A Walk on the Wild Side – Almost!
John Middleton
The Darien Gap is a wilderness region of untamed tropical rainforest, swamp, and low mountains situated on the border between Panama and Colombia. It remains such a wilderness because modern technology has not yet made it feasible for the Pan American Highway to traverse the region. This 150 km gap is the only break in its relentless roll from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. Most travellers prefer to fly around this obstacle but there is another way, to walk.
It was hot; the road was pitted with potholes; the knee high sidewalks strewn with obstacles; ‘salsa’ music blasted forth from a multitude of cafes; mystifying scents assailed our nostrils; questionable characters lolled lazily against walls. This was Turbo, a Colombian wild west frontier town exuding atmosphere, excitement, and danger!
We arrived at dusk and by the time it had become dark we had most definitely decided that Turbo was far too exciting for us! We learnt in that short period that two of the boatmen who cross the Gulf of Turbo had been killed that day, that guerrillas now controlled most of the villages on the far side, and that another group was rrraking frequent raids on the only other road out of town. In the morning we rehired our battered Cuban jeep, drove the ten hours back to Cartegena, caught a flight to Panama City and decided to do as much of the walk as we could from that end.
DAY 1. El Real is the normal start for this adventure. It is an attractive roadless community of perhaps a hundred wooden houses on stilts situated close to the Rio Tuira. It is possible to walk from here but usually, because of its proximity to the river, it is normal to hire a motorised canoe for the first days journey. The five hour trip upriver is forever interesting with passing scenery constantly changing between banana plantations, secondary forest, and Choco Indian villages. Boca de Cupe was our destination for the night. It is also roadless but does contain a couple of bars and shops. There is no hotel but we stayed in our boatman’s ‘bunkhouse’ and his wife kindly cooked for us (fried plantains, rice, chilli sauce, and a local bread).
DAY 2. The river route now switches to the smaller Rio Pucuro which is followed for as far as the depth of water will allow. In our case, about three hours. It is then possible to pick up a path on the right hand side of the river (going upstream) which is then traversed for a further hour to the first purely Cuna Indian village of Pucuro. It is an impressive place. There are perhaps thirty well spaced houses, each made of split bamboo walls and palm leaf roofs. Inside is just one room which covers all the family’s needs. The floor is compact dry mud and is kept scrupulously clean. Outside, friendly children run around together with a good selection of pigs and chickens all being supervised by short attractive women in brightly patterned dresses, locally made necklaces, and body paintings. In between supervising, the women thresh and grind corn by hand and crush sugar cane. It is necessary to visit the headman out of both respect and to seek accommodation – the latter being provided by one of the families with a larger house. Casava was a tasty addition to our diet here.
DAY 3. The route commences with a complete soaking as the river has to be crossed immediately. The path then follows the water for roughly four hours through secondary and then some superb primary forest to a further crossing of the river. We bivouaced here as we wished to explore this beautiful area further.
DAY 4. A further start with a river crossing and a rather tougher track which is both smaller and much muddier. However, it is only four hours before the next Cuna village of Paya is reached. This is situated in an incredibly beautiful setting on a raised river meander surrounded by superb forest and dotted with coconut palms. As Paya is quite close to the Colombian border there is a small military post about three kilometres from the village and all travellers should report here.
DAY 5. We had brought our own guide and any party without one should hire one of the villagers for the next section to the border as the trail is virtually none existent. The route, after again getting a soaking in the river, is through the best forest yet, it is also the toughest with much scrambling in mud! It took us a hard three hours to reach the border at Palo de Lettres, a weathered concrete block in the middle of a small clearing. We made a short foray into Colombia. It was, however, as well that it was short as when we returned to Paya two local hunters said that they had spotted a group of about thirty guerrillas just half an hour down the trail.
From the border, in safer times, walkers continue to Cristales, a name for just a couple of huts, hire a boat to go down the Rio Cacarica, onto the Rio Atrata, across the Gulf of Turbo, and so to Turbo, our original starting point; a journey of a couple more days. For obvious reasons we returned the way we had come without incident. At Pucuro we talked the villagers into helping us construct two balsa wood rafts so that we could ‘punt’ back to Boca de Cupe. It took nine arduous hours but the hilarity and scenery made the journey quite stupendous.
On our return to El Real we then walked into the Piri mountains where the Spanish once mined gold. These hills are breathtakingly beautiful and because the altitude reaches 1,200m many differing forest zones can be experienced. A worthwhile deviation and for naturalists, a must – here we found fresh Jaguar droppings, saw monkeys, sloths, snakes, and an abundance of bird life kcluding my first wild Macaws.
Crossing the Darien is not particularly arduous but it can definitely be classed as a wilderness adventure. Even El Real which can be reached by small planes feels as if it is a million miles from anywhere. The highhghts must be the forest diversity and its inhabitants, meeting and living with the Indians, and the cameraderie between us four friends and our guide. An excellent grasp of Spanish is needed for boat and guide hiring negotiations.
Postscript. A month after we had returned it was given out over the BBC International Service that guerrillas had mounted an attack on Turbo and whilst the mihtary had repulsed them some 23 persons were killed.
For more information see
‘Great Walks of the World’ by John Cleare.
‘Lonely Planet Travel Survival Kit Colombia.’
‘Hundred Days of the Darien’ by Russel Braddon.