[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.