Crossing the Darien Gap

Sooner or later the road runs out, and for North and Central America that happens in Panama at the start of the Darien Gaphttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dari%C3%A9n_Gap. This 200km stretch of jungle is all but impenetrable, with jungle, swamp, mountains, with everything from malaria infested mosquitos to paramilitary rebels and drug runners preventing most people from even entering it. Not a fun place. Although a few hard adventures have have made it through by floating their Land Rover over swamps on rafts made from dug out canoes or carrying their motorbikes through the jungle and hand winching them up and down mountain sides, for all intents and purposes it's pretty much impossible. The first all-land crossing in a vehicle took place over 1985 - 86 and took more than 700 days to cover 125 miles. The vast majority of overland travellers are a bit more sensible and ship their vehicles either by sea or by air.

**Read the full story here: ** http://hasselmann.wordpress.com/2011/12/06/crossing-the-darien-gap/