ABOUT THAT DARIEN GAP

New York, October 28, 2013

DARIEN GAP TRIBULATIONS

While roaming in Google and other relevant websites, I found new information. The Panamanian National Police (effectively the country's army) has strict orders to prevent anyone from crossing overland from Panama to Columbia, which means getting through the Darien Gap.

Now next Winter's planned Darien Gap crossing seems more difficult. Apart from harsh territory and wild nature, and FARC rebels, I'd now also have to try avoiding contact with local authorities.

This won't be at totally new experience. Three times before I'd entered a country illegally, cashing borders by avoiding authorities. The first time by getting lost in north-western Afghanistan and accidentally entering Turkmenistan, from where I got out without detection by authorities, next by purposely crossing the Himalayas at Chang La, from western Nepal to get to Tibet's holy Lake Manosarowar and holy Mt. Kailash, and the third time from northern Togo into northern Benin in West Africa.

Each time these border crossings turned into a doozy of an adventure, in Turkmenistan by getting lost in a desert, wrecking the car, then repairing it in a little Turkmenistan village, in Tibet by becoming prisoners of the PLA (People's Liberation Army) for entering China illegally (described in my book A SHORT STINT IN TIBET), and in Benin in a boxing match with an officer for a "fun" resolution about how to deal with a border crasher (I lost and he let us — my wife Emilie and me — go).