[jddj]

Random related anecdote. I met a guy in Colombia who was cycling from Canada to Patagonia.

He'd made it all the way to the border according to his maps but was stopped by armed military/paramilitary troops and sent back to Panama by river in a dinghy full of (or made to appear to be full of) bananas.

In the end he had to fly that leg. It's also common to sail it, Panama city to Cartagena, but the other direction makes for a smoother trip.

[grecy]

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. Hitchhike, bus, whatever until you pop out somewhere in Colombia.

[rvba]

Entering a crapy boat or canoe in a place known to be run by drug smugglers and gangs sound like an easy way to disappear without trace after being robbed and murdered.

[dehrmann]

> Talk to locals, figure something out.

That's a very optimistic approach for such a deadly trip.

[grecy]

> 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.

[jddj]

I'd heard similar stories as well. We both suspected that he had been unlucky to come across whoever it was. This was 2016 or thereabouts.

[OfSanguineFire]

Quite a few cyclists and thru-hikers have crossed in recent years. The hassle with the authorities is mainly on the Colombian side, regularizing one’s status there, since the Colombian authorities consider one to have entered the country illegally. Those who get sent back on the Panamanian side generally do so because they look embarrassingly badly prepared.