[jpcfl]

I know several people who have made the foot journey across the Darién, and have heard many horror stories about it.

When I was in Bogotá last year, I met a Venezuelan man selling art painted on Bolivares. Inflation is so bad in Venezuela that Bolivares are practically worthless as currency. (There's also a beautiful irony that painting a picture of Che Guevara on a Bolivar makes it more valuable.) Many of his pieces were portraits of people who crossed the Darién fleeing Venezuela. He seemed to have a story for all of them. Most of them were working-class folks, engineers, teachers, lawyers. He himself was a former oil engineer who left Venezuela because of the economic collapse. These stories made me really appreciate everything I take for granted.

[WarOnPrivacy]

> When I was in Bogotá last year, I met a Venezuelan man selling art ... Many of his pieces were portraits of people who crossed the Darién fleeing Venezuela.

Maybe I'm missing something.

Folks are fleeing Venezuela. They pass thru Columbia and crossed the Darién into Panama.

How did the guy in Bogotá meet people who crossed the Darién?

Edit: Never mind. I think you meant: portraits of people who were going to cross the Darién, now having fled Venezuela.

[jpcfl]

I don't think he met any of the people in the portraits personally. He said he learned of these people and their stories through social media, at least the ones we talked about.

[codeadict]

I crossed the Darien gap escaping from Cuba to the US. I still have nightmares about it 8 years later, the nature was impressing now that i think back and we found some nice/helpful communities there but got some kind of parasite on my feet from crossing a river and had to stay 10 days in a village taking herbs to continue the path.

[jpcfl]

Sounds awful. I hope the rest of your journey went more smoothly.

I just heard a story of a Venezuelan family who made it through the Darién gap relatively fine, but once they got to Mexico, they were detained by a man claiming to be a Federale. He extorted their cousin, who was living in the US, for thousands of dollars, saying that if she didn't pay, he would kill them.