WEBVTT - The Green Hell: Migration Through the Darién Gap 0:00:02.160 --> 0:00:02.920 The media. 0:00:12.160 --> 0:00:16.000 The most difficult part of the journey is when you 0:00:16.040 --> 0:00:19.520 are treking and you meet dead bodies on the road. 0:00:21.760 --> 0:00:28.560 It makes you weep, it makes you cry, but there's 0:00:28.600 --> 0:00:33.000 only one focus in the forest ahead. You have to 0:00:33.080 --> 0:00:41.080 keep going. You'll see mother's children. They are crying just 0:00:41.120 --> 0:00:49.600 to have a sip of water. It is not easy. 0:00:53.760 --> 0:00:56.200 A few weeks ago, I found myself sitting beside the 0:00:56.200 --> 0:00:59.840 Tuquesa River on a warm afternoon in late September, making 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:02.120 bill faces at a two months old baby as we 0:01:02.240 --> 0:01:06.720 both marveled at the cloud yellow butterflies. Anywhere else on earth, 0:01:06.800 --> 0:01:09.480 it could be in a dyllic summer day, But in 0:01:09.520 --> 0:01:11.800 these final steps, as a journey across the daddy and Gap, 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:14.760 it's hard to open up your mind to experience joy. 0:01:16.160 --> 0:01:18.240 I'd only been in the tiny Emberra village of Baho 0:01:18.319 --> 0:01:20.880 Jigito a couple of days, and I had already seen 0:01:20.920 --> 0:01:22.880 the lifeless body of a little girl, as though the 0:01:22.920 --> 0:01:26.440 migrants carried her into town. The river I was sleeping 0:01:26.440 --> 0:01:28.560 around him, with this group of migrants resting here in 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:31.360 the shade, had swept sleeping children to their deaths earlier 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:34.120 this year. An upstream of me, there were at least 0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:38.400 three people's remains here. It was shin deep, but crossing 0:01:38.440 --> 0:01:41.040 upstream where it's above head height and rages down out 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:44.360 of the mountains in steep ravines. Was the migrants I 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:47.400 walked back to town with told me the stuff of nightmares. 0:01:48.040 --> 0:01:50.240 The voice you just heard was a migrant from Cameroon 0:01:50.240 --> 0:01:53.640 who called himself James. That's not his real name, and 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:56.520 astute listeners will have noticed that it is my real name, 0:01:57.120 --> 0:01:59.640 but for the protection of James and his family, it's 0:01:59.640 --> 0:02:03.200 a name be using when I met James. We're in 0:02:03.240 --> 0:02:06.280 a migrant reception center called Las Blancas, to the north 0:02:06.320 --> 0:02:09.600 of the Darien Gap. To get there, one has to 0:02:09.600 --> 0:02:12.760 take a dugout canoe called a piragua from Bajo Jaquito. 0:02:13.800 --> 0:02:16.840 The voyage takes five hours, and for that five hours, 0:02:16.880 --> 0:02:19.760 migrants are packed fifteen to a boat wearing bright orange 0:02:19.800 --> 0:02:23.040 life jackets. They share the boat with nembra piraguero who 0:02:23.040 --> 0:02:24.919 sit at the back driving the boat with a two 0:02:24.919 --> 0:02:27.720 stroke motor, and a guide who sits on the front, 0:02:28.040 --> 0:02:30.160 using a pole when necessary to push the boat through 0:02:30.200 --> 0:02:33.560 shallow sections. The Umbra people are indigenous to the area 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:36.200 that's commonly known as the Daliang Gap, or at least 0:02:36.400 --> 0:02:39.000 to this part of it and the tiny Embrea village 0:02:39.000 --> 0:02:42.120 of Bajo Jaquito. It's a first settlement migrants encounter is 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:44.359 they emerge from the perilous crossing of the jungle that 0:02:44.440 --> 0:02:48.440 divides Central America from South America and thousands of people 0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:52.200 from a better future. There's a morale patch that the 0:02:52.240 --> 0:02:55.480 Panamanian Border Patrol and military were on their uniforms There 0:02:55.480 --> 0:03:01.680 reflects a slogan in a government messaging campaign darien asuna Jungla. 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:05.040 It says. The campaign was launched in August, and it 0:03:05.040 --> 0:03:07.880 translates to the darinessn't a route or maybe a roads 0:03:07.880 --> 0:03:13.080 a better translation, it's a jungle. Obviously it's actually both, 0:03:13.919 --> 0:03:15.919 but this is like no route. Most of us will 0:03:15.960 --> 0:03:18.799 be familiar with. The dark and foreboding jungle I saw 0:03:18.840 --> 0:03:21.520 in Bahajigito is one of the most impenetrable on Earth, 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:24.600 and the crossing of it is among the most dangerous 0:03:24.680 --> 0:03:28.480 land migration routes. In the nineteen seventies, the British Army 0:03:28.520 --> 0:03:30.919 sent its most experienced explorers to find a way through 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:34.960 the gap. Their commander called the gap a god forsaken place. 0:03:35.520 --> 0:03:39.480 Today migrants have their own names for it, Dete or 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:44.240 sometimes the Green Hell. Here's a group from Cameroon explaining 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:46.600 why they didn't see a future there and they decided 0:03:46.640 --> 0:03:48.120 to take this dangerous route. 0:03:48.280 --> 0:03:51.560 We are coming from Cameroon. I'm my name is Flowers. 0:03:52.240 --> 0:03:54.320 There's a lot of crisis in our country. The civil 0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:57.200 war going on in Cameroon right now because of our president. 0:03:57.280 --> 0:04:00.240 President Pombia has been in part over forty two years. 0:04:00.560 --> 0:04:03.840 So I was the anglophone. We started revolting for him 0:04:03.840 --> 0:04:08.520 to step down because he doesn't develop the Southern American Sorry, 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:13.320 the English section of Cameroon anglerphone. Yeah, the anglophone sections 0:04:13.560 --> 0:04:16.120 revolt ins that you was selling the military and it's 0:04:16.240 --> 0:04:19.760 killing the citizens of our country. There's a lot of hardship, 0:04:19.800 --> 0:04:22.039 a lot of that. Eye for one, I've lost everybody, 0:04:22.440 --> 0:04:24.440 a lot of my family, my mom, my dad, my 0:04:24.520 --> 0:04:27.800 two brothers, and I'm the only one left so things 0:04:27.839 --> 0:04:30.719 and there is no job. I've completed school, but there's 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:33.120 nothing for me to do. So that's why it decided to. 0:04:33.160 --> 0:04:37.679 Mygrae to get to Baho Jikito from Columbia. It's James 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:40.160 and other migrants did. There's no road you can take. 0:04:40.920 --> 0:04:43.880 You can't even take a boat or a train. Instead, 0:04:44.120 --> 0:04:46.960 you have to walk the Darying Gap, an area of 0:04:47.080 --> 0:04:50.320 rainforested mountains, so it's one of the most dangerous migration 0:04:50.480 --> 0:04:54.719 routes in the world. For anywhere between two and fifteen days, 0:04:55.279 --> 0:04:58.159 migrants trek through waste time mud rivers deeper than they 0:04:58.200 --> 0:05:02.760 are at all. They must im giant boulders, cross perilous ravines, 0:05:03.160 --> 0:05:07.000 and traverse sheer cliff faces, all of this with barely 0:05:07.080 --> 0:05:10.159 any water than what they can carry, little to no food, 0:05:10.800 --> 0:05:15.599 inadequate clothing, a terrible footwear, and no medical attention. They 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:18.440 must walk past dead bodies and past people who might 0:05:18.520 --> 0:05:21.680 soon become dead bodies as they beg for help. They 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:25.640 carry their children, their dreams, and sometimes each other across 0:05:25.720 --> 0:05:29.360 mountains and rivers, and in bau Jiquito they take what, 0:05:29.520 --> 0:05:31.480 for many of them will be the final steps of 0:05:31.560 --> 0:05:35.080 this part of their journey. It's a journey that few 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:37.400 of us can imagine, and they were lucky to be 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:40.760 able to avoid. My own migration to the US sixteen 0:05:40.839 --> 0:05:44.600 years ago was much simpler and safer, But for migrants 0:05:44.680 --> 0:05:47.800 like James, the journey's worth it because what they're leaving 0:05:47.839 --> 0:05:51.520 behind is worse. Here's James describing the situation in the 0:05:51.560 --> 0:05:52.360 state of Cameroon. 0:05:53.680 --> 0:05:55.479 The situation in Cameroon is. 0:05:57.520 --> 0:06:02.920 How can I pity, Very very, very very difficult, especially 0:06:03.320 --> 0:06:09.520 in the Anglophone part of the country. Yeah, because for 0:06:10.240 --> 0:06:16.640 about five to six years there's a world ongoing war 0:06:16.760 --> 0:06:18.000 in the anglophone. 0:06:17.520 --> 0:06:19.200 Crisis we are. 0:06:19.279 --> 0:06:24.279 So they have been there has been fighting, has been shooting, killings. 0:06:26.680 --> 0:06:33.960 I myself speaking to you, Yeah, I've been targeted. My 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:42.400 cousin was shot and with his husband were shot together. 0:06:42.960 --> 0:06:43.839 Both of them. 0:06:45.240 --> 0:06:50.000 Were nursis and they were shot by the army that 0:06:50.120 --> 0:06:54.320 were there to protect the people. So the situation back 0:06:54.400 --> 0:07:00.760 at home, it's very very tense, Yeah, very very tense. 0:07:01.880 --> 0:07:06.799 When you see most of Camaronians traveling taking the Rigspath 0:07:06.960 --> 0:07:11.120 from Columbia Brazy right up to where I am. 0:07:12.000 --> 0:07:14.880 It is not because they like it. It's because of 0:07:14.920 --> 0:07:16.240 the situation back at. 0:07:16.160 --> 0:07:18.680 Home and most of it, and most of the time 0:07:19.640 --> 0:07:22.040 it is the anglophone population that is suffering. 0:07:22.560 --> 0:07:25.120 Most of them. They choose this part because they will 0:07:25.200 --> 0:07:27.120 not have a direct result to America. 0:07:27.640 --> 0:07:28.720 It's very hard to get one way. 0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:31.360 Yes, it's very very difficult. So they have to use 0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:33.440 the hard way, which is the only way. 0:07:34.520 --> 0:07:38.360 The truth is dead bodies, terrible stories, and families celebrating 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:40.920 the end of their work. It's nothing out of the ordinary. 0:07:40.920 --> 0:07:44.240 And Babu Jikito, the Enbarra town, with the population of 0:07:44.320 --> 0:07:46.680 just five hundred and ninety, it's a place I've been 0:07:46.720 --> 0:07:48.600 trying to come to for almost as long as I've 0:07:48.640 --> 0:07:51.720 been writing about migration. There are a few stories in 0:07:51.760 --> 0:07:53.640 my time as a journalist that I've been pitching for 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:56.800 close to a decade. Most of the time I give 0:07:56.880 --> 0:07:58.640 up if there are no bites after a few months. 0:07:59.280 --> 0:08:01.240 And that's why you won't see me right about the 0:08:01.280 --> 0:08:03.680 people who tried to hire mercenaries to intimidate voters in 0:08:03.720 --> 0:08:06.560 twenty twenty, or the Burmese rebels who if I did 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:09.360 their revolution with co op produced tea or a surfing 0:08:09.400 --> 0:08:12.320 team in the Gaza strip, And on reflection, you probably 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:16.080 won't hear about that last one anywhere. Now. The media 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:19.000 cycle has a way of coming around to these stories eventually, sure, 0:08:19.120 --> 0:08:20.920 but I not really want to go back to what 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:22.880 it is who didn't give a shit about people before 0:08:22.960 --> 0:08:25.280 and only care about their stories now because they get 0:08:25.320 --> 0:08:28.480 more traffic. But there's one story I've never given up on. 0:08:29.160 --> 0:08:31.440 That's the story of a daddy en gap and the 0:08:31.520 --> 0:08:33.760 people who risk their lives crossing it for a shot 0:08:33.840 --> 0:08:36.800 at the American dream. And at this point I do 0:08:36.880 --> 0:08:38.880 want to ignolize. I'm incredibly grateful to the people I 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:41.040 work with for trusting me when I asked them to 0:08:41.080 --> 0:08:43.000 pay for me to disappear in a dugout canoe into 0:08:43.040 --> 0:08:45.839 the jungle and come back two weeks later with a story. 0:08:47.240 --> 0:08:49.599 The daddy and looms in the stories of migrants I 0:08:49.640 --> 0:08:51.720 meet in the US border as a sort of heart 0:08:51.760 --> 0:08:55.000 of darkness on what is a very difficult and dangerous journey. 0:08:56.000 --> 0:08:58.480 It's worse than the freight trains they hop on in Mexico, 0:08:59.080 --> 0:09:02.319 worse in the crowded worse even than the months of 0:09:02.440 --> 0:09:06.079 waiting for an asylum appointment. I firly believe that you 0:09:06.200 --> 0:09:10.600 can't really understand and write about things you haven't seen, smelt, 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:13.559 and heard. So for years I've been asking theeed it 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:15.200 is to send me to the tiny and but our 0:09:15.240 --> 0:09:18.199 community on the banks of the river, so that I 0:09:18.240 --> 0:09:20.800 could share the final steps of this horrific journey with 0:09:20.920 --> 0:09:22.920 the people who see little option but to risk their 0:09:22.960 --> 0:09:26.640 lives for a better future for their children. Because the 0:09:26.800 --> 0:09:30.679 US refuses to create more legal pathways, people instead take 0:09:30.720 --> 0:09:33.040 a sudden pathway straight up and down the mountains to 0:09:33.080 --> 0:09:36.599 the Darian rainforest. The journey will take them past the 0:09:36.679 --> 0:09:39.920 corpse into people who never left. The terrain is too 0:09:40.040 --> 0:09:42.720 fierce for anyone to carry their remains out, so they 0:09:42.800 --> 0:09:45.079 must simply rut there as a reminder to migrants, so 0:09:45.120 --> 0:09:48.040 they must keep going. It's a sort of deterrent through 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:50.600 death that has been the unofficial and official US border 0:09:50.640 --> 0:09:54.040 policy for decades. To turn or not. Once you're in 0:09:54.080 --> 0:09:56.559 the Darien, there's no turning back, and the lack of 0:09:56.720 --> 0:10:00.160 escape routes has made the gap popular among criminals who 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:03.880 commit untold numbers of sexual assaults, murders, and armed robberies 0:10:03.920 --> 0:10:07.600 every year in the jungle. Despite this, more than half 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:10.439 a million migrants made the perilous journey last year, and 0:10:10.520 --> 0:10:12.400 it's many, if not more, will do so this year. 0:10:13.559 --> 0:10:15.600 Do you understand the Daddy and you have to first 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:18.800 understand US immigration policy, which is something I talk about 0:10:18.800 --> 0:10:21.480 a lot on this podcast. I want to include here 0:10:21.520 --> 0:10:24.160 a clip from Amos, a migrant from North Africa who 0:10:24.240 --> 0:10:26.120 met my friends and helped them build shelters in u 0:10:26.160 --> 0:10:29.800 Cumba last year, explaining his journey to the United States. 0:10:30.480 --> 0:10:34.520 So another route right now, which is a difficult route, 0:10:34.600 --> 0:10:38.640 is through Brazil because Brazil has a I don't know 0:10:38.760 --> 0:10:43.000 if you guys know, and I think they do that 0:10:43.080 --> 0:10:47.240 for Americans too. Yeah, so Brazil has sort of I 0:10:47.280 --> 0:10:49.360 don't know the word, but the equivalent to them is 0:10:49.400 --> 0:10:53.360 if you impose of his own Brazil Brazilians were imposed 0:10:53.360 --> 0:10:56.000 of his own news. They do that to Americans too, So. 0:10:58.200 --> 0:10:58.959 You know where I'm from. 0:10:59.040 --> 0:11:02.600 They don't have a visa to uh as far as 0:11:02.960 --> 0:11:05.719 for Brazilians, so we don't. So a lot of Africans 0:11:05.880 --> 0:11:09.280 can go to Brazil and from Brazil take the the 0:11:09.400 --> 0:11:10.640 route all the way. 0:11:11.080 --> 0:11:14.199 That game was James couldn't fly here directly that he 0:11:14.360 --> 0:11:15.719 was able to get a little bit closer to the 0:11:15.840 --> 0:11:18.640 US by flying to Columbia. I'll let him explain how 0:11:18.679 --> 0:11:19.360 he pulled that off. 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:25.079 For me to have a pass to Colombia, it was 0:11:25.200 --> 0:11:30.599 not easy, so we had we had to There was 0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:34.120 a female female on that twenty World Cup that was 0:11:35.880 --> 0:11:39.480 that was taking place in Colombia, so we had to 0:11:39.600 --> 0:11:43.880 go to Columbia as football fans. That's why they had 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:47.920 they had to give us our visa is all right. 0:11:47.960 --> 0:11:52.040 From Colombia, we'll find our way out of the airport to. 0:11:54.000 --> 0:11:54.960 Where we are today. 0:11:56.120 --> 0:12:00.319 Most continental America. We'll have to travel to Brazil, just 0:12:00.440 --> 0:12:03.560 like Amos. Here's one ac Can. I'll let the speakers 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:04.360 introduce himselves. 0:12:05.520 --> 0:12:07.880 My name is Tom, I m I'm from Idan. 0:12:09.600 --> 0:12:11.000 My name is mohade for. 0:12:11.080 --> 0:12:14.079 Omran, my name is Ali, and I'm from Idan. 0:12:14.800 --> 0:12:17.559 They told me why they left Irun. But I'm sure 0:12:17.600 --> 0:12:19.000 many di could wear that went out of yourself, so 0:12:19.040 --> 0:12:21.680 we weren't included here. How did you come from Iran 0:12:21.840 --> 0:12:23.760 to hear you got for Turkey? 0:12:24.600 --> 0:12:31.160 It was so difficult, and we came from Iran, Tehran 0:12:31.559 --> 0:12:36.400 to Dubai. After that, saub all of Brazil and after 0:12:36.480 --> 0:12:42.920 that Believe Peru, Ejuador, Colombia and Nkokley and Jungle Panama 0:12:43.240 --> 0:12:47.480 Here Panama. And it was so difficult for us because 0:12:47.960 --> 0:12:53.320 we are young. We just leave our family, my sister, 0:12:53.640 --> 0:12:57.240 my mother, father. It was so emotional, Yeah, and it 0:12:57.400 --> 0:13:00.000 was so hard for us. But because of the freedom, 0:13:00.240 --> 0:13:03.320 because we can't speak in our country. You know, if 0:13:03.400 --> 0:13:06.679 you speaking in your in the street, something like it 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:11.719 they will arrest you. And yeah, Jai, when you are 0:13:11.840 --> 0:13:15.920 not Muslim, when you really like something like a Christian 0:13:16.120 --> 0:13:20.839 or something else, theres Yes, it was. It was so so, 0:13:21.360 --> 0:13:25.240 so so difficult living in Iran, but it's a it's 0:13:25.280 --> 0:13:27.840 a wonderful country, but not government. 0:13:28.720 --> 0:13:30.920 When I talk to migrants, I always want to offer 0:13:30.960 --> 0:13:32.959 them the chance to share their stories in ways that 0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:36.360 they want to share them. And I asked them what 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:38.640 they would want to say if they could talk directly 0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:41.480 to Americans. It's a question I asked a lot, because 0:13:41.520 --> 0:13:43.720 in all the coverage of migration I've seen in this country, 0:13:44.120 --> 0:13:47.959 I rarely see migrants' voices. I'm very familiar with being 0:13:47.960 --> 0:13:49.760 the only journalist in a place, and I'd be lying 0:13:49.760 --> 0:13:51.959 if I said I didn't prefer it that way. But 0:13:52.640 --> 0:13:54.880 I do always feel obliged to use the platform I 0:13:54.960 --> 0:13:57.520 have here to give people a chance to share their stories, 0:13:57.720 --> 0:14:00.840 their voices, and their struggles. So he's their message. 0:14:01.640 --> 0:14:03.400 We love you, hope too, you love this? 0:14:03.760 --> 0:14:05.400 Yeah, that's hard question. 0:14:06.320 --> 0:14:09.920 Yeah, Yeah, I think that's very good. 0:14:10.960 --> 0:14:14.199 It will be our next home, and we should be 0:14:15.120 --> 0:14:17.360 proud of that. We should be bored for that, we 0:14:17.440 --> 0:14:21.800 should be real, real American for the concert. 0:14:22.200 --> 0:14:28.160 Yeah, they know women are very bad situations, have a 0:14:28.320 --> 0:14:29.640 bad situation in Iran. 0:14:29.960 --> 0:14:33.040 Yeah, for all people, that is. 0:14:35.360 --> 0:14:39.600 Saying, but for women is very, very, very hard. I 0:14:39.680 --> 0:14:46.320 think American people know about masa Amini. Yeah, and they 0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:52.640 really they chill us, really, they chill women for simple things. 0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:57.400 I heard hundreds of stories like this in my time 0:14:57.480 --> 0:15:00.360 about how Jiqito and the last blankat migrant reception center 0:15:00.480 --> 0:15:03.160 that migrants traveled to after they arrive in Bajo Chiquito. 0:15:03.760 --> 0:15:07.720 People left horrific things behind them and saw horrific things 0:15:07.800 --> 0:15:10.960 on their journey, but they all remained hopeful for a 0:15:11.000 --> 0:15:21.600 better future in America. These journeys, in some cases, can 0:15:21.680 --> 0:15:24.520 take a year or more. One napoly man I met 0:15:24.560 --> 0:15:27.600 in Bajajuquito had spent thirty months just to get that far, 0:15:28.480 --> 0:15:31.160 and among his group, his journey had been the fastest. 0:15:32.840 --> 0:15:35.760 As long as these journeys are, that darien often stems 0:15:35.760 --> 0:15:39.640 out as the hardest part to understand. Why I want 0:15:39.680 --> 0:15:41.360 to take you back to that shady spot by the 0:15:41.440 --> 0:15:45.080 river just a few minutes south of Bajo Juquito. So 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:47.480 what I'm doing right now, as you can hear from 0:15:47.520 --> 0:15:49.480 my footsteps, is I'm doing what it told me not 0:15:49.600 --> 0:15:52.680 to do. I'm walking along the migrant trail. Lots of 0:15:52.760 --> 0:15:58.880 like vines and creepers, and oh fucking hell, that's me 0:15:59.000 --> 0:16:03.440 el eating shit. There's little bits of tape marking a trail. 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:07.720 I think they just come down the river here. Some 0:16:07.840 --> 0:16:10.080 local guys are pushing out wheelbarrows on the trail to 0:16:10.160 --> 0:16:15.160 dump trash. The's trash everywhere, to fucking mess the little 0:16:15.200 --> 0:16:17.760 wood arrows that they've carved just outside town to direct 0:16:17.800 --> 0:16:21.000 people into town. And if I heard, I can see 0:16:21.040 --> 0:16:24.680 migrants making what's probably hopefully their final crossing of the 0:16:24.800 --> 0:16:28.160 river here. One thing I noticed was that as soon 0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:29.680 as I got out of sight in near shot of 0:16:29.720 --> 0:16:33.960 the town, the jungle seems a lot more intimidating. Somebody 0:16:34.040 --> 0:16:35.680 spends a lot of time in the mountains, and I 0:16:35.760 --> 0:16:38.920 grew up playing in the woods. I'm comfortable outdoors, and 0:16:39.000 --> 0:16:41.120 I frequently camp and hike for days on my own. 0:16:41.680 --> 0:16:44.080 I like it better that way, and I might see 0:16:44.120 --> 0:16:46.520 more comfortable forty feet under the seed free diving, or 0:16:46.640 --> 0:16:48.240 three hours from the nearest road. Then I'm in a 0:16:48.280 --> 0:16:51.680 busy city sometimes, but in the jungle. After all the 0:16:51.720 --> 0:16:56.840 stories I'd heard that week. I was afraid. I get scary. 0:16:56.920 --> 0:17:01.000 I don't know why. I mean, everything's new to me. I'm, 0:17:02.000 --> 0:17:07.760 you know, relatively comfortable in the outdoors. But fucking there's 0:17:07.840 --> 0:17:10.480 new animals, there's new plants. I don't know what's poisonous. 0:17:10.840 --> 0:17:12.440 I don't know what's going to kill me. I don't 0:17:12.480 --> 0:17:15.280 know who's going to try and hurt me. Got another 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:18.679 fucking RF Jesus wept. I'm jumping out my skin. Everything 0:17:18.760 --> 0:17:29.680 Now it's funny. I'm in a place that's beautiful, you know, 0:17:29.840 --> 0:17:34.400 like these better paradise plants are just just growing here, gorgeousness. 0:17:34.680 --> 0:17:39.680 Horses belong to people of the Mbah community. I suppose 0:17:41.359 --> 0:17:46.439 having snacks, you know, eating jungle horse food. And here 0:17:46.480 --> 0:17:49.240 here I am at the river. It's wide here, it's 0:17:49.280 --> 0:17:51.840 sort of shallow, and it's been dammed up a little 0:17:51.840 --> 0:17:53.960 bit with rubbish, just like flocks and and jets some 0:17:54.080 --> 0:17:54.600 kind of stuff. 0:17:55.280 --> 0:17:55.760 And then. 0:17:57.440 --> 0:17:59.199 This is where people cross because of that little dam. 0:17:59.240 --> 0:18:01.560 But it's still got some to it, like you wouldn't 0:18:01.600 --> 0:18:04.399 want to fall and crack your head or you know, 0:18:04.400 --> 0:18:08.040 a lot of these folks can't swim even without the fear. 0:18:08.080 --> 0:18:11.080 It's hard going. If you've only hiked on trails, you 0:18:11.160 --> 0:18:13.359 probably don't realize how much work goes into making that 0:18:13.480 --> 0:18:16.879 surface possible. There are no trail crews in the Darien, 0:18:17.440 --> 0:18:19.720 and as a result, every step has the potential to 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:22.560 results in a sprained ankle or another injury, which might 0:18:22.680 --> 0:18:25.479 sound trivial but can be faithal in such a remote 0:18:25.520 --> 0:18:30.160 and challenging place. Trail is all rocks, like maybe rocks 0:18:30.200 --> 0:18:33.480 the size of a fift like that way now, and 0:18:33.560 --> 0:18:36.040 then there are sort of in this area we only 0:18:36.080 --> 0:18:38.880 have the lower canopy, so we have ferns, we have reeds, 0:18:40.040 --> 0:18:42.359 bamboo plants growing really tall and straight, that's what they 0:18:42.440 --> 0:18:44.600 use for the poles that the pit our words, and 0:18:44.760 --> 0:18:49.159 then sort of low grassy kind of plants. And then 0:18:49.200 --> 0:18:51.520 where the migrants walk is just this muddy trail that 0:18:51.640 --> 0:18:54.240 every time it raine just turns into like ankle to 0:18:54.359 --> 0:18:57.800 knee deep mud. And I could see them making pretty 0:18:57.840 --> 0:19:01.159 slow progress along the trail towards me. At the end 0:19:01.160 --> 0:19:03.080 of the day, as I took a pedagua back to 0:19:03.160 --> 0:19:06.040 Madagan Tea, where I would be staying the night, I 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:09.399 reflected again on this an incredible tenacity it took for 0:19:09.480 --> 0:19:12.520 people with little outdoor experience and terrible equipment to pass 0:19:12.560 --> 0:19:15.600 through the jungle. You know, I'm a fit person. I 0:19:15.680 --> 0:19:18.400 run ultramarathons. It used to be exercised for a living. 0:19:18.480 --> 0:19:23.880 And it's fucking hard. It's wet. Everything's wet all the time. 0:19:23.920 --> 0:19:29.159 If you're wet from the rain, then you're wet. If 0:19:29.160 --> 0:19:30.879 you're wet from the sweat and you're wet. If you 0:19:31.000 --> 0:19:33.240 cross rivers, you get wet. You just can't stay dry. 0:19:34.119 --> 0:19:37.360 And everyone's feet are just fucked when they get into town, 0:19:37.440 --> 0:19:41.240 Like the size of the blisters I've seen, and like 0:19:41.400 --> 0:19:44.320 one lady had a cramp today where like it just 0:19:44.440 --> 0:19:46.320 locked up a whole that she like, I grabbed her. 0:19:46.480 --> 0:19:49.280 She was falling down and I was able to hold 0:19:49.320 --> 0:19:53.159 her up. But people are really pushing themselves physically as 0:19:53.240 --> 0:19:58.600 well as psychologically. That river crossing south of Bachigiso was 0:19:58.640 --> 0:20:00.160 as far south as I was going to be able 0:20:00.200 --> 0:20:02.320 to get without being forced to be adjacted from Panama, 0:20:03.000 --> 0:20:05.280 and my request to take a boat or walk further 0:20:05.400 --> 0:20:09.119 south was denied by the Panamanian Ministry of Security. So 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:11.160 the only part of the migrants journey I would share 0:20:11.200 --> 0:20:13.359 with them, with the last kilometer or so of their 0:20:13.440 --> 0:20:17.440 walk even then, I wasn't really supposed to be leaving 0:20:17.480 --> 0:20:20.240 town at all, So several times over the days I 0:20:20.280 --> 0:20:23.480 spent in Bajajigito, I would look over my shoulder, hop 0:20:23.560 --> 0:20:26.520 down the river bank, jump across the stream, and likely 0:20:26.640 --> 0:20:29.960 jog out of town. Once on the trail, I'd started 0:20:30.000 --> 0:20:33.400 to walk slowly and try and waive a groups outcoming migrants. 0:20:34.080 --> 0:20:36.200 I didn't want to scare them. I offered to carry 0:20:36.200 --> 0:20:39.040 their bags and let any help I could, supporting them 0:20:39.200 --> 0:20:41.680 as they walked towards their first meal and clean drink 0:20:41.720 --> 0:21:03.440 of water. In up to a week. Just getting to 0:21:03.520 --> 0:21:06.280 barje Gito was a journey in itself for me. I 0:21:06.359 --> 0:21:09.840 took two flights, a five hour drive which was evenally 0:21:09.840 --> 0:21:13.240 split between paved roads, roads that aspired to pavement, and 0:21:13.320 --> 0:21:16.080 dirt roads. At the end of our road journey, the 0:21:16.160 --> 0:21:19.879 Pan American Highway, the links Alaska to Argentina, seems to 0:21:19.920 --> 0:21:23.840 give up on fighting the jungle and Peter's out. Asphalt 0:21:24.040 --> 0:21:27.000 turned to worse asphalt, which turned to dirt, which turned 0:21:27.040 --> 0:21:30.879 to mud, which led us to a river. A driver, however, 0:21:31.400 --> 0:21:35.040 was prepared for this. The drive here was mad, like 0:21:35.160 --> 0:21:37.640 that road was fucked. We're in this tiny old guard. 0:21:37.680 --> 0:21:40.120 The driver took off his shoes and socks to conduct 0:21:40.359 --> 0:21:43.520 the more technical section of the drive, which I thought 0:21:43.600 --> 0:21:47.680 was quite amusing. And yeah, really steep, lots of holes, 0:21:47.760 --> 0:21:51.600 lots of potholes, you know, just really rutted out kind 0:21:51.600 --> 0:21:54.959 of dirt road. And then we got here and thopped 0:21:55.040 --> 0:21:58.240 some guys, negotiated a price and told him where we 0:21:58.280 --> 0:22:00.800 wanted to go, and they said, yeah, sure, buy some water, 0:22:01.000 --> 0:22:04.040 you know, snow water on the way about three hours 0:22:04.119 --> 0:22:07.800 and so we bought some water right there, and yeah, 0:22:07.840 --> 0:22:11.879 here we are on the boat now, as you can hear, 0:22:12.119 --> 0:22:14.399 I recorded this on a piragua. It's a kind of 0:22:14.440 --> 0:22:17.040 dugout canoe with the hole made out of a single 0:22:17.119 --> 0:22:19.640 tree and a tooth stroke motor bolted on the back. 0:22:20.560 --> 0:22:22.399 It's the only way to travel here other than on 0:22:22.480 --> 0:22:25.760 your feet, and it's the only way the Embarra can 0:22:25.800 --> 0:22:30.000 get the produced cigaret to market. The skill of the piragueros, 0:22:30.200 --> 0:22:33.600 the people who drive the piraguas, is incredible. They navigate 0:22:33.680 --> 0:22:35.280 parts of the river so shallow that they have to 0:22:35.320 --> 0:22:38.000 pull up the two stroke motor. And I noticed all 0:22:38.000 --> 0:22:40.840 the motors have propellers that are covered in chips and bashes, 0:22:41.119 --> 0:22:43.879 from smacking into the rocks at the bottom. In the 0:22:43.960 --> 0:22:45.879 bow of the boat, I sat on top of my 0:22:45.960 --> 0:22:50.600 giant rucksack, marveling at the birds, insects, and foliage of 0:22:50.680 --> 0:22:54.320 the jungle, and occasionally I jumped up to make fairly 0:22:54.400 --> 0:22:57.520 useless contributions with the boat's bamboo pole under the close 0:22:57.560 --> 0:23:00.639 supervision of Marcellino, a driver and are soon to be 0:23:00.720 --> 0:23:03.120 host for mostly just laughed at me as I leaned 0:23:03.160 --> 0:23:05.600 my whole way into the pole, which notably slipped, and 0:23:05.680 --> 0:23:08.119 I tried to avoid falling face first into the chocolate 0:23:08.160 --> 0:23:12.200 brown water. On the way to bout Jiquito, we passed 0:23:12.240 --> 0:23:15.800