Charlie Reynolds' Bold Adventure: Traversing the Darien Gap

#147 - What drives someone to embark on an extraordinary journey with zero experience? Meet Charlie Reynolds, the audacious soul who swapped the comforts of a four-wheeled drive for the thrill of a motorcycle, blazing a trail from Canada to the ends of Argentina. Charlie’s story inspires with its tales of confronting the infamous Darien Gap and his improvisational canoe adventure across the Caribbean Sea. Reliving the moments when outdoor passions were ignited in Whistler, BC, Charlie reminds us of the transformative power of embracing the unknown.

Join us as we revel in the chaotic beauty of epic journeys with a fellow enthusiast who finds joy in unpredictability, whether navigating historical routes on a bicycle or surviving near misses on the Pan-American Highway. This episode celebrates the philosophy of biting off more than one can chew and savoring every moment of the adventure. From unexpected reunions in the daunting Darien Gap to the heartwarming generosity of the Guna people, we explore how stepping out of our comfort zones fosters profound human connections and personal growth.

The journey crescendos with unexpected cultural encounters on a matriarchal island and reflections on personal revelations during solitary adventures. Tune in to this exhilarating narrative, where every twist and turn offers insight and inspiration, encouraging us all to embrace the adventure life offers.

Be sure and give Charlie a follow on Instagram @bemorecharles.

Want to be a guest on Journey with Jake? Send me a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/journeywithjake 

Visit LandPirate.com to get your gear that has you, the adventurer, in mind.  Use the code "Journey with Jake" to get an additional 15% off at check out.

Visit geneticinsights.co and use the code "DISCOVER25" to enjoy a sweet 25% off your first purchase.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
According to Google, the Darien Gap is a remote,
roadless stretch of landconnecting Central and South
America, infamous as one of themost dangerous migration routes
in the world.
After speaking with CharlesReynolds and getting to know who
he is, it's no surprise that hechose to take on this
treacherous journey on his wayfrom Canada to Argentina.
But, what's even moreastonishing, he decided to

(00:23):
navigate the Darien Gap throughthe Caribbean Sea in a dugout
canoe.
Get ready for some wildadventures with Charlie Reynolds
, including an encounter with ElPresidente and a farewell to a
good friend.
This is a journey you won'twant to miss.
Welcome to Journey with Jake.
This is a podcast aboutadventure and how, through our

(00:43):
adventures, we can overcome thechallenges of life that come our
way.
While I expect you will learnsome things about different
adventures, this show willentertain you.
Each episode will featuredifferent guests or guests as
they share experiences andstories from the different
adventures they have been on.
Not only will you beentertained, but you'll also
hear the failures and trialseach guest faces, and what they

(01:05):
have done or are doing toovercome the hardships that come
their way.
My goal is to take each of uson a journey through the
experiences of my guests withthe hope that you'll be
entertained and inspired toovercome your day-to-day
challenges.
After all, it's not all aboutthe destination, as it is about

(01:35):
the journey.
Hello everyone, and welcomeback to the show.
My name is Jake Bushman and I'mthe host of Journey with Jake.
I had the incredibleopportunity to speak with
Charlie Reynolds, who is in themiddle of an epic adventure,
riding his motorcycle fromCanada to the southernmost tip
of South America.
Our conversation was nothingshort of amazing and I can't

(01:57):
wait for you to hear it Beforewe dive in.
If you haven't already, pleasesubscribe to the podcast and
leave a rating and review onApple Podcasts or Spotify.
Your support helps othersdiscover the show and experience
the incredible stories andadventures we share on Journey
with Jake.
We're also on YouTube.
Just search Journey with JakePodcast and while you're there,

(02:17):
be sure to subscribe and hitthat like button.
Let's connect.
I'd love to hear from you.
Send me a message on Instagramat journeywithjakepodcast.
Let me know your favoriteepisode or who you'd like to
hear from next.
If email is more your thing,you can reach me at jake at
journeywithjakenet.
Check out my featured chapterof Sacred Spaces.

(02:37):
If you haven't yet, head overto Amazon and grab a copy of
Sacred Spaces Subtle Shifts forMind, body and Home
Transformation, volume 3.
I'm honored to be a featuredauthor and I'd love for you to
read my story.
How many of you know where orwhat the Darien Gap is?
I had no idea until myconversation with Charlie

(02:58):
Reynolds.
He thrives on challenges andthe tricky parts of life.
They're what keep him going.
If you enjoyed this episode,you'll also love episode 118
with Nicolai Datter, who shareshis adventure through Mexico on
two wheels.
All right, let's get to myconversation with Charlie
Reynolds.
Charlie Reynolds, welcome toJourney with Jake.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
Hey, jake, nice to meet you.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
Yeah, nice to meet you as well.
This is fun for me.
I've been kind of excited totalk to you for a while now that
I've kind of seen your story alittle bit about what you're
doing.
You, to me, epitomize somebodywho's adventurous, which I think
is awesome, so I'm excited tohear your story.
Before we dive into what you'vebeen doing, I know you've
you're doing a multi-countrymotorcycle trek.
I think you started Canada.
You're heading down to what isit?

(03:41):
Ashwaya, is that the name of it?
In Argentina, ushuaia, yeah,you're heading down there on
your motorbike, so that's goingto be cool to hear about.
Also, the Darien Gap.
That's what I really want totalk about.
I'm excited to hear you.
I saw some stories and someexperiences from that.
Before we do that, though, tellme a little bit about Charlie,
who you are, where you're from,that sort of thing.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
So I moved to Whistler in BC west coast of
Canada, which turned out to begood timing that was just before
COVID.
So I spent those years sort ofbeing outdoors and ski touring
and mountain biking and reallygetting into like camping,
outdoor activities predominantlybased around four wheel drives.
So I really got into likeexploring the forest service

(04:31):
roads in Canada and had somekind of good buddies that would
come out with me and yeah, thatbecame a big part of my life.
I guess there was a point atwhich I'd been in Canada for a
while and there's a lot toexplore in that Pacific
Northwest coast but I just Ireally had this idea of like a
big send at some point in mylife.
I guess I had a realizationthat if I didn't do it, I had

(04:53):
the courtesy of a moment beforeI died to get deep, where I
could think about my life.
That would be my biggest.
My biggest regret would be notdoing a big, a big send like
that, like a big out of mycomfort zone trip.
I looked at doing it in my fourwheel drive, which was a JDM
Land Cruiser Prado.
I'd always kind of imagineddoing it in that car.
That didn't really work out.
It cost a little bit too muchmoney.

(05:13):
I sort of steered myselftowards the motorbike.
I'd never ridden a motorbikebefore, I'd done a lot of
mountain biking and I left inOctober last year with a
terrible setup, all the wronggear.
I'd done like a like.
A couple months over the summerof practice of like off-road
riding, I'd passed my test and Iwas heading South.
So that kind of brings me up tothe adventure.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
You haven't had any experience riding a motorbike.
You've mountain biked, thingslike that, and you've been out
adventurous and outdoorsy.
I guess, what was the?
What was the idea?
Was it just it was moreaffordable to do the motorbike?
What was your kind of yourthoughts on that?

Speaker 2 (05:44):
Well, I always, I always had this like sexy idea
of doing it in like a four wheeldrive, just because it's what I
was into.
But I guess I realized at onepoint that it's the experience
is much more important than thanthe juicy, materialistic thing
that you sit in.
Now I can't imagine having notdone it on a motorcycle.
It's such a cool way, way totravel, which is which is kind
of like a beautiful mistake.

(06:06):
Yeah, I, just I, I decided itwas I, I'm, I'm, I'm the vessel,
right, I, I'm the one that'sgoing to go to argentina, and
whether I'm on a motorbike or abicycle, or a donkey or in a
canoe, you know, it reallydoesn't matter.
It's the experience and thepeople I meet along the way and
the things I see, as cliche asthat sounds, that are important.
So leaving on a motorbike was,at the end of the day, it was,

(06:27):
it was a, it was an easydecision and easy switch.

Speaker 1 (06:29):
All right, let's go back to your time in the UK as a
kid, where you always kind ofan adventurous kid growing up.
I mean, what kind of led you to?
Hey, I'm going to go to BritishColumbia.

Speaker 2 (06:39):
I don't know if I guess I used to go on holidays
with my family, that other kidsdidn't go on.
So a few that I remember were.
I think I was about 14 yearsold when my family and one of
our families we were friendswith decided we were gonna cycle
from the Midlands in the UK wewere going to follow the route
of the 101st airborne to wherethey where they kind of the

(07:01):
paratroopers landed in Arnhemand we cycled like across the UK
and France and into theNetherlands.
That was kind of the firsttaste of a big trip where things
can go wrong.
From there I seemed to alwaysget into a series of adventures
with friends.
So the next year it was a roadtrip around Europe in my
parents' old Toyota Previa, andthe year after that it was a

(07:22):
cycle trip with friends back toAmsterdam.
And then after that there was acycle trip with friends back to
Amsterdam.
And then after that there waslike a 200 pound Volkswagen Golf
which we spray painteddifferent colors and we said
there were three of us.
We drove it through Europe asfar as we could for two or three
weeks and then we sold it inGreece and we flew home and then
there was like a trip where weflew to the south of Croatia,

(07:42):
like 10 of us on bicycles, inboxes, and we like unpacked them
in the airport, we put themtogether and we cycled the coast
of Croatia south to north,packed them back up in boxes and
went home.
And so many things went wrongon all these trips and it became
the only kind of trip that Icould do, because other kind of
trips they just fell by thewayside.
They weren't, they weren't,they didn't do it for me after

(08:04):
those.

Speaker 1 (08:08):
Do you?

Speaker 2 (08:09):
thrive on kind of the things going wrong.
I mean, is that kind of whatbrings it out for you?
Yeah, a little bit.
I like I was always the kid whogot really excited when the
fire alarm went off at school.
Yeah, just generally, like someof my favorite jobs have been
always been the jobs where itcan get really chaotic putting
up, uh marquees, like tents forweddings, when we like forget
pieces or we get really behindschedule and we're like really
up against a deadline.
Some of those are like myfavorite moments is just like

(08:30):
learning to focus through chaos.
That's what I chase, I guess.

Speaker 1 (08:33):
Yeah yeah, and I, you know, I think about a lot of
the people I talk to who go onthese adventures, people like
you.
There's some, there's balance.
Something's gonna go wrong oneway or another totally yeah, not
planning on Not planning on iteither.
I mean, it's just, it's going tohappen.
You're on a motorbike.
The motorbike is not a perfectmachine.
It's probably a good machine,but I think right now, if I'm
not mistaken, you're in themiddle of fixing things and you

(08:56):
know your motorbike's notfunctioning properly.
You gotta, you gotta do things,so that's part of it.
But then the elements, I meanthere's all kinds of things.
What are some of yourexperiences with some things
that have gone wrong?

Speaker 2 (09:05):
I'll tell you about one experience in particular
that I think highlights thisreally well, which was I
basically had planned to comeback halfway through my trip,
which was just before crossingthe Darien Gap.
I had some stuff to do with mypermanent residency application
in Canada.
I had a friend's wedding toattend and there was also a boys

(09:26):
weekend which I wanted to go to, and I decided I was going to
fly back and try and make it tothat boys weekend and surprise
my friends, which was reallygood.
But I remember, like in themonths leading up to going home,
I remember being like oh, youknow, things are going quite
well, like it's.
It's been a bit um, I don'twant to say boring, but like
it's been a bit um, I don't wantto say boring, but like it's
been a little bit uneventful.

(09:46):
And I I it was.
It was a day or two later I gothit by a truck on the panamerica
highway and you know, I wasstationary.
I don't know how fast the truckwas going, he was probably
doing 50, 60 kilometers an hour.
He really slammed me along theroad and I was fine.
I was very bruised up, my bikewas damaged.
We had to replace some parts,but.
But I remember thinkingafterwards like, yeah, what an
experience.
You know, like it's a reallystrange thing, but that for me

(10:09):
is like a juicy nugget of theadventure and I think it does
take a little bit of that kindof mentality to enjoy a trip
like this, because it is verydifficult.
Today, like, I had momentswhere I was tearing out what
little hair of mine I have left.
Just, I was so stressed thismorning trying to fix my bike.

(10:29):
But if you like, attack thesethings and you go at them, like
I did today, like my hands arecovered in oil still right now
and I'm super, super happy with,like, having pushed through.
So it's, it's.
It's just about overcoming anew obstacle and then pushing
through it.
I like to say bite off morethan you can chew and then and
then chew.

Speaker 1 (10:45):
And then start chewing like that.
It's a good way to look at it.
All right.
So I'm sitting there thinkingabout you getting hit.
I mean things could have been alot worse, you know.
You could have been seriouslyhurt, your bike could have been
completely damaged, things likethat, yeah, but you made it
through and it's funny how youkind of I see this little spark
in your eyes when, when thesethings kind of happen, what is
it a?
I mean, what is it mentally foryou when you know that whole,

(11:07):
that whole pushing through andthese experience?
What is it for you?

Speaker 2 (11:11):
well, it's just a bit .
It's just a big bit of life,isn't it, jake?
Like it's I don't know, we'relike when you have a kid.
That's like this big moment.
It's a big experience.
It's a lot of hormones, it's alot of dopamine, adrenaline, you
know, and it's getting hit bythe truck is the same thing.
I know that it may seem like anegative thing on the surface,
but like it's still just a juicy, big bit of life.

(11:32):
Yeah, it doesn't.
You know, I could get robbedtomorrow and I would probably
find a way to see that as a big,juicy piece of life, like,
because it is like everything'sa new experience.
I don't know what it's like tohave a gun pushed in my face,
but if I ever do, when I tellthe story at the pub, it's going
to be epic.

Speaker 1 (11:49):
The story is going to be epic, without a doubt.
I just sit there and I putmyself If I survive.
Yeah right, exactly, exactly,if you survive.
I just kind of put myself inyour spot with that and I think
of other people.

Speaker 2 (12:07):
If someone were to get, if that were to happen to
some people, that would be it.
They might throw up their handsand say that's it, I'm done,
and walk away and quit.
Well, to be fair, like I don'tknow how I'd react in that
situation, my track recordsuggests that I would try and
see it as a positive experience,and I think a lot of the people
that I meet on adventures likethis are people looking for like
a little bit of a challenge.
You don't go on one of thesetrips to have an experience
where you expect everything tohappen the way you want.

(12:28):
You want these things to happento you, whether that's a
feeling at the forefront of yourmind or whether it's a
subconscious thing.
Coming on these trips, you wantto experience more life and I
think deep down you understandthat that isn't always good.
You just want to turn up thevolume.

Speaker 1 (12:40):
You know, yeah, absolutely appreciate you
sharing that I want to talkabout a part of this adventure,
so let's let's take a look atthe adventure as a whole.
I mean, you're going canada onyour motorbike all the way to
the southern part of argentinayeah how many?
Like kind of give me the scopeof this.
How many miles is this?
How long are you expecting itto take you?

Speaker 2 (12:59):
so I have no idea how many kilometers it is.
When I first left I was like Ilooked on the map and I was like
, oh, it's about 25 000, 30 000kilometers, and I think I just
went over 30 000 kilometers nowand I'm just about halfway.
There are a lot of shows likethe long way around, long way
down.
I don't know if you know aboutthose with ewan mcgregor and
charlie ballman.
They ride motorbikes around theworld.
There's just there was a lot ofthings that influenced me to

(13:19):
think that this was somethingthat takes less time.
You know, three, four, fivemonths.
And I think once I got on theroad and I saw how much there
was to experience, I was sort oflike whoa, okay, I need to slow
down and change this adventureon the go and make it a little
bit longer, because, yeah,because there's a lot to see.
So I think the real amount isprobably close to 50 or 60,000

(13:41):
kilometers.
I think I'm going to be at itfor another four or five months
and I've been technically on thetrip for about eight months now
, but then a month of that wasthe Darien Gap crossing and
almost a month of that wasrecovering in Costa Rica after
being hit by the truck.

Speaker 1 (13:57):
I do want to talk about the Darien Gap because
some of your stories and it'ssomething unique that you know
I've had some other other, notthat motorcycling across the
whole country and that isn'tunique enough.
That's plenty unique for sure,but I just the darien gap thing
was fascinating to me.
So, if you don't mind, what?
Because people in their mindreally what?
I didn't even know what it waslike, where the heck's the
darien gap?
I didn't even know what it was.

(14:18):
It's panama, right, panama,before you get into like south
america.
Can you kind of explain, yeah?

Speaker 2 (14:22):
Okay, so the southernmost point of Panama and
the northernmost point ofColumbia.
There's a dense jungle therecalled the Darien Jungle.
It's a national park but it'sinaccessible.
There's no road that goesthrough, so it's a migrant route
.
And I've spoken to a fewmigrants who had made it across
the gap from Venezuela when Iwas in Mexico, and these guys

(14:44):
told me that you get a boat froma place called Turbo and you
take it across the Darien Gulfand you'll be dropped somewhere
on the coast of Colombia tostart this journey about 200
kilometers through the jungle toreach a town called Yavitza in
Panama.
And I was always fascinated bythis area because it's basically
run by drug runners, humantraffickers, and then you've got

(15:07):
like just rogue militias whocontrol parts of the jungle and
and they all, they all have likeconflicts with each other.
So it's a very dangerous placeto be, but it was always
fascinating to me as anadventurous type.
You know, we live in a worldwhere there's very little parts
of the map that are, you know,everything's got very high
resolution.
We know a lot about our planetand I think that can be very
frustrating to a lot of peoplewho just, you know, wish they

(15:31):
could have been born into thisworld, where they're, you know,
discovering a new mountain.
You know, I think a lot ofpeople think like that, and for
me, the Daring Gap was thisfascinating space that was.
There's very little information, there's there's very little
information.
There's very other few peoplewho want to go there, and for me
that made it like just, uh,this beacon of adventure, like I
really wanted to do somethingwith that.
You know, an adventure likethis you get creative.

(15:52):
I maybe you're staying in coolhotels and that's your thing.
You find cool hotels, or maybeyou like cool museums and and
for me it was always been about,like you know, interesting
roads, like high elevation roadsand cool camp spots and finding
these kind of like rugged wildplaces.
And so the Gap, my style ofcrossing the Darien Gap, seemed
very important to me.
At first I thought I will crossthe Darien Gap on foot.

(16:14):
A few people have done that butthe problem is they went south
to north, which is the migrantroute, so they paid the $400 to
the human traffickers and theyget dropped off on the boat and
they walk through.
The problem is, if you go northto south, you're not going to
get picked up by that boat toget taken to turbo.
You're going to end up in themiddle of the jungle in Columbia
somewhere and you're going tobe on your own.

(16:34):
There's a lot more risk.
Yeah, I was told by these guysin Mexico that that was not a
good idea, the Venezuelan guyswho I met.
So after sitting and drinking afew beers with them, I remember
thinking, okay, I won't gothrough, it sounds too dangerous
.
I remember looking at smallboats that I could take my
motorcycle across on.
Now, technically, taking amotorcycle on a small boat used

(16:57):
to be legal.
There was a boat called theStalrat, which is a German boat,
steel wrap, a 60 foot steelhull sailing yacht and they used
to put 15 motorcycles on thebows.
Everyone would get pissed inthe stern and it would take like
five, six days and they wouldgo to Colombia, which sounded
really cool.
But that doesn't exist anymore.
It's sort of illegal byColombia's standards.
So while I was looking forsmall boats Panama to Colombia

(17:22):
you know, in my search, justthis dugout canoe just popped on
the screen and I was like, lookat that thing, that's cool.
And then I was staying.
I was staying with this guy, Iwas staying with this guy, jose,
and I remember saying to himyou know, I think I'm going to
cross the Darien gap in thedugout canoe, and I just
remember him laughing at me andhe said nah, you're not, you're

(17:43):
not going to do that.
And that that was it.

Speaker 1 (17:46):
That's what made you make up your mind that I'm going
to do it.

Speaker 2 (17:49):
Yeah, it was the way he laughed at me.
It was so like.
It was so like oh yeah, you'renot going to do that man.
And I was like do you know whatI'm going to do it?
From that moment on I think Iwas kind put me off.
They were like you know, you'rea crazy guy, but that's, that's
pretty mad.
But after a long motorcycleride one day I couldn't stop

(18:10):
thinking about that idea it was,it was committed to my mind.

Speaker 1 (18:14):
Wow, let's talk about most people like other people,
because you you met other peoplewho are heading down there on
their motorcycles.
Things like that Do most people.
What do they do they?
They typically, I think there'sa place that you turn in your
bike and they'll ship it tocolumbia for you, that kind of
thing, and then they just get tocolumbia.
Is that kind of what mostpeople do.

Speaker 2 (18:30):
They just kind of like skip over that part,
essentially yeah, I think that'sa sensible thing to do,
honestly, so most people go.
I went to a great place calledoverland embassy.
These guys were super helpful.
They have like a campground inPanama City, so I put my tent up
.
I met a bunch of otheroverlanders, you know, guys with
the big rigs they're going onto onto like a what's called

(18:51):
roll on, roll off, I think,where they drive onto the ship
and then most of the people willgo into a container and maybe
they'll find a container buddy.
So put two SUVs like LandCruisers, land Rovers, into a
there are other trucks availableinto a container and and
they'll ship them, which takesabout 10 days, two weeks, to
cartagena and then.
And then most bikes will go onthe plane, because it's only a

(19:12):
little bit less, a little bitmore expensive to go on the
plane and it's it takes a day.
So and then people will fly tobogota in columbia, columbia,
and meet their bikes.
I think a big thing for me.
No, no disrespect to anyone whodoes that.
Absolutely I think it's asensible thing to do.
But when I flew home from Panama, having ridden for six, seven

(19:34):
months from Canada, I had awindow seat and I was looking
out at the planet, going past,saying like, oh, that bit took
me like a month, just that bitthere, and like I went up that
volcano, it was amazing, I couldsee everything and it.
You know, planes areteleportation devices and we
don't understand that because welive in this like world of you

(19:55):
know, we're impatient and wewant to be there now, but the
plane is a teleportation device.
The amount of like culture andstories and people that happen
underneath us from one of thosethings is amazing and I just I
just felt like it was the same.
It would be the same for theDarien Gap.
If I flew across the Darien Gap, I would miss a lot of
experiences and a lot of things.
And it turns out I was right.

Speaker 1 (20:13):
And now I got to go to this whole dugout canoe,
because that to me by itself ispretty impressive to do it in a
dugout canoe.
First of all, they look heavy,they look like, they just looks
tough, like the whole ideabehind it.
But tell me the story about howyou, you know, got this dugout
canoe, where you went to get it,and then kind of some of your
experiences, because that partlooked incredible too, just the

(20:35):
actual boat itself that you usedwhen I saw it I thought the
locals use it.

Speaker 2 (20:40):
They use it on the same part bit of the caribbean
that I want to cross.
You know they're going to have.
There's going to be lots ofoptions for getting one and it
must be a good sea faringvehicle because that's what they
use.
Right.
In some ways I was right and insome ways I was wrong.
Would I change my decision togo in the dugout canoe?
Absolutely not.
I think that the struggleassociated with that boat made

(21:01):
up a huge part of the characterbuilding, experience of the
adventure and a lot of thestories that came with it.
The other option is obviously asea kayak.
I I committed to the dugoutcanoe because I just seemed like
a badass boat, just like adugout canoe.
I was like that just seems.
It just seems like a, a juicypiece of life, if we can go back

(21:23):
to that it makes a good story.

Speaker 1 (21:24):
I mean that you know if you just I mean no offense to
the kayak, but how can it makesa good story?

Speaker 2 (21:30):
yeah.
So I mean, I turn up to thisisland, gari sodo, which was
quite an intimidating moment,you know, I had, like my what?
My life jacket, my dry bags Ihave 80 000 calories worth of
food in the duffel bag.
I get dropped on this islandand there's all these people
from this tribe sort of lookingat me and I'm sort of like I

(21:50):
don't have anywhere to stay,there's no hotels, there's no
hostels, and I'm looking to buya dugout canoe and prepare it to
go to Colombia, and I have noidea what I'm doing.
Eventually I find this Well, Isay eventually, immediately I
find this guy called Carlos atribal name, agua, who says come

(22:11):
stay in my house, you crazy,crazy gringo, we'll help you
find a canoe.
So we go look at a few canoesand I settle for one.
It has a few leaks.
They fix it with tar and I takeit.
And I remember the first time Igot into that canoe I was with
my friend Aurelio, who iscycling down to Argentina, who
just happened to be doing thesame route as me.
He'd come out on the same boatand he ended up at the same
island without me knowing and Ijust bumped into him on this
island.
It was kind of strange, but Iwas with Aurelio and this guy,

(22:34):
olo, who is Carlos's son, sothey were both in the boat and I
remember going for a practicepaddle with two guys in the boat
and it sits about this farabove the water like the edges.

Speaker 1 (22:47):
I remember going that's not good and ollie was
like it's normal and for thoseof you listening, it's like two
or three inches is all, likemaybe four, maybe six inches at
the most.

Speaker 2 (22:54):
Yeah oh yeah, four or five inches, but it's it was.
It was so much more unstablethan I had imagined, like I felt
like we were going in.
I actually stopped and took mycamera and put it on the shore
and then we went for a shortpaddle and I was petrified and I
kind of thought, like what haveyou got yourself into?
This is the first time you'retrying this dugout canoe and

(23:15):
it's really heavy and it'sreally unstable and it's not
going to do well in the stormand you're going to have to bail
all the water out that comes in.
I think the boat.
I don't know.
You guys do pounds, I do kilos.
My guess is that the boatprobably weighed like 170, 180
kilos, so I want to say like 300.
Yeah, that's pretty heavy 300pounds and then plus my gear.

(23:39):
So I've got like I made a sailfor the boat.
So I had a mast, I had twobooms, a sail and then I had all
my gear.
I had five gallons of water bythe time it's loaded up.
It's a big deadlift to lift oneend of it and then you can
pivot it on the other end, butyou're not able to lift it very
high.
You're only able to lift it atthe end, like this far.
So maneuvering the thing wasvery difficult.

(24:00):
Pulling, pulling up the beachat night on my own was not
possible.
I had a long line to sort oftether at places, but I sort of
came to terms with the fact thatI had certain risks.
So I think somebody onInstagram suggested I create an
outrigger.
So I created a piece of bamboothat went across the widest bit
of the canoe and that had twowater drums strapped to it and I

(24:21):
could either have them up,which was for moving quickly,
and if it got rough I would spinthem, so they were down,
touching the water.
So that made me feel good.
And then I had the sail.
And the sail was a cool storybecause we initially made a
small triangular sail, like thekind of thing that a child draws
when they draw a sailing boat,and it was made from an old blue
tarp.
I remember when I was paintingthe boat and preparing the boat

(24:43):
because I painted it in Lagunacolors red, yellow and green and
the locals would come upassuming I don't speak any
Spanish and I speak a little,and they would blatantly say in
front of me like oh, you know,like where do you think he'll
die?
Like how many days do you thinkhe'll last?
And I was like I can hear youand I'm painting the boat,

(25:03):
preparing the boat, and Iremember we put the sail up and
this old man kind of came in andhe said no, no, no, no, no, and
he brought in this amazing,like big canvas sail that has a
second boom and it was much moresubstantial.
I remember we got it rigged upand there was a crowd of people
in the village kind of watching.
I remember hearing one guy andhe said cuánto días, cuánto días

(25:26):
piens?
To his friend, which just meanshow many days do you think?
And I just remember being likethere's one person who thinks
I'm going to make it to Colombia.
So at that point I thought itwould take between two and three
weeks.
It was heavier than I thought.
It was more unstable than Ithought.
It sat closer to the sea than Ithought.
In some ways it was a horriblelittle boat, but it was my boat

(25:48):
and it was brilliant.

Speaker 1 (25:49):
And the reason I wanted to ask about that?
Because some of the videos Isaw it looked like you're
sitting in water a lot of timeswhen you're paddling that thing.
I mean it looked like there wasand that's what it looked like.

Speaker 2 (25:57):
It looked like you're getting water in the boat, yeah
, so you sit like the back ofthe stern of the boat is like
this and the seat is right here,so I'm sitting like inches from
the water.
I feel like I'm on the ocean.
I've just got a strip of canoein front of me but there's
nothing behind me Like I canjust put my hands down into the

(26:19):
water.
Here there were a few occasions.
The first day I got hit by abig crosswind and I learned
pretty quickly that the, thesmaller chop choppy waves that
are created by like force five,four, six wind will push water
over the side of my boat prettyquickly.
That's a pain when you do haveto travel crosswind.
If you can travel downwind it'sokay, but at the time I was

(26:40):
having to travel across wind toreach an island a little bit.
That was kind of stressfulbecause again I'm taking a few
paddles and then I'm bailing out.
The last third of the trip isless protected by the sandblast
islands which cover the firsttwo thirds, and that area has
big swell.
I guess I knew what that meantbefore I went.
But it's a whole differentthing to know what big swell is

(27:02):
and experience it on a ferry andexperience it on a bigger boat
thing to know what big swell isand experience it on a ferry and
experience it on a bigger boatand then to experience it in
essentially like a tree, withall of your worldly possessions
in like two, in like two meter.
Big swell, that is like a.
That's a crazy, crazyexperience and, like again, I
had a big smile on my face but Iwas scared.
Big swell in the dugout canoeis is a crazy ride, but the nice

(27:24):
thing about big swell isbecause it is big and undulating
.
You're riding roller coasters,you're not getting hit by speed
bumps, so the waves don't comeover as often, but when they do,
it's not nice when they do yeah, they do.

Speaker 1 (27:37):
Wow, some of your videos that you had, the scenery
looked gorgeous.
I mean, some of these islandsthat you were paddling by, I
mean some of them were just likelittle little islands that you
see like on postcards or youknow, and they're teeny, but
they were palm trees and sandand what was that like?
What was some of the scenerythat you saw?

Speaker 2 (27:55):
It was.
It was a joke.
It was so crazy.
And the craziest part about itwas when I was on the water.
My whole experience was likefocus and fear, and it was like
you have to.
This is your destination.
This is where we're going.
I'm looking for like storms, I'mlooking for ways.
I'm looking for, like you know,I'm also looking for things
like bandits and like I don't.
I don't know what's in thisarea, Um, but I'm looking for

(28:17):
all of these things.
And then there's this beautifulnoise when the front of the
dugout canoe goes up the sand ofone of these white sandy
beaches, and there's thisfeeling of relief.
And now I'm on a desert islandand there's no one else here and
actually there's very fewthings that can.
Comparatively, now that I'vemade land, there's very few
things that can hurt me and cankill me.

(28:40):
Those islands were.
They were magical to look at,but they were even more magical
to be on.
You know, because of that, thatrush of endorphins of of
security that would would comeover me as soon as I felt my
boat like hit that sand.
It was such a good feeling and,yeah, they were just
indescribably beautiful, likethe kind of thing that I think
everyone dreams of being on oneday like these white patch of

(29:01):
sand, sometimes two or threepalm trees.
You know you're stopping forlunch and there is no one, no
boats, just me and a dugoutcanoe.
And that was.
That was crazy.

Speaker 1 (29:11):
It looks beautiful.
I mean, I saw a couple of timeswhere you pulled off on some of
these islands.
I would think too, as you'recruising along, cause you're
you're slow traveling, did yousometimes?
I mean, you'd have a certainspot you need to get to, but did
you kind of sometimes like, hey, this island looks cool, let me
just kind of, let me check itout?
Did you ever do any of that?

Speaker 2 (29:27):
yeah, yeah, I did have a few days like that.
There's there's one story inparticular.
So most of the times where Istopped, you have to imagine, I
was in like a constant state ofstress.
For this whole three weeks, itjust it was just a lot to.
It was just a lot to put onyourself.
You know, not having someoneelse to be like, right, I'm not
in the mood today You're incharge Like it was a lot to be
the whole crew of the ship, Iguess for three weeks.

(29:48):
So you are trying to keeppushing because you want to get
out, I want to get to Colombia.
But there was one day where Imet these lovely German guys who
they had a sailboat and they'resailing around the caribbean.
They convinced me to come on amission with them to this place,
is the iguana, which I had I, Ipaddled past the day before

(30:11):
with like heat stroke and, likeyou know, it was a very
stressful day, and they're like,why don't you come back with us
on the yacht?
So, yeah, we, we went back tothe yacht, we went on the yacht
and went back to is the iguanaand had a really nice day
snorkeling and stuff like that.
Yeah, that was really fun.
But the funny part was there isan adventurer from Belgium
called Jelle who is tackling theseven summits, and he is

(30:32):
reaching all of the sevensummits by manpower and he'd
also, by crazy chance, decidedhe was going to kayak the Darien
Gap at the same time as me andhe had heard from the villagers
that there was a gringo in acayuco heading south, and so
he's in the sea kayak.
He's way quicker.
He can do about 50k a day, Ican do about 20.
And he's trying to catch me andhe's looking for me and he gets

(30:55):
to this beach and he sees mycayuco while I'm on the boat
with the Germans and he's likeno way, that's the boat.
So he stops and he waits fortwo hours.
I don't come back, I'm drinkingbeers and snorkeling with the
Germans, just escaping myadventure for a day, and so he
carries on.
But then when I reach Colombia,by complete chance, I turn up

(31:15):
to this place called DonkeySunrise, which is like a
adventure motorcycle hub inColombia, and this guy, yella,
is there on his bicycle and he'slike you're the guy who was in
the Cayuga, I was passing you inthe Darien Gap in a kayak, so
we met in Colombia three or fourweeks later and we got a chance
to talk about our misconnection, which was really really funny.

Speaker 1 (31:35):
That is incredible because you think about it.
The one time you decide to gohave fun with the Germans is the
time that he's there.
So you guys missed each otherthere, which is kind of
incredible to think about.
But then you caught up later.
Fascinating, it's amazing.
That's what these adventuresare so incredible, just the
little, the connections,misconnections, things that you
have that happen Totally.
Yeah, all right, darian Gap.

(31:56):
I mean, besides being stressedall the time with the water, the
waves, was there any othermoments that were either
actually bullets you're kind ofboth like a moment where you're
just like wow, this is amazing,or a moment where you're like
man, this is rough, like how,about any, I don't know.
Do you see sharks?
Do you see anything like that?
Like what's?
What do you see there?

Speaker 2 (32:13):
yeah, I saw one shark and I I convinced myself it
wasn't a shark because I saw thefin.
Initially I thought, dolphin100, you're making it up in your
head.
And then I saw it come up againand I was like looks kind of
sharky.
And then then I saw it come upagain and it was full shark fin.
I saw its rear fin as well,which is what gives it away its
tail.
And then I saw the shark in thewater so it was about five foot

(32:34):
long.
I think from my research it wasa sandbar shark.
It was a kind of rusty redcolor and apparently they're not
dangerous to humans untilthey're fully grown.
But apparently a five footwould be about fully grown, but
Apparently a five foot would beabout fully grown, but it didn't
attack me.
So and I did have a 10 minutescary paddle, but that was
relatively uneventful, I think.
Two other moments that stand outI had there's this one section

(32:57):
called the Razor, the localschool at the Razor.
So it's about 20, 25, 30kilometers of coast with reef
breaks.
So you can't land and I had todo it in one day because it's
very dangerous.
You can't if I had to do it inone day because it's very
dangerous.
You can't.
If you want to get to the beach, you have to cross these rocks
which are just under the surfaceand there's waves crashing on
them, so you're going to scuttleyour boat on the rocks if you
go there anyway.
I made it almost all the way.

(33:17):
The wind picked up right at theend of the day and I did have
to scuttle my kayak on the reefbefore going around this
dangerous point.
I ended up breaking a bunch ofstuff, like my sail.
My tent got broken in the nightby some ants, my stove, my
headlamp, I had torrential rain.
I was soaked through.
The next morning I woke up andthere was two guys who came past
in a cayuco and they invited meto their village, which is just
around the corner, and I fellasleep in a hammock almost

(33:40):
immediately when I got there.
But when I woke up, thisvillage and these villages, they
don't speak Spanish, a lot ofthem.
They speak dialecto, which istheir language, and it's very
basic, but it's it's verydifficult for me to communicate
with them.
Well, it's just a lot ofexpressions and and just trying
to show someone how you feel orwhat you need with with gestures
.

(34:00):
But I fell asleep in thishammock and when I woke up
they'd washed.
Like all of my clothing washung up to dry.
They'd fixed the hole in mytent.
They put like a patch on it.
There was a woman viciouslysewing away at my torn sail.
They pulled my boat up likeonto the beach, like really high
on rollers, which is reallyhard to do, and then they cooked
me dinner and they didn'tunderstand anything I said and

(34:21):
they didn't accept any moneythat I offered them.
That was really cool, that wasjust a little tribe.
And I've come.
I've come in in a canoe andthey're familiar with the canoe
and they're familiar with theconditions and what I've just
done and they're like, wow, thatmust've been tough and they
just looked after me.

Speaker 1 (34:36):
What does that tell you about?
About people, because I thinkthat's gotta be part of the
adventure.
Or the people that you, thatyou, run into.

Speaker 2 (34:48):
Yeah, I think a big part of this adventure was was
the, these people, the gunapeople it's.
I think it's just nice hownon-transactional they are.
They live in a world kind ofvoid from capitalism and
obviously capitalism has lots ofbenefits but I think in terms
of the, the spirit of thesepeople, the transactions are
more emotional and you knowtheir, their favors, so

(35:08):
everyone's just doing each otherfavors to get by and that's how
these communities exist.
And and the favors that Irepaid them for for helping me
was me just trying to explain myjourney and them just getting
to see a white person, like lotsof people in that town have
never seen a white person before, including one Albino girl who
was about three years old whoheld her arm up to me like this

(35:29):
and just did a big smile becausewe were the same shade.
But yeah, I think just justexperiencing me being there was
enough for them to want to dosomething for me, which was,
which was a crazy feeling.

Speaker 1 (35:41):
And then what I think you said, you had some other,
another experience that jumpedout to you as well.

Speaker 2 (35:45):
Yeah, there was one really weird one, some other
another experience that jumpedout to you as well?
Yeah, there was one reallyweird one.
So a lot of these islands right, okay, these islands have it's
a matriarchal society, so thewomen own all the businesses,
all the houses, and they're allpassed down to the next woman in
the family.
There is, however, this onemale figure on each island who
sort of not all of them have it,but some of the slightly like

(36:08):
large islands will have like a.
He's called el presidente andit's it's a spanish name, so
it's it's sort of like a stepaway from their traditional
culture, and this guy usually,I'm told, will like settle
disputes over land, over, youknow, their small businesses.
He sort of acts as judge andjury and weirdly, he has a nice

(36:29):
house, nice than everyone else.
I'm not sure how you get thisjob, how you over their small
businesses.
He sort of acts as judge andjury and weirdly, he has a nice
house, nicer than everyone else.
I'm not sure how you get thisjob, how you apply it, but
anyway, I turn up to this oneisland, traveling in a canoe
painted the colors of the tribe.
I've become popular by thispoint.
I get to this one island.
All I need is a little bit ofgasoline for my stove and I'm
going to go camp on a beach.
That was my plan.
And when I get to this oneisland there's like a small

(36:50):
crowd who spotted me and they'repointing and they're they're
excited and the crowd growsquite quickly.
By the time I've come inthere's probably 50, 60 people
there.
The crowd kind of parts, andthis little man kind of comes
through and you've got toimagine everyone's about.
You know, almost two.

(37:11):
I'm six foot two, so everyone'sabout two foot shorter than me.
And this little man kind ofcomes to you like this and he
introduces himself as elpresidente and he says he says
tonight, tonight you stay withme, you come to my house, you
sleep in my hammock, and so Isaid I said okay, okay, I'm
coming with you.
He was very insistent and youknow his team sort of took my
boat out of the water and I gointo his house and it's very
nice and he's got a Starlink andI'm able to chat with my

(37:33):
friends.
I'm lying in my hammock andit's relatively it's luxury.
And he invites me for dinnerhave some rice and chicken, and
then he invites like four orfive friends around for beers.
So this is about seven o'clock.
We're drinking a few beers.
You know, I think I have two orthree beers His friends.
They're getting drunk in the waythat only a Latin American guy
can get drunk, like they'resinking beers.

(37:54):
And they've got like the LatinAmerican.
They love these big speakersthat have LED lights that are
like trying to give you aseizure.
So we're sat there like thisand we're drinking a couple of
cans, they saying more stories,more stories, and he's pointing
at me like this it comes toabout 10 o'clock and these guys
are really drunk.
Now I've, I've, I've held backbecause I've got a paddle
tomorrow.
So I'm, I don't want to.

(38:15):
You know that sounds like anextra thing to have to think
about.
It comes to about 10 o'clock,just as the lights go off in the
village.
So there's a generator on mostof these villages that runs for
like four or five hours in theevening.
Everyone charges their phone,you get lights, then it goes off
.
So we're now in what I woulddescribe as like the creepy part
of the evening.
The sun's gone down, the lightsare out and they say we're
gonna go see my friend and youknow I'm up for anything, I'm

(38:36):
sure he's dead.
Yeah, they say we're gonna gosee my friend.
He's dead.
And I'm like, okay, Iunderstand, I know what's
happening, because these peoplehave sometimes a separate island
or a separate area of theisland where they bury their
dead and it's a cemetery andclearly, even though it's a bit
weird, we're going with beers,we're going to the cemetery to
say goodbye to one of theirdrinking buddies or something

(38:58):
you know.
So I'm like, okay, cool, andI've got a beer for the road,
you know.
So we're walking through thisvillage and I'll set the scene a
bit.
So it's like we're walking onlike a polished mud path, like a
very well trodden mud path, andon the sides you got straw
fences and behind that you gotstraw houses.
So sometimes you can get aglimpse of like the fire in

(39:19):
someone's house and like a nakedwoman like sat, like washing,
or it's real, like it's realrudimentary stuff and you can
smell.
It doesn't smell greatsometimes.
Sometimes it smells of food,like there's a lot of different
smells.
It's just a lot for the senses.
And I'm walking along.
You've got like stars above me,I've got my beer and I'm just
like where are we going?

(39:39):
You know, I think we're goingto see you know this guy's dead.
I get it, but I'm still I'm abit confused.
We're walking along, one of theother guys manages to type
something on his phone.
He shows it to me and it sayswe are going to see a dead
person.
And now I'm thinking like youknow, when did he die?
Is this guy?
Did he just die?
So we're coming along thisstreet in this village and I see

(40:01):
this one hut that's lit upinside, which is kind of unusual
.
None of the huts are lit up.
It's lit lit up by candles, soit's kind of glowing and there's
a lot of people outside the hutand there's a lot of noise
coming from inside the hut, likechanting and wailing, and
inside there's about 30 women intraditional Guna dress, so they
have beads like this which goall the way up their arms and

(40:24):
legs, and then they have thesekind of tunics with artwork
called mollas, which are sort oflike almost like psychedelic
artwork very brightly colored,very beautiful, lots of like
piercings and yeah, they lookvery cool.
But there's about 30 of thesewomen in there.
As I get a bit closer I seethat they're all holding candles
and some are chanting.
And in the middle there is adead guy in a suit, just on a

(40:49):
table, no coffin, just on thetable, and I'm you know.
You got to imagine, as I come upto the door, the top of the
doorway comes to here this isyour chest, right at your chest,
because you're so tall yeah soI've got my lager and I'm like,
looking in like this, I wow,there's no way I'm going in
there Like this seems like, likeit, just it seems like a step

(41:11):
too far.
You know, I look like a tourist, I've got like a camera in my
pocket, I've got my beer, I meanlike, I mean like a two hundred
and fifty dollar, liketechnical hoodie, this just
seems wrong.
I'm not going to go to thisguy's wake or whatever this is.
But the president, the guy'sdrunk man, so he goes in and he
goes, charlie, and everyone'seyes are just on me, like that.

(41:34):
I mean, it's a funeral, so noone's smiling.
But that doesn't feel good forme because it's it sort of feels
like oh, what are you doinghere?
Anyway, I stand there for aminute and, you know, after 20
seconds people seem to go backto what's happening in the back
of the room and I feel a bitmore comfortable and what's
happening is people are takingturns to say goodbye to this guy
who died at about two o'clock,and so you know this guy's.

(41:58):
He's only just cooled down andthey've dressed him up in his
suit and everyone's come to saygoodbye, which I can appreciate,
but it seems like a strangeevent to bring a guest to the
Presidente gets down on hisknees and he's like they're
pretty aggressive.
The guy's like pounding hischest and he's like grabbing him
like this.
And he's like grabbing his handand he's like letting his tears

(42:19):
like falling on the guy andhe's you know this language, the
dialecto, it's basic.
So like sometimes they arehaving to like shriek and shout,
to like express their emotionsand they all get really
emotional.
They're talking to the guy asif he's in the room and I think
they genuinely believe he isstill in the room.
And all five of these guys thepresidente and his friends, they
, they, they do their kind oftwo, three minutes on their

(42:40):
knees, like it's reallyemotional, saying goodbye to
their friend.
And I'm standing this wholewhole time, you know, arms sort
of crossed, just trying to lookas respectful as possible.
You know, like a forlorn lookon my face, this dead guy is in
the middle of the room.
I'm thinking, brilliant, we'reabout to leave.
And then the presidente turnsaround to me and he says,

(43:04):
charlie, this our friend Today,he die.
We say goodbye.

Speaker 1 (43:16):
Now you say goodbye, oh man.

Speaker 2 (43:19):
And I'm just in this moment.
It was another one of thosejuicy little bits of life.
I'm like I've no idea what I'mabout to say, but there's now 30
women in traditional tribaldress, holding candles, staring
at me in a mud hut on an Islandin the Caribbean, going.
What are you going to say?
Yeah, what are you going to sayto the dead guy?

(43:40):
And I've got my lager in myhand.
I'm like, ah, come on, I justwanted to go camping.
All I needed was gasoline.
So, honestly, I wish I couldhave said something cool.
I wish I could have, like youknow, all I could think to say.
I looked at the guy, I tooklike a big respectful breath and
I just said goodbye, friend,and I just waited.

(44:03):
I just I said it and I just Iput like a a really clear full
stop at the end and I waited andit was probably only five
seconds, but it felt likeforever.
And then the president, he went.
We go now.
And I was like yes, and then wewalked back and we go back to
our beers.
Being in that moment, in thatsituation, it was definitely the

(44:24):
strangest situation I've everbeen in, just a really unique
experience and with with no oneto share it to as well.
I think a lot of people getworried like, oh, if you travel
alone, you don't have things toshare it with you.
Really, it really amplifies theexperience when you don't have
anyone to share it with you.
Really share it with yourself.
That was crazy that is bizarre.

Speaker 1 (44:44):
I did you ever learn anything about the guy at all,
or no?
I mean no idea.
Goodbye friend.

Speaker 2 (44:50):
No, he had a blue tie yeah.

Speaker 1 (44:53):
Wow, that's incredible.
Yeah, and I wanted to ask aboutthat part because you did this
by yourself.
I mean, you're traveling byyourself and the whole aspect of
being alone, or you knowloneliness, what's that like for
you?
I mean because you said itamplifies it for you.
What is it?
What's that like being alone?
Or you know loneliness, what'sthat like for you?
I mean because you said itamplifies it for you.
What is it?
What's that like being alone?

Speaker 2 (45:10):
I always thought that I would enjoy.
Well, I never knew that I'mgonna do a complete 180 there.
I never knew that I would enjoytraveling alone until I did it
for the first time.
I actually took a train down tothe us see a friend and I had
all sorts of adventures on thistrain because there was.
It turned out out there waslike no internet on the train.
It was 20 hours long and I metall these like Vietnam veterans

(45:31):
and like this, like bisexualtype, tattoo artist and like we
were all getting drunk on thetrain and I was like this is
brilliant, like if I'd come witha friend we would just have
been chatting.
And ever since then it kind ofput this seed in my mind that
you know, I could be quitecreative around other people and
that led to unique experiencesand I always wanted to have a go
at doing like a big trip of myown just to see what would

(45:52):
happen, to see what kind ofsituations I would end up in Now
, at the beginning of the trip.
It does take a little bit oftime to get used to the solitude
, but there was one moment whereI talked before about this like
amplification of theexperiences.
There was one moment where inMexico about this like
amplification of the experiencesthere was one moment where in
Mexico, in Baja California uh,now you've got to imagine

(46:13):
entering Mexico I was kind ofscared.
I'd never been to Mexico before.
I just come to the US, and theUS is a mixed bag.
Some people will tell you Mexicois great.
Some people will tell you thatit's like, you know, a shooting
gallery.
It's not a shooting gallery,but I I went from being like
this solo traveler first time inmexico only you know, my first
big motorcycle trip kind ofnervous, and I suddenly started

(46:34):
to like loosen up a little bitand I was camping in this place
called the valley de sirios,which is this amazing valley
with these huge, like 40 foothigh cactus cacti, and I pitched
my tent, I cooked up a nicepasta dish, I had a beer and I
was sat like I was.
I was deep into the desert,away from the dirt road I've
been traveling on because Iwanted to be like really remote,

(46:56):
away from anyone who could harmme or whatever, and I remember
seeing the most incredibleshooting star while I was sat
there with my beer, and thefirst thing you do like when you
see a shooting star.
Is you like elbow your?
mate you're like, wow, did yousee the shooting star?
You know you have, like you getthis like confirmation.
You, you want this like almostlike a validation that you both

(47:16):
saw it and you, and theexperience is shared and I think
that's a great thing, likegoing on a trip with someone,
especially a really great friendor a partner.
You really are going to developyour relationship with that
person.
Now, what I've experienced is inthat moment when you see the
shooting star and you know youdon't have the urge to elbow or

(47:37):
anything.
You just sit for a moment inthat moment and you there's
almost like a feeling in yourchest.
We are like sick and it's.
It's like this amplificationwhere, like it's almost like it
rebounds around inside me, whereit's like that was a cool
shooting start, it was just foryou, and you develop that
relationship that you would havedeveloped with another person,
with yourself.

(47:57):
That that, for me, has beenreally, really cool, because
it's like a lot of these momentsI enjoy the fact that you know
it would be cool if there wassomeone to share it with, but a
lot of them, it's likethey're're definitely amplified
when it happens just to you.
It's an indescribable feeling,it's a magical moment.
It's something that no one elsewill understand, and I think

(48:18):
coming back from an adventurewith lots of things that other
people won't understand is asign of the adventure's success.

Speaker 1 (48:24):
So you're in the middle of it.
Right now, you're still on yourway down to argentina.
You're in the thick of it.
Yeah, you're in the thick of itthat's a good way to say it.
You're in the thick of it, forsure, but looking ahead, because
you'll, you'll, you'll reachargentina, ashwaya, you'll get
there someday we don't know when, because you're taking your
time.
What's the future hold for you,though?
Because you said you wanted tohave like one big trip where

(48:45):
you're sending it and you'redoing it.
Now that you're on this trip,what do you think?
What do you want to do?

Speaker 2 (48:50):
moving forward, yeah, I think for the first half of
the trip I always said that thiswas something I was sort of
getting out of my system.
Since I came back on the secondhalf of the trip, I'm a lot
better at doing this.
It's not a flex.
I understand how to preparethings, how to pack my bags, how
to set up my bike and how tospend my time.

(49:11):
I think the other thing Ilearned was everyone has a
different kind of trip.
On the first half of my trip Iwas sort of allowing myself to
be coerced by a lot of peoplewho were also on the same trip
who wanted to see cathedrals andruins and maybe they're into
wildlife don't know wildlife,and I think everyone's
interested in everything alittle bit.

(49:32):
But what I'm really interestedin is like wild campsites, like
really difficult traverses,really dangerous roads and
generally going to places whereother people don't go.
And since I've learned to likereally lean into that side of my
trip, I've enjoyed it so muchmore that I do think this is
more of a pandora's box than uh,once in a lifetime thing.
So there's a few thingshappening like.

(49:53):
I've had a few offers forsponsorships for future trips
which I'm sort of fiddling with.
At the moment I won't I won'tsay too much about like my plans
or stuff like that for now,because I'm still kind of
figuring it out.
But uh, yeah, I definitelythink that as soon as I finish
this trip it'll be sort of acountdown to when I can live
again like this, because this iswild.

Speaker 1 (50:13):
So it's safe to say we're definitely and probably
going to see more of Charliemoving forward.

Speaker 2 (50:17):
Yeah, yeah, there's definitely going to be some more
big adventures and there'sdefinitely going to be some more
side quests with crazy vehiclesor contraptions as well,
because that was, that was alittle bit of me.
That was really fun.

Speaker 1 (50:30):
I love it.
Speaking of which and we'vebeen chatting here for quite a
while now if people want tofollow along, see what you're up
to, where can they?
Where can they find you?

Speaker 2 (50:39):
so it's just one place.
I didn't want to focus on toomany, you know, social media
outlets while I'm on this trip,because the trip is the focus.
It's just Instagram and it's bemore.
Charles B E M O R E, charles.

Speaker 1 (50:53):
Be more Charles.
Perfect.
Be more Charles.
That's it.
I love it.
That's why you're kind of likeme.
I'm.
Instagram is primarily my areaas well, just because it's yeah,
it's just too much for me tothink about so many other things
.
Yeah, All right.
So, as you're moving forward,you're out there in the thick of
it, as we say For you, thenwhen you think of the word

(51:15):
adventure.

Speaker 2 (51:15):
what does adventure mean to you?
For me, I mean, I think reallyit's the same for everyone.
It's going outside of yourcomfort zone.
You could say it's like it's abig trip where things can go
wrong.
You could say it's like it's abig trip where things can go
wrong, but I think actually forsome people, their comfort zone
is, you know, they reallywouldn't want something to go
wrong.
So an adventure could be justlike learning to play a new

(51:37):
sport, and I appreciate that.
You know, for me a big part ofmy adventure was just trying
salsa dancing.
That was well out of my comfortzone, but yeah, so I think in
that sense adventure isdifferent for everyone.
But I think, if you're askingwhat it is, for me it's going to
sort of slightly lesshospitable places like high
elevation or, yeah, big scenicmountain passes, camping in

(51:59):
places that I just you know,places that you've daydreamed of
as a kid, or for me personally,but it's, yeah, it's
experiencing the wild nature ofof the place I'm in, and
preferably the wildest bit ofeach country.
So I'll always look for likethe highest road, I'll look for
like high altitude mines, I'lllook for like dirt roads that
youtubers or other people havedone or had trouble with

(52:20):
sometimes, and that's usuallywhat I make my route.

Speaker 1 (52:23):
This has been fun for me.
You're doing some awesome stuff.
I love what you're doing.
I love what it's done for you.
I think that's been the coolest.
Part is kind of just seeing.
You got the little spark inyour eye when you start talking
about these things and thedanger of it and just oh, this
is life, you know, and it'sexciting.
So thanks for sharing that witheverybody and thanks for coming
on.
Journey with Jake.
No worries, jake, always jake,lovely to meet you, love to chat
a huge thank you to charliereynolds for coming on the show

(52:47):
and sharing his incredibleadventure through the darien gap
.
I especially love that storyabout the dead guy.
What a wild and unforgettableexperience.
If you want to follow charlie'sjourney, be sure to check him
out on instagram.
At be more, charles.
Thanks again, charlie, foropening up about your love for
adventure and sharing part ofyour journey with us.

(53:07):
This marks the sixth episodeI've released in February.
Don't forget, we're doing twoepisodes a week this month.
If you missed one, no worries,just go back and give it a
listen.
I'm incredibly grateful to eachand every one of you who tunes
in.
Journey with Jake has been adream come true, and knowing
you're out there listening makesit all worthwhile.
A special shout out to those ofyou who have left a rating and

(53:28):
review.
It truly means the world to me.
Coming up in just a few days.
We've got another fantasticguest, glenn Van Pesky.
Glenn is an avid hiker withexperience on the Pacific Crest
Trail, and he's all about doingmore with less.
You won't want to miss ourconversation.
Just remember.
It's not always about thedestination as it is about the

(53:49):
journey.
Take care, everybody.