full of water and we’re full of excitement yeah despite almost being stabbed last night we are we are in good

Spirits while we did almost lose our lives to a petty thief in hna we’re tearing that page out of our story to leave only the memories of the amazing people and the amazing food that we experienced let me remind you that it’s been summer for us for almost 10 months

And we are pointing our Compass towards some cooler weather but Columbia is a big country so that’s going to take a couple Days good day hello good morning from a small town southeast of Cartana we are not camping clearly and there a good reason for that yep first one is it’s way too hot it’s insanely hot unbearably hot and we are recovering from a pretty big scare that we had in Cartana

Yeah which we will tell you about uh but we have to check out of this place it’s also really loud so we’re going to check out and we’ll tell you about our next spot gles okay the me what is it oh we already have honey

Oh I don’t know how much I’m supposed to give wait how much did you say it didn’t really say how much amazing we got watermelon orange juice and two freaking for uh three Still at sea level and still relaxing rattled nerves we opted for another cheap hotel so basically we were doing everything wrong we were walking late at night in a sketchy area we were right outside our hostel which we booked to try and save money and two guys pull up on a

Motorcycle cut us off guy on the back jumps off with a big kitchen knife above his head and starts coming at us before he could even say anything I just scream at him like get back mother I immediately blacked out from Fear because as soon as I saw the knife I was

Just gone so I my instinct was to run he starts backing up Stacy runs and he tries chasing her with the knife he swung at both of us and I started chasing him and I’m just screaming at the top of my lungs in like the scariest voice that I can

And it like woke the neighbors up and all of a sudden there’s like alarms going off in the houses and I don’t even even know how long the whole thing lasted but played like Ring Around the Rosie with him and then eventually they jumped on their bike and took off clearly once the

Surrounding houses one being our hostel which was right behind us once they heard the blood curdling screams coming from us they set off the alarms which I guess is normal in that area and that scared them away the reality is that there’s dangerous parts of every city whether it’s Columbia or the United

States or in Canada this happens all over the world and we made the mistake of not listening to the locals and walking through a dangerous area at around midnight luckily nothing happened and it was a scary lesson to to learn we’re really happy to be back in the truck and not be Backpackers Again Today if all goes well we will finally be out of the scorching oppressive [Laughter] oven This remote Village is called MOS a town seemingly Frozen in time it’s actually on an island formed by tributaries of the Magdalena River woo South American rainstorm used to leave a good one what’s crazy is we’re actually coming to the end of the rainy season like that was freaking dous cool

We we survived and we didn’t drown melt or die although we came close to all three Hey good morning from our first camp in Columbia which was less than glamorous camped in this field last night outside the national park we haven’t really caught a break since we’ve been in South America last night flying up this beautiful Canyon flying yes with the Drone uh I hit a power

Line and we couldn’t find the Drone last night so we’re going back to look and just praying praying that the Drone is okay because that is not a hurdle we want to overcome no we’re going to find it we’re going to go find him and then we’re

Going to find the cool stuff that we’ve been looking for we found it we found it Stacey found it oh my gosh this is very exciting but we’re going to have to test if he still works so what happened is it hit those power lines oh sorry hang on hang

On there you go so it hit those power lines and fell like 60 ft and somehow thankfully landed in Grass yeah it it does have a couple new dents which makes me think it might have hit a rock on its way down um it also like when it hit the power lines it

Immediately lost transmission I don’t know if those lines would have like electrocuted it hopefully it didn’t fry like the computer something we’re going to clean him off and we’re going to find out right now if if he’s still going to work praying praying we are

Praying this is almost a good sign oh my gosh gimbal’s facing the right way yep let’s let’s see if the camera works this is a warrior drone yeah this is literally like you have been through so much that is incredible that is literally incredible yeah the freaking camera Works everything works I guess

We’ll have to try and take off our propellers are a little wet we have we have some extra propellers though definitely need to swap some propellers that is [Applause] Amazing after over 10 days of being in Columbia I can’t tell you how good it feels to finally be setting up our first night at camp yall remember from Mexico how we set up chairs just flail it around a little bit eventually just get it in the right spot and

Boom last one’s a little tight TAA now we’re camping And that was uh B number [Laughter] three uh kerto in Zed minor in ziby zap Minor Tonight we have a Mexican fried rice with a Canadian twist this is honestly one of our one of our favorites just fried rice baby yeah eggs and veggies and Super Fresh you know it’s a nice break from all the corn and wheat you get Central and South America it’s nice to get some

Fresh Vegetables we’re feeling grateful for the cool Mountain Air and the Silence of this Canyon we’re also grateful that we’re the only ones camping in this area This unique Natural Area is called Los estores it is one of the smallest preserved areas in Columbia This place will stimulate your imagination as you discover animal figures people and objects that have been sculpted from thousands of years of erosion by water and wind it’s a pretty neat jigsaw puzzle to try and put Together Oh O Let’s go it’s so much cooler in here this is crazy I wonder if an K tell like the the movie was like made here or like based around this area maybe I those places like you just really can’t explain I went to this this unique Natural Area and it was just like a

Bunch of melted dirt and weird patterns but like you have to be there to really understand what do you think he’s digging for I don’t know The neighboring town of pla de Bellin directly translates to beach of Bethlehem This Charming mountain town is one of Colombia’s best preserved 19th century Pblos Pretty treacherous River Crossing almost had to air down for that one it is easier to build new the tried her and as many as 20% were addicted we have just pulled off the highway the rout Del Soul and we’re about to embark on our first kind of off-road Adventure I’m really excited

For this if you’ve seen Top Gear specials then some of this may look familiar to you and yeah it should have pretty equal parts of Adventure danger excitement fun fun definitely fun yeah um yeah stay tuned this is I’m really excited for This They knew we were coming yeah yeah they knew we were coming so they graded the road if you’ve ever played an adventure video game or Mario Kart and the road consists of crazy Bridges large obstacles with a couple roadblocks that are situated mainly on the edges of

Cliffs well at least in the video game if you drive off the cliff you can spawn with a new life in our case this is real life this is a real life risk-taking adventure with little to no room for error one way to overcome fear is to face it head on

Right good day hello it’s like they’ve never seen a vehicle on this track before see see see okay nend this this route is actually a decommissioned Railway and it’s only really used by the few locals that live out here and the weirdos like us that want to drive sketchy bridges for fun

Dozens of bridges in various states of repair and disrepair mark this route and while most of them pose no real danger for vehicles that’s as long as you keep your wheel straight that’s not even the big one yeah we got lots of room on this side just keep it straight

Look at that right in the middle of the forest beautiful pink tree that’s cool the deeper into the jungle and the further along the roots we drove it seems the bridges became less and less structural and while yes they were built for a train it’ll still get your heart racing

I haven’t seen a single vehicle only bikes yeah that’s crazy and we’ve been on this Offroad track for yeah like over 2 hours now yeah our pace is very slow it is really really rough terrain it’s not hard it’s just super dumpy So we are at the infamous Bridge we just went over like 12 of these though so this one doesn’t seem as scary anymore no I wouldn’t say it’s the granddaddy of sketchy Bridges but the height and no guard rail like it’s up there yeah for sure yeah yeah I’m like shaking

But I have to fly so I need to put my Pilot’s hat on and get it done Oh Oh well that was pretty gnarly it was actually a little scar than I thought it would be definitely sweating but uh yeah wow Rio negro Bridge check some back in here From the scorching heat of Panama nearly becoming a tourist statistic in Cenna driving South to cooler air and getting our blood racing on a railway jungle route the last 2 weeks can easily be defined as an emotional roller coaster our race through Central America to catch up with the seasons has inspired

Us to return one day but for now we have an entirely new continent to explore it’s incredible to say we’ve come this far already and the adventure is just beginning as we make our way to Patagonia thank you for joining us I hope we’ve earned your subscription and

If you’ve enjoyed this film you may also enjoy the crazy adventure we had in Costa Rica we’ll see you next time