WEBVTT - CZM Rewind: The Green Hell: Migration Through the Darién Gap 0:00:02.120 --> 0:00:06.200 The media. 0:00:12.119 --> 0:00:15.920 The most difficult part of the journey is when you 0:00:16.000 --> 0:00:19.480 are treking and you meet dead bodies on the road. 0:00:21.720 --> 0:00:28.520 It makes you weep, it makes you cry, but there's 0:00:28.560 --> 0:00:32.960 only one focus in the forest ahead. You have to 0:00:33.040 --> 0:00:41.000 keep going. You'll see mother's children. They are crying just 0:00:41.080 --> 0:00:49.559 to have a sip of water. It is not easy. 0:00:53.680 --> 0:00:56.160 A few weeks ago, I found myself sitting beside the 0:00:56.160 --> 0:00:59.800 Tuquesa River on a warm afternoon in late September, making 0:01:00.200 --> 0:01:02.400 faces at a two months old baby as we both 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:06.639 marveled at the cloud yellow butterflies. Anywhere else on earth, 0:01:06.760 --> 0:01:09.440 it could be in a dyllic summer day, But in 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:11.760 these final steps, as a journey across a daddy and gap, 0:01:12.240 --> 0:01:14.679 it's hard to open up your mind to experience joy. 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:18.720 I'd only been in the tiny Ember village of Bahujiguito 0:01:18.880 --> 0:01:20.920 a couple of days, and I had already seen the 0:01:20.959 --> 0:01:23.319 lifeless body of a little girl, as though the migrants 0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:26.880 carried her into town the river I was sleeping around him, 0:01:26.880 --> 0:01:28.959 with this group of migrants resting here in the shade, 0:01:29.080 --> 0:01:31.720 had swept sleeping children to their deaths earlier this year, 0:01:32.360 --> 0:01:34.080 and up to stream of me there were at least 0:01:34.080 --> 0:01:38.319 three people's remains here. It was shin deep, but crossing 0:01:38.400 --> 0:01:40.840 up stream where it's above head height and rages down 0:01:40.880 --> 0:01:44.200 out of the mountains in steep ravines. Was the migrants 0:01:44.240 --> 0:01:47.360 I walked back to town with told me the stuff of nightmares. 0:01:48.000 --> 0:01:50.160 The voice you just heard was a migrant from Cameroon 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:53.600 who called himself James. That's not his real name, and 0:01:53.880 --> 0:01:56.440 astute listeners would have noticed that it is my real name, 0:01:57.080 --> 0:01:59.520 but for the protection of James and his family, it's 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:03.160 a name be using when I met James. We're in 0:02:03.200 --> 0:02:06.240 a migrant reception center called Las Blancas, to the north 0:02:06.240 --> 0:02:09.519 of the Daliang Gap. To get there, one has to 0:02:09.520 --> 0:02:12.720 take a dugout canoe called a piragua from Bajo Jaquito. 0:02:13.720 --> 0:02:16.800 The voyage takes five hours, and for that five hours, 0:02:16.800 --> 0:02:19.720 migrants are packed fifteen to a boat wearing bright orange 0:02:19.760 --> 0:02:22.920 life jackets. They share the boat with nembra piraguero, who 0:02:23.000 --> 0:02:24.880 sits at the back driving the boat with a tooth 0:02:24.880 --> 0:02:27.680 stroke motor, and a guide who sits on the front, 0:02:28.000 --> 0:02:30.119 using a pole when necessary to push the boat through 0:02:30.120 --> 0:02:33.519 shallow sections. The Umbrada people are indigenous to the area. 0:02:33.560 --> 0:02:36.120 That's commonly known as the Daliang Gap, or at least 0:02:36.320 --> 0:02:38.920 to this part of it, and a tiny Emberda village 0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:42.040 of Bajo Jiquito. It's a first settlement migrants encounter as 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:44.320 they emerge from the perilous crossing of the jungle that 0:02:44.400 --> 0:02:48.400 divides Central America from South America and thousands of people 0:02:48.560 --> 0:02:52.160 from a better future. There's a morale patch that the 0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:55.440 Panamanian Border Patrol and military wear on their uniforms. There 0:02:55.440 --> 0:03:01.640 reflects a slogan in a government messaging campaign, Darien asuna Jungla. 0:03:01.840 --> 0:03:04.960 It says. The campaign was launched in August, and it 0:03:05.000 --> 0:03:07.480 translates to the Darien isn't a route or maybe a 0:03:07.560 --> 0:03:13.000 roads A better translation, it's a jungle. Obviously it's actually both, 0:03:13.880 --> 0:03:15.880 but this is like no route. Most of us will 0:03:15.919 --> 0:03:18.720 be familiar with. The dark and foreboding jungle I saw 0:03:18.760 --> 0:03:21.480 in Bahajiguito is one of the most impenetrable on Earth, 0:03:22.360 --> 0:03:24.560 and the crossing of it is among the most dangerous 0:03:24.639 --> 0:03:28.440 land migration routes. In the nineteen seventies, the British Army 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:30.880 sent its most experienced explorers to find a way through 0:03:30.919 --> 0:03:35.800 the gap. Their commander called the gap a god forsaken place. Today, 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:39.000 migrants have their own names for it, lut del Mote 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:43.440 or sometimes the Green Hell. Here's a group from Cameroon 0:03:43.680 --> 0:03:46.080 explaining why they didn't see a future there and they 0:03:46.120 --> 0:03:48.080 decided to take this dangerous route. 0:03:48.240 --> 0:03:51.640 We are coming from Cameroon. IM My name is Flowers. 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:54.000 There's a lot of crisis in our country. That's a 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:56.600 civil war going on in Cameroon right now because of 0:03:56.600 --> 0:03:59.280 our president. President Pombia has been in power over forty 0:03:59.280 --> 0:04:03.400 two years. So I was the anglophone. We started revolting 0:04:03.440 --> 0:04:06.040 for him to step down because he doesn't develop the 0:04:06.080 --> 0:04:12.160 Southern American sorry, the English section of Cameroon anglerphone. Yeah, 0:04:12.320 --> 0:04:15.080 the anglophone sections a revolts that he was set in 0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:18.200 the military and it's killing the citizens of our country. 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:20.560 There's a lot of harshship, a lot of that. Eye 0:04:20.600 --> 0:04:23.400 for one, I've lost everybody. I lost for my family, 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:26.000 my mom, my dad, my two brothers, and I'm the 0:04:26.000 --> 0:04:27.000 only one left. 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:27.760 So things. 0:04:27.920 --> 0:04:31.080 No, there's no job of completed school, but there's nothing 0:04:31.080 --> 0:04:33.920 for me to do. So that's why it decided to migrate. 0:04:34.960 --> 0:04:37.720 To get to baho Jiqito from Columbia. It's James and 0:04:37.760 --> 0:04:40.919 other migrants did. There's no road you can take. You 0:04:40.960 --> 0:04:44.159 can't even take a boat or a train. Instead, you 0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:48.360 have to walk the Dairying Gap, an area of rainforested mountains, 0:04:48.480 --> 0:04:50.720 so it's one of the most dangerous migration routes in 0:04:50.760 --> 0:04:55.560 the world. For anywhere between two and fifteen days, migrant 0:04:55.680 --> 0:04:58.160 trek through waste time, mud, and rivers deeper than they 0:04:58.160 --> 0:05:02.760 are at all. They must climb giant boulders, cross perilous ravines, 0:05:03.080 --> 0:05:07.000 and traverse sheer cliff faces, all of this with barely 0:05:07.000 --> 0:05:10.159 any water than what they can carry, little to no food, 0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:15.600 inadequate clothing, a terrible footwear, and no medical attention. They 0:05:15.640 --> 0:05:18.440 must walk past dead bodies and past people who might 0:05:18.480 --> 0:05:21.720 soon become dead bodies as they beg for help. They 0:05:21.760 --> 0:05:25.560 carry their children, their dreams, and sometimes each other. Across 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:29.520 mountains and rivers and abou jiqito. They take what, for 0:05:29.600 --> 0:05:31.599 many of them will be the final steps of this 0:05:31.720 --> 0:05:35.159 part of their journey. It's a journey that few of 0:05:35.200 --> 0:05:37.599 us can imagine, and they were lucky to be able 0:05:37.600 --> 0:05:41.000 to avoid. My own migration to the US sixteen years 0:05:41.000 --> 0:05:45.200 ago was much simpler and safer, but for migrants like James, 0:05:45.360 --> 0:05:48.640 the journey's worth it because what they're leaving behind is worse. 0:05:49.440 --> 0:05:52.360 Here's James describing the situation in the state of Cameroon. 0:05:53.640 --> 0:05:58.280 The situation in Cameroon is, how can I put it, 0:05:58.839 --> 0:06:05.840 very very, very very difficult, especially in the Anglophone part 0:06:05.880 --> 0:06:11.880 of the country. Yeah, because for about five to six 0:06:11.960 --> 0:06:17.920 years there's a world the ongoing war in the Anglophone crisis. 0:06:18.920 --> 0:06:22.400 We also have been there has been fighting, There has 0:06:22.400 --> 0:06:29.160 been shooting, killings. I myself speaking to you, Yeah, I've 0:06:29.200 --> 0:06:40.200 been targeted. My cousin was shot and with his husband 0:06:41.160 --> 0:06:47.720 were shot together. Both of them were nursis and they 0:06:47.720 --> 0:06:51.000 were shot by the army that were there to protect 0:06:51.080 --> 0:06:57.680 the people. So the situation back at home, it's very 0:06:57.760 --> 0:07:03.000 very tense. Yeah, the very times when you see most 0:07:03.040 --> 0:07:08.800 of Camaronians traveling taking the rigs part from Columbia brazy 0:07:09.840 --> 0:07:12.800 right up to where I am. It is not because 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:16.120 they like it. It's because of the situation back at 0:07:16.120 --> 0:07:18.680 home and most of it, and most of the time 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:22.120 it is the anglophone population that is suffering. 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:23.200 Most of them. 0:07:23.560 --> 0:07:25.520 They choose this part because they will not have a 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:28.360 direct visard to American Yeah, it's very hard to get 0:07:28.360 --> 0:07:31.120 one yes, it's very, very difficult, so they have to 0:07:31.200 --> 0:07:32.400 use the hard way. 0:07:32.440 --> 0:07:35.960 Which is the only way. The truth is dead bodies, 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:39.160 terrible stories and families celebrating the end of their work. 0:07:39.560 --> 0:07:42.520 It's nothing out of the ordinary. And bahu Jikito, the 0:07:42.600 --> 0:07:45.440 Enbarra town, with the population of just five hundred and ninety, 0:07:45.800 --> 0:07:47.600 it's a place I've been trying to come to for 0:07:47.640 --> 0:07:50.920 almost as long as I've been writing about migration. There 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:52.720 are a few stories in my time as a journalist 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:55.600 that I've been pitching for close to a decade. Most 0:07:55.640 --> 0:07:57.400 of the time I give up if there are no 0:07:57.440 --> 0:08:00.400 bites after a few months, And that's why you won't 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:02.120 see me right about the people who tried to hire 0:08:02.160 --> 0:08:05.760 mercenaries to intimidate voters in twenty twenty, or the Burmese 0:08:05.800 --> 0:08:08.280 rebels whof I did their revolution with co op produced tea, 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:11.320 or a surfing team in the Gaza strip, And on reflection, 0:08:11.880 --> 0:08:14.000 you probably won't hear about that last one anywhere. Now. 0:08:15.640 --> 0:08:17.640 The media cycle has a way of coming around to 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:20.480 these stories eventually, sure, but I not really want to 0:08:20.480 --> 0:08:21.760 go back to what it is who didn't give a 0:08:21.760 --> 0:08:24.239 shit about people before and only care about their stories 0:08:24.280 --> 0:08:27.600 now because they get more traffic. But there's one story 0:08:27.600 --> 0:08:29.840 I've never given up on. That's the story of the 0:08:29.920 --> 0:08:32.760 Daddy and Gap and the people who risk their lives 0:08:32.760 --> 0:08:35.679 crossing it for a shot at the American dream. And 0:08:35.720 --> 0:08:38.000 at this point I do want to tegnlolize. I'm incredibly 0:08:38.040 --> 0:08:40.040 grateful to the people I work with for trusting me 0:08:40.280 --> 0:08:41.959 when I asked them to pay for me to disappear 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:44.559 in a dugout canoe into the jungle and come back 0:08:44.559 --> 0:08:48.160 two weeks later with a story. The Daddy and looms 0:08:48.360 --> 0:08:50.160 in the stories of migrants I meet in the US 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:53.000 border as a sort of heart of darkness on what 0:08:53.080 --> 0:08:56.600 is a very difficult and dangerous journey. It's worse than 0:08:56.640 --> 0:08:59.360 the freight trains they hop on in Mexico, worse in 0:08:59.400 --> 0:09:02.920 the crowded worse even than the months of waiting for 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:07.000 an asylum appointment. I've only believe that you can't really 0:09:07.200 --> 0:09:11.120 understand and write about things you haven't seen, smelt, and heard. 0:09:12.040 --> 0:09:13.840 So for years I've been asking get it Is to 0:09:13.880 --> 0:09:16.360 send me to the tiny ember Our community on the 0:09:16.400 --> 0:09:18.840 banks of the river, so that I could share the 0:09:18.880 --> 0:09:21.360 final steps of this horrific journey with the people who 0:09:21.440 --> 0:09:23.400 see little option but to risk their lives for a 0:09:23.400 --> 0:09:27.520 better future for their children. Because the US refuses to 0:09:27.559 --> 0:09:31.440 create more legal pathways, people instead take a sudden pathway 0:09:31.520 --> 0:09:34.200 straight up and down the mountains to the Darian rainforest. 0:09:35.280 --> 0:09:37.040 The journey will take them past the corpse of the 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:40.400 people who never left. The terrain is too fierce for 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:43.280 anyone to carry their remains out, so they must simply 0:09:43.360 --> 0:09:45.439 rut there as a reminder to migrants, so they must 0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:48.440 keep going. It's a sort of deterrent through death that 0:09:48.480 --> 0:09:51.760 has been the unofficial and official US border policy for decades. 0:09:52.600 --> 0:09:54.800 To turn or not. Once you're in the Darien, there's 0:09:54.840 --> 0:09:57.559 no turning back, and the lack of escape routes has 0:09:57.600 --> 0:10:01.360 made the gap popular among criminals to commit untold numbers 0:10:01.360 --> 0:10:04.440 of sexual assaults, murders, and armed robberies every year in 0:10:04.440 --> 0:10:08.480 the jungle. Despite this, more than half a million migrants 0:10:08.480 --> 0:10:11.120 made the perilous journey last year, and if many, if 0:10:11.160 --> 0:10:14.600 not more, will do so this year. Do you understand that, Daddy? 0:10:14.600 --> 0:10:17.800 And you have to first understand US immigration policy, which 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:19.720 is something I talk about a lot on this podcast. 0:10:20.600 --> 0:10:22.600 I want to include here a clip from Amos, a 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:25.160 migrant from North Africa who met my friends and helped 0:10:25.200 --> 0:10:28.400 them build shelters in a cumber last year, explaining his 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:30.000 journey to the United States. 0:10:30.440 --> 0:10:34.480 So another route right now, which is a difficult route, 0:10:34.520 --> 0:10:38.679 is through Brazil because Brazil has a I don't know 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:43.000 if you guys know, and I think they do that 0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:47.199 for Americans too. Yeah, so Brazil has sort of I 0:10:47.240 --> 0:10:49.319 don't know the word, but the equivalent to them is 0:10:49.360 --> 0:10:53.320 if you impose of his own Brazil Brazilians were imposed 0:10:53.320 --> 0:10:53.960 of his own news. 0:10:54.080 --> 0:10:55.600 They do that to Americans. 0:10:55.120 --> 0:10:55.960 Too, So. 0:10:58.160 --> 0:11:00.600 You know where I'm from. They don't have a visa 0:11:00.840 --> 0:11:04.160 to uh as far as for Brazilians, so we don't. 0:11:04.400 --> 0:11:07.120 So a lot of Africans can go to Brazil and 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:09.280 from Brazil take the the. 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:10.600 Route all the way. 0:11:11.040 --> 0:11:14.200 That game was Jim couldn't fly here directly that he 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:15.720 was able to get a little bit closer to the 0:11:15.800 --> 0:11:18.640 US by flying to Columbia. I'll let him explain how 0:11:18.640 --> 0:11:19.360 he pulled that off. 0:11:20.080 --> 0:11:25.120 For me to have a pass to Colombia, it was 0:11:25.120 --> 0:11:30.560 not easy. So we had we had to There was 0:11:30.640 --> 0:11:34.080 a female female on that twenty World Cup that was 0:11:35.840 --> 0:11:39.520 that was taking place in Colombia, so we had to 0:11:39.559 --> 0:11:43.880 go to Columbia as football fans. That's why they had 0:11:43.920 --> 0:11:45.880 They had to give us our Biza. 0:11:46.400 --> 0:11:47.880 That is all right. 0:11:47.920 --> 0:11:52.000 From Colombia, we'll find our way out of the airport to. 0:11:53.960 --> 0:11:58.680 Where we are today. Most are Continental America. We'll have 0:11:58.720 --> 0:12:02.520 to travel to Brazil, just like Amos. Here's one a cap. 0:12:02.800 --> 0:12:04.800 I'll let the speaks introduce himselves. 0:12:05.480 --> 0:12:07.840 My name is so I m I'm from Idan. 0:12:09.520 --> 0:12:13.160 My name is mohade for Omraan, my name is Ali, 0:12:13.200 --> 0:12:14.040 and I'm from Iran. 0:12:14.760 --> 0:12:17.319 They told me why they left a run, but I'm 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:19.000 sure manygi could wear that went out of yourself, so 0:12:19.000 --> 0:12:21.679 we won't included here. How did you come from Iran? 0:12:21.800 --> 0:12:23.760 To hear you got for Turkey? 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:27.319 It was so difficult, And we. 0:12:29.400 --> 0:12:33.520 Came from Iran, Tehran to Dubai, after that South all 0:12:33.559 --> 0:12:39.679 of Brazil and after that believe Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and 0:12:39.760 --> 0:12:45.560 Nikoklei and jungle Panama. Here Panama. And it was so 0:12:45.720 --> 0:12:51.600 difficult for us because we are young. We just leave 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:56.880 our family, my sister, my mother, father. It was so emotional, yeah, 0:12:56.960 --> 0:12:59.440 and it was so hard for us. But because of 0:12:59.480 --> 0:13:02.680 the freedom, because we can't speak in our country. 0:13:02.840 --> 0:13:05.920 You know, if you speaking in your in the street, 0:13:06.040 --> 0:13:08.480 something like it. They will arrest you. 0:13:09.160 --> 0:13:12.959 Yeah, in jail when you are not Muslim, when you 0:13:13.360 --> 0:13:17.440 really like something like a Christian or something else. 0:13:17.280 --> 0:13:18.040 They arrassed. 0:13:18.520 --> 0:13:22.560 Yes, it was. It was so so, so, so difficult 0:13:23.000 --> 0:13:27.800 living in Iran. But it's a wonderful country. But not government. 0:13:28.679 --> 0:13:30.880 When I talk to migrants, I always want to offer 0:13:30.920 --> 0:13:33.000 them the chance to share their stories in ways that 0:13:33.040 --> 0:13:36.400 they want to share them. And I asked them what 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:38.640 they would want to say if they could talk directly 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:41.480 to Americans. It's a question I ask a lot, because 0:13:41.480 --> 0:13:43.760 in all the coverage of migration I've seen in this country, 0:13:44.080 --> 0:13:47.920 I rarely see migrants' voices. I'm very familiar with being 0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:49.679 the only journalist in a place, and i'd be lying. 0:13:49.720 --> 0:13:52.680 I said, I didn't prefer it that way, But I 0:13:52.720 --> 0:13:55.000 do always feel obliged to use the platform I have 0:13:55.120 --> 0:13:57.520 here to give people a chance to share their stories, 0:13:57.679 --> 0:13:59.199 their voices, and their struggles. 0:13:59.440 --> 0:14:02.880 So he's their message, We love you, hope too you 0:14:03.040 --> 0:14:05.360 love is that's hard question? 0:14:06.280 --> 0:14:09.880 Yeah? Yeah, I think that's very good. 0:14:10.920 --> 0:14:14.280 It will be our next home, and we should be 0:14:15.080 --> 0:14:17.319 proud of that, We should be worth for that, we 0:14:17.400 --> 0:14:21.800 should be be a real American for the concert. 0:14:22.160 --> 0:14:28.160 Yeah, they know women are very bad situations, have a 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:35.640 bad situation in Itra. Yeah, for all people, that is saying, 0:14:35.680 --> 0:14:39.840 but for women is very, very, very hard. I think 0:14:39.920 --> 0:14:47.240 American people know about Massa Amini. Yeah, and they really 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:53.000 they chill us, really they chill women for simple things. 0:14:54.360 --> 0:14:57.400 I heard hundreds of stories like this in my time 0:14:57.440 --> 0:15:00.320 about how Jiqito and the last Blancast migrant reception center 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:03.120 that migrants traveled to after they arrive in Bajo Chiquito. 0:15:03.720 --> 0:15:07.720 People left horrific things behind them and saw horrific things 0:15:07.720 --> 0:15:10.920 on their journey, but they all remained hopeful for a 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:21.600 better future in America. These journeys, in some cases, could 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:24.520 take a year or more. When napoally Man I met 0:15:24.520 --> 0:15:26.920 in Bajo Juquito, I had spent thirty months just to 0:15:26.960 --> 0:15:30.240 get that far, and among his group, his journey had 0:15:30.280 --> 0:15:34.360 been the fastest. As long as these journeys are, that 0:15:34.480 --> 0:15:38.480 darien often stands out as the hardest part. Do understand 0:15:38.480 --> 0:15:40.800 why I want to take you back to that shady 0:15:40.800 --> 0:15:42.920 spot by the river just a few minutes south of 0:15:42.960 --> 0:15:46.920 Bajo Juquito. So what I'm doing right now and you 0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:48.920 can hear from my foot depths is I'm doing what 0:15:49.000 --> 0:15:50.480 it told me not to do. I'm walking along the 0:15:50.480 --> 0:15:57.080 migrant trail. Lots of like vines and creepers, and oh 0:15:57.240 --> 0:16:01.880 fucking hell, that's me nearly eating shit. There's little bits 0:16:01.880 --> 0:16:04.480 of tape marking a trail. I think they just come 0:16:04.520 --> 0:16:08.840 down the river here. Some local guys are pushing out 0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:12.480 wheelbarrows on the trail to dump trash. There's trash everywhere 0:16:12.680 --> 0:16:16.480 to fucking mess the little wood arrows that they've carved 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:20.280 just outside town to direct people into town. And if 0:16:20.320 --> 0:16:23.160 I heeard, I can see migrants making what's probably hopefully 0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:26.800 their final crossing of the river here. One thing I 0:16:26.880 --> 0:16:28.840 noticed was that as soon as I got out of 0:16:28.840 --> 0:16:31.320 sight in nearshot of the town, the jungle seems a 0:16:31.360 --> 0:16:34.720 lot more intimidating. I'm somebody spends a lot of time 0:16:34.760 --> 0:16:36.920 in the mountains, and I grew up playing in the woods. 0:16:37.160 --> 0:16:40.320 I'm comfortable outdoors, and I frequently camp and hike for 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:42.720 days on my own. I like it better that way, 0:16:43.440 --> 0:16:45.480 and I might see more comfortable forty feet under the 0:16:45.480 --> 0:16:47.720 sea free diving, or three hours from the nearest road. 0:16:47.760 --> 0:16:50.240 Then I am in a busy city sometimes, but in 0:16:50.280 --> 0:16:52.960 the jungle. After all the stories I'd heard that week, 0:16:53.480 --> 0:16:57.560 I was afraid. I get scary. I don't know why. 0:16:58.720 --> 0:17:02.920 I mean, everything's new to me. I'm, you know, relatively 0:17:03.120 --> 0:17:08.760 comfortable in the outdoors, but fucking there's new animals, there's 0:17:08.800 --> 0:17:11.159 new plants. I don't know what's poisonous. I don't know 0:17:11.160 --> 0:17:13.119 what's going to kill me, and know who's going to 0:17:13.160 --> 0:17:16.680 try and hurt me. Got another fucking horse, Jesus wept. 0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:27.959 I'm jumping out my skin everything Now it's funny. I'm 0:17:28.000 --> 0:17:30.760 in a place that's beautiful, you know, like these better 0:17:30.760 --> 0:17:35.560 paradise plants are just just growing here, gorgeousness. Horses belong 0:17:35.640 --> 0:17:42.120 to people of the bah community. I suppose having snacks, 0:17:42.119 --> 0:17:46.679 you know, eating jungle horse food. And here here, I'm 0:17:46.720 --> 0:17:50.320 at the river. It's wide here, it's sort of shallow, 0:17:50.359 --> 0:17:52.720 and it's been dammed up a little bit with rubbish, 0:17:52.760 --> 0:17:54.600 just like flop some and jets some kind of stuff. 0:17:55.240 --> 0:17:58.760 And then this is where people cross because of that 0:17:58.760 --> 0:18:00.399 little dam. But it's still got some four to it, 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:03.520 like you wouldn't want to fall and crack your head 0:18:03.640 --> 0:18:05.679 or you know, a lot of these folks can't swim 0:18:07.359 --> 0:18:10.280 without the fear it's hard going. Because you've only hiked 0:18:10.320 --> 0:18:12.760 on trails, you perhaps don't realize how much work goes 0:18:12.800 --> 0:18:16.280 into making that surface possible. There are no trail crews 0:18:16.280 --> 0:18:19.080 in the Darien, and as a result, every step has 0:18:19.080 --> 0:18:21.960 the potential to results in a sprained ankle or another injury, 0:18:22.119 --> 0:18:25.000 which might sound trivial but can be faithal in such 0:18:25.000 --> 0:18:29.040 a remote and challenging place. Trail is all rocks, like 0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:31.880 maybe rocks the size of a fist that way now, 0:18:33.359 --> 0:18:35.800 and then there are sort of in this area we 0:18:35.840 --> 0:18:38.159 only have the lower canopy, so we have ferns, We 0:18:38.200 --> 0:18:42.160 have reeds, bamboo plants growing really tall and straight, that's 0:18:42.160 --> 0:18:43.879 what they use for the poles that they pit I was, 0:18:44.520 --> 0:18:48.960 and then sort of low grassy kind of plants. And 0:18:49.000 --> 0:18:51.359 then where the migrants walk is just this muddy trail 0:18:51.440 --> 0:18:54.080 that every time it rains just turns into like ankle 0:18:54.200 --> 0:18:57.480 to knee deep mud. And I could see them making 0:18:57.480 --> 0:19:00.960 pretty slow progress along the trail towards me. At the 0:19:01.000 --> 0:19:03.000 end of the day, as I took a pedagua back 0:19:03.000 --> 0:19:06.000 to Madragante, where I would be staying the night, I 0:19:06.080 --> 0:19:09.280 reflected again on this and the incredible tenacity it took 0:19:09.280 --> 0:19:12.240 for people with little outdoor experience and terrible equipment to 0:19:12.280 --> 0:19:15.439 pass through the jungle. You know, I'm a fit person. 0:19:15.480 --> 0:19:18.399 I run ultramarathons. I used to be exercised for a living. 0:19:18.440 --> 0:19:23.840 And it's fucking hard. It's wet. Everything's wet all the time. 0:19:24.000 --> 0:19:29.239 You're wet from the rain, then you're wet. If you're 0:19:29.280 --> 0:19:31.679 wet from the sweat, and you're wet. If you cross rivers, 0:19:31.680 --> 0:19:35.160 you get wet. You just can't stay dry. And everyone's 0:19:35.200 --> 0:19:37.480 feet are just fucked when they get into town, like 0:19:37.520 --> 0:19:41.520 the size of the blisters I've seen, And like one 0:19:41.600 --> 0:19:44.640 lady had a cramp today where like it just locked 0:19:44.720 --> 0:19:46.480 up a whole that she like I grabbed her. She 0:19:46.560 --> 0:19:49.240 was falling down and I was able to like hold 0:19:49.280 --> 0:19:53.119 her up. But people are really pushing themselves physically as 0:19:53.200 --> 0:19:58.560 well as psychologically. That river crossing south of Bachigiso was 0:19:58.600 --> 0:20:00.240 as far south as I was going to be to 0:20:00.240 --> 0:20:03.640 get without being forcibly adjaced from Panama, and my request 0:20:03.640 --> 0:20:06.320 to take a boat or walk further south was denied 0:20:06.359 --> 0:20:09.760 by the Panamanian Ministry of Security. So the only part 0:20:09.800 --> 0:20:11.840 of the migrants journey I would share with them was 0:20:11.920 --> 0:20:15.040 the last kilometer or so of their walk. Even then, 0:20:15.240 --> 0:20:18.040 I wasn't really supposed to be leaving town at all, 0:20:18.200 --> 0:20:21.320 So several times over the days I spent in Bahajigito, 0:20:21.600 --> 0:20:24.320 I would look over my shoulder, hop down the river bank, 0:20:24.520 --> 0:20:27.359 jump across the stream, and lightly jog out of town. 0:20:28.040 --> 0:20:30.840 Once on the trail, I'd started to walk slowly and 0:20:31.440 --> 0:20:34.359 try and waive a groups of outcoming migrants. I didn't 0:20:34.400 --> 0:20:36.720 want to scare them. I offered to carry their bags 0:20:36.760 --> 0:20:39.440 and let any help I could, supporting them as they 0:20:39.440 --> 0:20:42.000 walked towards their first meal and clean drink of water 0:20:42.080 --> 0:21:04.119 in up to a week. Just getting to baj Gito 0:21:04.240 --> 0:21:07.119 was a journey in itself for me. I took two flights, 0:21:07.680 --> 0:21:11.080 a five hour drive which was efnally split between paved roads, 0:21:11.440 --> 0:21:14.720 roads that aspired to pavement, and dirt roads. At the 0:21:14.800 --> 0:21:17.399 end of our road journey, the Pan American Highway, the 0:21:17.440 --> 0:21:20.679 links Alaska to Argentina, seems to give up on fighting 0:21:20.720 --> 0:21:25.120 the jungle and Peter's out. Asphalt turned to worse asphalt, 0:21:25.320 --> 0:21:28.400 which turned to dirt, which turned to mud, which led 0:21:28.440 --> 0:21:32.160 us to a river. A driver, however, was prepared for this. 0:21:33.640 --> 0:21:36.159 The drive here was mad like that road was fucked. 0:21:36.440 --> 0:21:38.520 We're in this tiny little guard. The driver took off 0:21:38.520 --> 0:21:42.480 his shoes and socks to conduct the more technical section 0:21:42.560 --> 0:21:45.760 of the drive, which I thought was quite amasing. Yeah, 0:21:45.920 --> 0:21:48.760 really steep, lots of holes, lots of potholes, you know, 0:21:48.960 --> 0:21:52.679 just really rutted out kind of dirt road. And then 0:21:52.720 --> 0:21:56.800 we got here and took to some guys, negotiated a 0:21:56.880 --> 0:21:58.840 price and told him where we wanted to go, and 0:21:58.880 --> 0:22:01.679 they said, yeah, sure, buy some water, you know, snow 0:22:01.680 --> 0:22:04.840 water on the way about three hours and so we 0:22:04.920 --> 0:22:08.240 bought some water right there, and yeah, here we are 0:22:08.760 --> 0:22:12.560 on the boat now, as you can hear. I recorded 0:22:12.560 --> 0:22:15.200 this on a piragua. It's a kind of dugout canoe 0:22:15.680 --> 0:22:17.760 with the hole made out of a single tree and 0:22:17.800 --> 0:22:20.960 a toothstroke motor bolted on the back. It's the only 0:22:20.960 --> 0:22:23.879 way to travel here other than on your feet, and 0:22:23.920 --> 0:22:26.400 it's the only way the Embarra can get the produced 0:22:26.400 --> 0:22:30.480 cigaret to market. The skill of the piragueros, the people 0:22:30.480 --> 0:22:33.919 who drive the piraguas, is incredible. They navigate parts of 0:22:33.920 --> 0:22:35.560 the river so shallow that they have to pull up 0:22:35.560 --> 0:22:38.720 the toothstroke motor. And I noticed all the motors have 0:22:38.800 --> 0:22:41.639 propellers that are covered in chips and bashes from smacking 0:22:41.720 --> 0:22:44.240 into the rocks at the bottom. In the bow of 0:22:44.280 --> 0:22:46.760 the boat, I sat on top of my giant rucksack, 0:22:47.480 --> 0:22:51.119 marveling at the birds, insects, and foliage of the jungle, 0:22:51.960 --> 0:22:55.240 and occasionally I jumped up to make fairly useless contributions 0:22:55.280 --> 0:22:58.960 with the boat's bamboo pole under the close supervision of Marcellino, 0:22:59.119 --> 0:23:01.920 a driver and are soon to be host homstly just 0:23:02.000 --> 0:23:03.760 laughed at me as I leaned my whole way into 0:23:03.800 --> 0:23:06.479 the pole, which notably slipped, and I tried to avoid 0:23:06.520 --> 0:23:10.359 falling face first into the chocolate brown water. On the 0:23:10.359 --> 0:23:13.680 way to bat Jiquito, we passed several small lember our villages. 0:23:14.520 --> 0:23:16.679