The Darién Gap

Also known as El Infierno Verde (the green hell), The Darién Gap is a stretch of jungle that connects Colombia and Panama. A place so dangerous, only those with no other choice would dare to cross in hopes of a better life. In this episode, Ayden shares a Susto original based on the jungle of death.

Please consider donating to Doctors Without Borders for their work at the exit of The Darién Gap and around the world:
https://events.doctorswithoutborders.org/campaigns/susto

Want to hear your story on Susto? Fill out the Letters From the Beyond form or visit SustoPodcast.com to be shared on the show!

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Want to hear your story on Susto? Fill out the Letters From the Beyond form or visit SustoPodcast.com to be shared on the show!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:24):
A, Girlfriends, it's me Adrian or Aiden. Either way, I
am still your host and you are still listening to Soustal,
the podcast of ooky, spooky, scary stories from Latin American cultures.
Welcome back, girlfriends. Thank you so much for returning. And
if this is your first time, welcome, We've been waiting
for you around the ceremonial summoning sacrificial circle. Just kidding,

(00:46):
You're fine here, goolfriends. Hello, huge news, well, actually a
couple of big things. So before I say what I
was gonna say, I just want to wish a very
happy ten year anniversary to jeff and myself. We tychnically
our anniversary is on the fourth. It's July fourth, So sorry, America,

(01:07):
the country. The fireworks are for us. Sorry, but not sorry. Actually, Jeffrey,
as you know, is our resident co researcher and ghost
writer and the love of my life. I'll say it
very plainly. I cannot help it. I love that man.
I have loved him for ten years and I will
love him for the next a million. So happy anniversary
to us, very excited. Ten years. A decade is a

(01:30):
very long time to do anything, and it is the
best thing I've done in my life is to be
in love with him. So Jeff, if you hear this,
I love you so much and I will move on
before I cry, because I will. The next thing I
was going to say is that today, Thursday, July tenth,
is also my birthday. Not as exciting, but oh my god,
ten years July tenth. Wow. Anyway, And normally I wouldn't

(01:53):
say anything, but I am going to ask you all
for a gift. So I'm just going to go ahead
and reveal today's episode. So you've already seen it in
the title today the show is about the do Em Gap,
which is a real place between Columbia and Banama. And
this is a migration route and it's a very dangerous one.
And in doing this story, we decided to write a

(02:15):
fictional story based off of this real place, based off
of real experiences. This is one of those things where
life reality is just one hundred times a thousand times
more scary than any ghost story. So what I'm asking
you all is to make a donation in honor of
my birthday to Doctors Without Borders. Doctors without Borders, we

(02:37):
found out in putting this story together, does a lot
of work at one of the main locations that people
come through too after making this journey, and I'm going
to explain all about it, of course in the story,
but also when we go over in the context of
the episode after the story. I just wanted to preface
it with this before we go into the story, so

(02:57):
that it's on your minds as you're listening, and then
we'll of course bring this up again after. But when
under my birthday, I am running a fundraiser on Doctors
Without Borders for a month, so from July tenth to
August tenth, and you can learn more about it by
visiting events dot Doctors Without Borders, dot org, slash campaigns
slash sustal, and of course I will put links to

(03:20):
this in my link tree that's linked your dot e
slash sustal. I will also I'll put it in wherever
I can put a link. I will put a link
on my social pages and of course that's at Sustal
podcast on every platform, so if you look at my
social media pages, you will find where to go to
that place. But again it's events, dot Doctors Without Boarders,
dot org, slash campaigns, slash Sustal. I wrote just like

(03:43):
the first number that came into my head is you
can set a goal. I set a goal of five
hundred dollars. We'll see what happens. I think any amount
of money raised for this is amazing, is great, and
if we somehow surpass that goal, that would be mind
blowing and I would be so so happy and so
honored and so excited and moved by everyone's willingness to
donate and your compassion for the work that's being done

(04:04):
not only in the exit of the dot een gap
but around the world. So again, please visit that link,
and I will also say just quick updates about the show.
I have two events coming up in October. On the tenth,
I will be at the Ruise Branch once more of
the Austin Public Library doing another live storytelling session and discussion.

(04:26):
The last one was so much fun. Again, thank you
for having me Austin Public Library, and thank you to
everybody who showed up and showed out. It was so
much fun. So please make it out to the next one.
Of course, I will be posting about those on social media.
And on October thirty, first Halloween Night, I will be
at the Spirit Social hosted by the Night Owl Podcast. Again.
I did this event last year. I will be doing

(04:47):
a panel. I will have a table present, so please
come by say hi, have a blast on Halloween Night
with me and all the other amazing creators that will
be out there. More information will be coming about that
and I will be posting about it, but that it
means that I have a lot of space open for
the rest of October. So, as I've always said, if
you are someone who organizes events, if you know someone

(05:08):
who's organizing an event, please reach out to me. If
you see an event that you think that I should
be involved in, send me the information and I will
reach out to the organizers and lock me in. Book
me up for the time in October. And also, you know, honestly,
spooky season it usually always ramps up around August, in September,
and then of course it's in full swing in October

(05:30):
and then it kind of trickles into November sometimes December,
so it's my busiest time of year. Of course, I
am available all year long three six five through six
five party Gool, but in Spooky season things get especially busy,
so please please reach out to me. I'm always willing
to work with other creators, with organizers to bring the
spookiness to your events. So again, you can send me

(05:50):
emails to Sustalpodcasts at gmail dot com. You can visit
my socials and send me a DM that's at soostal
Podcasts on every platform, or you can visit my website
and hit the contact button. That's sustal podcast dot com.
Before we get into today's story, I do want to
let you know so that you aren't caught off guard,
that there are mentions of assault through the story and
the sources, So please be advised, as always, take care

(06:12):
of yourselves. Now, let's go ahead and jump into the story,
which is inspired by the dot En Gap. There's a

(06:36):
place where the map breaks, where South and Central America
are said to touch, but somehow don't, where the Pan
American Highway ends and the wilderness begins. That place is
called the dot e n Gap. It's not just a
gap in geography, it's a gap in humanity, ina in safety,

(07:02):
a place where the jungle takes and only sometimes gives back.
The story you are about to hear is about a
woman named Lucia and how she came to walk through
that place alone, hunted and watched by things older than
the trees themselves. Lucia was thirty four years old, a teacher,

(07:26):
a mother, a woman who once believed life had rules.
If she studied hard and worked honestly, things would work out.
She lived in Maracaibo, Venezuela, where the lights flickered more
than they stayed on. She had a daughter, Anita, just
eleven years old. Her husband was gone, caught in a protest,

(07:49):
never to return home. Lucia taught literature in a school
that barely paid her enough to afford the basics, sometimes
leaving her to pick up odd jobs or rat their food.
Her refrigerator stopped working a year ago, so she sold
it for parts. When Anita became sick, pale, coughing, fevered,

(08:11):
the doctor said she needed special medication, medication that cost
more than Lucilla earned in two months. She borrowed, she begged,
and then one night she decided, I will go and
will find a way to send for her. I'll go north.
After making sure Anita would be looked after by family,

(08:34):
she kissed her forehead while she slept and left before sunrise.
The plan was to travel by bus and foot through Columbia,
then cross into Panama through the jungle. Everyone knew about
that een. They called it Elin fier no Vede, the
green hell, but it was free, and that made it

(08:54):
the only option. Once she was on the other side,
she could find better paying work and money to her family.
To Anita. In the Colombian town of Akandi, she joined
a group of migrants preparing to cross, people young and old,
even families with toddlers strapped to their backs. Their guide

(09:15):
was a man called Elbana. He looked more like a
predator than a guide. He was slim, angular, with a
snake tattoo curling around his neck. He wore mirrored sunglasses
even in the shade, and spoke like everything he said
was a joke no one should laugh at. Lucilla didn't
trust him, but what choice did she have. The night

(09:38):
before crossing, as the migrants cooked over small fires, a
woman appeared. She was part of the indigenous and Beda
people of the region, with long black hair and beads
that shimmered like river stones. She said little, just stood
at the edge of the group. When she finally spoke,
it was to Lucia, there are places in that jungle

(10:02):
that don't belong to people. Places the world forgot to
tame some places that the earth protects. When the trees
stop speaking, when the wind feels wrong, turn around and
leave that place. Lucilla nodded, unsure whether to take the

(10:23):
words as myth, metaphor or something else. The woman's last
words lingered. The man who leads you will betray you,
but the dadienne will only take those who stop listening.
They entered the jungle just after sunrise. The first challenge

(10:44):
was mud, not soft, doughy mud. It was deep, clinging,
sucking mud that tried to steal shoes and refused to
let go. Every step was a fight. Then came the
hills that were more like walls of c Gaminants climbed
on all fours, slipping, scraping hands raw. Lucilla helped an

(11:07):
older woman who was hyperventilating. No one else stopped. The
heat was relentless, Sweat poured from bodies. The air was
so thick it felt like breathing through a damp cloth.
Rivers had to be crossed chest deep, with currents strong
enough to steal your footing if you hesitated. The water

(11:28):
stung with insects. One man dropped his pack in a
current and tried to chase it. He didn't come back.
He would be the first to get separated, but not
the last. Elbana said nothing, just lit a cigarette. On
the night of day two, they slept on the wet

(11:49):
ground under makeshift tarps of plastic and sticks, but the
jungle never slept. It groaned, buzzed, hissed. That night, Lusia
heard the first cries, human but not distant, drawn out,
like something calling for help, but never getting closer. Others

(12:11):
heard it too. No one moved. Then came the lights,
white blue orbs, floating between trees, low to the ground.
They moved like they were watching, waiting. When someone tried
to walk toward them, they vanished. El Bana grunted, ghosts,

(12:32):
don't kill you, snakes will sleep. No one slept so
much as they waited in torment. They lost the next
member of their group on the evening of day three.
There was a boy named Raphael. He was seventeen, very
quiet and polite. He helped Lucia across a ravine, once

(12:54):
offering his arm. He never spoke unless spoken to. That night,
Ye walked twenty feet from the group to relieve himself.
He never came back. They called for him, searched the
brush with flashlights, nothing, not even footprints. Elbana muttered something

(13:15):
about jaguars, but no one believed it. Something had taken him.
They left without him. At dawn on the fourth day,
Elbana stopped the group. The prices changed. He said, no
more charity. You want to finish. Pay again. Some protested.
He raised his machete. Lucilla gave him her last American dollars.

(13:39):
The emergency stash meant for Anita's medicine. It wasn't enough.
That night, he looked at the women. You can pay
another way. The threat hung in the air like his
cigarette smoke. One of his men grabbed a girl barely
out of her teens. Lucilla didn't wait. She ran into

(14:00):
the dark, into the jungle alone. She didn't know how long.
She ran hours, maybe more. Branches tore at her clothes,
roots caught her feet, but she never stopped. Eventually the
jungle quieted too quiet. She was alone. She was just

(14:21):
another person, separated from the group. She knew they wouldn't
look for her. No guides, no maps, no group. Then
a whisper in her mind, west head west. The fifth
day dragged on for what felt like forever. She rash

(14:42):
into what little she had, drank rain water from leaves,
sucked a juice from the green guava, tied her shoes
with strips of her torn shirt. She hallucinated voices at night, sobbing, whimpering.
Once she heard a baby crying. It reminded her of
an Anita's own cries as an infant. She needed to

(15:03):
help the baby. She followed the sound through the dark
for half an hour before realizing the jungle was playing
tricks on her. There was no baby. By the morning
of the sixth day, Lucilla's body was no longer her own.
It had become something separate. It was an aching, blistering vessel,
pulled forward only by stubborn will and the memory of

(15:26):
her daughter's smile. Her feet, wrapped in the remains of
her socks and shredded shoes, throbbed with every step. Her
lips had cracked days ago. Her belly no longer growled,
It just ached with a dull, quiet desperation. The forest
canopy pressed close around her, thick as a roof of

(15:48):
green iron, filtering the sun into a dim and sour light.
Every breath was warm and wet and tasted faintly of rot.
She had slept the night before under the roots of
a fallen tree, curled like an animal, waking every few
hours to swat at biding flies or listen to distant

(16:09):
sounds that might have been human or animal, both equally
as dangerous. In the Datienne, the line between dreams and
waking started to blur. She walked for hours that morning,
moving west as best she could, trusting the faint direction
of the sun and the slope of the land. At

(16:29):
one point she slipped into a gully, her knee smashing
against a buried root. She screamed, sharp, involuntary, and sobbed
once before pushing herself up again. She had long since
stopped expecting rescue, and then as she climbed another ridge,
slick with moss and loose clay, her head broke the

(16:52):
tree line and she saw it a clearing, a wide,
flat patch of land, nestled in the jungle rea trees,
but free of underbrush, no vines, no thorns, no shadows,
just open space. At first, Lucille gasped, not in fear,
but in relief. An open place meant safety, sight lines,

(17:16):
a chance to sit with her back to a tree,
and to see any predator or person approaching. She thought, here, here,
I can breathe, maybe sleep, maybe prey to the heavens
for help. She stepped forward, her heart lifting for the
first time in days. That was when the jungle went quiet.

(17:38):
No birds, no bugs, no wind. Not even the leaves moved.
The shift was sudden, like someone flipping a switch. Lucilla
paused midstep. She turned in a slow circle. The air
was perfectly still. The canopy above the clearing was too clean.

(18:00):
It had been rearranged, pruned. A circle of light bathed
the ground, but it wasn't sunlight as she knew it.
It felt too white, too exact, as if it had
been painted on the space. In the center of the
clearing stood a structure, or perhaps a formation of stones,

(18:22):
not natural, smooth and black, each one the size of
a football, stacked in a precise spiral. The spiral coiled
inward and upward into a narrow column as tall as
her chest. There were no carvings, but the surface of
the stones shimmered faintly, like they were sweating or breathing.

(18:44):
The surrounding trees stood like guards, tall, perfectly spaced, no
branches lower than twenty feet up. Their trunks were too smooth,
almost like polished wood, not a scratch on them. The
ground was dry. No insects crawled here, no fungi, no
fallen leaves. It was too perfect. And her own breathing,

(19:08):
her own heart beat, sounded too loud in this place.
The words from the imbedab woman returned to her then,
as if carried on some windless current. When the trees
stop speaking, when the wind feels wrong, turn around and
leave that place. Lucia took a step backward. Her foot

(19:35):
caught on nothing. She stumbled. Her hand reached out to
steady herself against a near by tree, but her palm
never made contact. Instead, she felt cold, a rush of
air that passed through her like needles, not just on
her skin but in her bones, a deep, unnatural chill
that seemed to whisper, you do not belong here. Her

(20:01):
teeth began to chatter. The cold wasn't physical, not entirely,
It was spiritual. It was the kind of cold you
felt at the edge of a grave, a place where
something unseen brushes against you, not with malice, but with indifference.
She saw the spiral stones flicker for just a moment,

(20:22):
as if something invisible had moved around them, a distortion,
a breath, a veil parting. She heard no voices, but
she understood. This was not a place meant for the living.
It wasn't haunted, it wasn't cursed. It was sacred, and
it was guarded. The veil is thin here, she whispered aloud,

(20:46):
barely breathing too thin. Her legs responded before her mind did.
She backed out of the clearing, step by step, eyes
never leaving the center. Only when the insects came began
buzzing again. Only when the trees once more rustled faintly
did she turn and flee. She didn't stop until the

(21:07):
sound of her footfalls were masked again by the familiar
chaos of the jungle. Only then did she collapse to
her knees, sobbing, not out of fear, but out of
overwhelming understanding. The jungle had let her see and let
her leave, But if she had stayed even a few
minutes more, she didn't want to imagine what would have happened.

(21:32):
After the clearing came a swamp, waist deep, thick with
leeches and decay. Each step was a gambol of solid
ground or a sinkhole. Her skin was raw, her thighs chafed,
her shoes had disintegrated. She walked on blistered, bleeding feet.
Then came the hunger days of only leaves and mud

(21:55):
thick water she knew would make her sick. She chewed
bark just to keep her jaw moving. She thought of Anita,
to keep herself sane. It would all be worth it
to save Anita. Two more days passed after Lucia fled
the clearing, the place where time and sound had disappeared

(22:15):
and the jungle had shown her a sliver of the
spirit world. But what haunted her more than the cold
or the silence was how beautiful the place had been designed,
measured intentional. She had nearly stayed now on the eighth day,
her mind was fraying, her body too. She hadn't eaten

(22:37):
in nearly two days. Her legs trembled, her lips bled
when she moved her mouth, which she rarely did anymore.
She walked through waste, deep black water, tugged forward by
pure instinct. She climbed a slope so steep she had
to dig hand hold into the earth and pray the
roots she grabbed didn't tear loose. She was surviving, but

(23:00):
just barely. And worse than the hunger, worse than the exhaustion,
was being alone. No voices, no other heartbeat to match hers,
just the endless throb of the forest, the groaning creak
of trees, and the occasional half heard whisper of something
moving just behind her, never close, never far, just lingering.

(23:28):
After two more days of walking through the treacherous jungle,
heading west, she heard an engine. At first she thought
she was dreaming, Then she smelt exhaust. She clawed through
a wall of vines and emerged blinking onto highway. One
her legs gave out. The jungle had let her go.

(23:50):
One of the truck drivers stopped and asked if she
needed help. Without waiting for her to respond, he motioned
for her to hop into the bed of the truck.
Despite it being the middle of the day, She quickly
fell asleep. During the ride, Lucilla made it to a
refugee center in Panama. Half of her original group had
made it there as well. They told her that Albana

(24:11):
had vanished one night. He had just disappeared into the trees,
leaving them lost. Some thought he fled. Others whispered that
the jungle had taken him. No one searched from there.
She rejoined the remnants of the group and moved north,
step by aching step into Costa Rica, then Nicaragua and beyond.

(24:34):
Each new country brought more fences, more lines to wade in,
more questions from people who had never known hunger in
their bones the way she did. She spent nights in
crowded shelters, days pressed into the backs of trucks and buses,
wrapped in heat and fear. She sold her last necklace
for a ride. She borrowed a stranger's phone, just to

(24:57):
hear Anita's voice for one blessed minute. She told herself
again and again, the hardest part is behind me. I
made it through the jungle. I crossed the place where
the world ends. If I can just make it to Texas,
I can work, I can send money, I can bring
Anita back to me. But Lucia didn't yet know what

(25:20):
waited beyond that final border. She didn't know how many
kinds of wilderness there were. She had faced silence in
the heart of the earth, but in the land of
walls and policies, she would learn there are places just
as dangerous as the dai Enn, Welcome back, well friends,

(25:57):
thank you so much for listening to that story. Immediately,
I just want to say that, of course we took
creative liberties when writing a fictional story on a show
that is about the paranormal. Of course we weaved in.
I mean, this whole story was a fiction, right based
off of accounts of people who have been through the
that een Gap. But we wrote a story based off

(26:19):
of this. I'm going to jump into the sources. I
will say as I was going through the sources, it
was really hard and it was really emotional for me,
especially with everything going on right now. I'm simply not
a bystander but a witness right to what's happening in
the world right now, and so it was a little
rough for me. And I'm just going to say that.
I'm just going to preface that because I mean, they,

(26:42):
like we mentioned earlier, they refer to the that een
Gap as Ellen Fierro Noveda or the Green Hell. There
have been other places that are called that, but I
think this one also definitely earns that name. So we're
going to jump into the sources, and this first one
is from ACFR dot org or the Council of I

(27:05):
Think Foreign Relations, and this is an article titled Crossing
the dot een Gap Migrants risk death on the journey
to the US. Again, all direct links are on Patreon
dot com, slash Cystal podcast. But again this is CFR
dot org. So just to this does a really great
job of explaining exactly what this place is. And this says,
and also this was published by Dana Roy. The photo

(27:26):
editor was Sabina Baumgardner in July of twenty twenty four,
so about a year ago. This says the dot een
Gap is an imposing obstacle on one of the world's
most dangerous migration routes. The remote roadless crossing on the
border between Columbia and Banama consists of more than sixty
miles of dense rainforest, steep mountains, and vast swamps. It

(27:48):
is the only overland path connecting Central and South America.
Over the past few years, it has become a leading
transit point for migrants in search of work and safety
in the United States, as authorities have on other routes
by air and see. I think the first question that
some people may have when hearing about this journey and
this route is why would people risk their lives knowing

(28:11):
that this place is a risk is it's extremely dangerous.
Why would they enter this because you know, as it's
said here is there has been a crackdown on other routes,
whether by flying or by boat. And even then it
said that the waters in that kind of area, that
that region or surrounding that region, that the water can
also be dangerous. But it's kind of like the last resort, right,

(28:33):
I think obviously people would not knowingly put their lives
at risk if they didn't have to, if they had
another choice, and for many people, this is the only choice.
This continues here. There are great pictures in this in
this article as well. I'm going to try and post
some on the socials of course, and in the video
as we go along. This says or this continues. However,
migrants face many challenges on this land journey northward, including

(28:55):
treacherous terrain, exposure to disease, and violence at the hands
of criminal groups. As the number of migrants grows, with
more than half a million making the trek in twenty
twenty three, so too does the impact on the indigenous
communities whose lands they often traverse. International aid organizations have
sought to manage the crisis by setting up temporary housing
and providing basic services to those arriving in Banama, even

(29:17):
as the Panamanian government has announced new measures to crack
down on migrants and asylum seekers entering the country. So,
of course, and there are references. A little bit later,
there is reference to an indigenous woman in this story,
and this is from the Embda people. They are an
Amerindian indigenous group in this area. They're said to live

(29:38):
in the da En province or region, but it is
I looked it up and I was looking at the map,
and I'll see if I can put a picture in
the video here too. They live along the riverbanks and
the shores of Banama near the Dadian so they are
not like in the thick of it, but they do
technically live in that area. There's also a picture here
that highlights what the En gap is between Panama and Colombia. Oftentimes,

(30:02):
the way that people make this journey is is by
other means of transportation. They'll go to this city called
Niko KLi and then from there they take an hour
ferry to a Gandhi, which is technically also in the
Datian Gap. But it's kind of like the closest you
can get to the exit of it on the other side,
you know what I mean. So it's like the shortest
route possible, I'm assuming because this place it does stretch

(30:24):
pretty long, more than sixty miles. But the route that
people take is said to be on average from each
source that we've seen, was about sixty miles. And it's
also said that this route can take anywhere from five
days to ten days. That it just depends on the
weather because again, as mentioned, there's tons of mud, and
it's like there's pictures in this as well. The mud.

(30:44):
You can tell it's like kind of soupy. It's that
consisting that you get stuck in really easy. And this
is also known as the wettest region of the world,
so it rains a lot. But also it is extremely hot,
so I think it says on average that it's about
ninety five degrees with like ninety five percent humidity, So
it is treacherous. It's dangerous. You know, people pass out

(31:04):
from the heat and from dehydration on this route. I'm
skipping ahead. In this source, there's a section here called
faced with Danger, and this says once in Akandi migrants
will head for the Een Gap Jungle, a dangerous hike
that can take ten or more days. I don't know
where I got five days from. That's my about ten
or more days. Many paid to be led by local
guides or goyotas. Along the route are smugglers and criminal groups,

(31:26):
including members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which
I think is said now to be officially recognized as
a political party by the government, but they still have
like factions that are pretty violent and that still deal
with trafficking and drugs and that kind of thing. This continues,
and the Gulf Clan, a paramilitary group and Colombia's largest

(31:48):
drug cartel. These groups often extort and sexually assault migrants.
There's a quote here that says, deep in the Jungle, robbery, rape,
and human trafficking are as dangerous as wild animals, insects,
and the absolute lack of safe drinking water. And that
was a quote by John Guff, the Regional director for
Latin America and the Caribbean at the UN Children's Fund
or UNICEF. He said that in in October twenty twenty

(32:10):
one years release. He continues, week after week, more children
are dying, losing their parents, or getting separated from their
relatives while on this perilous journey. UNITSEF estimated that half
of the children who crossed in the first six months
of twenty twenty three were under five years old. And
I believe in the first six months of twenty twenty
three there was sixty deaths. So that's like ten deaths

(32:33):
per month of people trying to make it through the
dotti En Gap. And again, people are taking their children,
and God, it's terrifying. It's terrifying to think of anybody
doing this, but to think of children and children being
taken through here and by no means, by no means
at all. Am I trying to pass judgment. I'm just
thinking about how much scary scary it might be for

(32:53):
kids and for the parents trying to get their kids across.
Like again, I don't think anybody would do this willingly
if this was not the only option. And so I'm
trying really hard to stay calm about this because you
all know my stance on like immigration and the way
that migrants and immigrants are treated, and so learning about

(33:13):
this and learning about the hell that people go through,
that people put themselves through for a chance at a
better life. It boils my blood and it makes me
I can't even get into it. You know, if you
know me, you know so I'll I'm just gonna continue here.
This says the environment presents an equally large challenge. The
dot Een Gap is one of the wettest regions in

(33:33):
the world. Here we go, and frequent rainfall can trigger landslides.
In the mountainous terrain, temperatures can reach ninety five degrees fahrenheit,
with high humidity, exacerbating persistent thirst and hunger. The area's wildlife,
including crocodiles and venomous snakes, add to the dangers migrants face.
It says here, I'm gonna skip ahead again. This is
a section called heading for the United States, it says.

(33:54):
Another common exit point is the indigenous village of Ghanan Membryo,
but there at the Bajochigito exit point, they are met
by international humanitarian organizations such as like I mentioned earlier,
Doctors Without Borders and UNI STUFF, which have set up
reception centers to provide medical care and mental health services,
as well as access to essentials such as water, hygiene

(34:16):
and sanitation. At the time of this article, They wrote
that in March of twenty twenty four, the Panamanian government
suspended Doctors Without Borders operations in the country, but in
October of twenty twenty four, so a few months after
that happened, negotiations took place, and Doctors Without Borders is
currently operating in this region and at the exit point
of the dot E end gap. So that's why I

(34:39):
wanted to kind of use this episode to bring awareness
and also use my birthday to ask people to make
donations to Doctors Without Borders because doing this episode just
like it brought up again I'm gonna keep saying it
brought up so many feelings, but also I didn't want
this to be I'm trying really hard for this to
not be exploitative and for it to feel like I'm
doing this purely for entertainment purposes. Obviously, I want to

(35:01):
also educate and to start conversations with you all, and
so again I'm trying to do this as like respectfully
as I can and to kind of bring awareness to
the lengths that people are willing to go for again,
just a better shot at life, for better opportunities, which
I think is something that we already know but this
was something. I this the Dotti end Gap before during
this episode, I had no idea existed, and I knew that,

(35:23):
you know, journeys into the States were dangerous and were
life threatening. But again, hearing about about this one was
it sounds like a movie or something like. It sounds
almost not real. How terrifying it is or it must
be Okay, continuing, I'm gonna skip to the end here,
the last two paragraphs. Here this says, but to get

(35:43):
to the United States, migrants have to cross half a
dozen more borders, where they face the risk of being
stopped or deported. Even if they reach the southern US border,
a journey of roughly twenty five hundred miles from Central America,
many are turned away or expelled back to their home countries.
In April twenty twenty three, US officials announced they had
struck a deal with Colombia and Banama to shut down

(36:03):
the dot En Gap route. The proposed sixty day plan
was pitched as a part of a broader effort to
stem unexpected surge in the legal migration at the US
Mexico border. As part of the plan, launched in June,
Banama's government will dedicate some twelve hundred immigration agents, border police,
and naval Air Service members to combat transnational organized crime
in the jungle. So again, this is something that was

(36:25):
supposed to launch in twenty twenty three twenty twenty four.
Maybe A continues, but migrant numbers have only grown as
hundreds of thousands of people continue to flee worsening poverty
and unrest in the so called Northern Triangle countries of
El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras and beyond. In September twenty
twenty three, Panamanian authorities announced that they were increasing migrant

(36:45):
deportations and implementing stricter requirements for foreigners seeking short term
stays in the country. In July twenty twenty four, newly
elected Panamanian President Jose Mulino announced that US officials would
begin training Panamanian personnel to screen and deport migrants who
entered the country illegally. That same month, it was reported
that the Panamanian government had installed barbed wire fencing through

(37:05):
the jungle to dissuade crossings. This is some people's only option,
and now it is possibly turning into not an option,
even though they're you know, like we've said many times
willing to place their lives at huge risk, and I
think of anything, adding things like barbed wired fences only

(37:26):
adds to the danger. It only adds to the danger
because people are still going to try and make this journey,
and so throwing in fucking barred wire fences is only
going to make it harder and more dangerous for them
because they're still going to try. Who Okay, moving on
to the next one. This is from a website called
Thebanuel dot com. This was published by Mike Richard in
March of twenty twenty five. It's called inside the dot

(37:48):
een Gap, one of the world's most dangerous jungles. And
if you cannot say dot een, I've also heard this
referred to as Darien the Darien Gap, but it is
the Doten Gap. I wanted to you read here. Mike
put together kind of like a listicle of some of
the dangers some of the wildlife that people face in
the end Gap. So the first one here is a

(38:09):
fertilance pit viper. The furdilance pit viper is among the
most venomous creatures in the n Gap. They are irritable,
fast moving, and large enough to buit above your knees.
Anti venom usually solves the problem if you get bitten,
but if left untreated, the venom can cause local necrosis
or death of body tissue, leading to gangreen or, in
worst cases death. Conflict journalist Jason Motlag crossed the gap

(38:33):
in twenty sixteen for a Dateline story. After receiving his
group's anti venom kit and instructions. Before the crossing, he said,
if one of us is bitten, we have ten minutes
to inject the anti venom before death. We can only
carry six vials. If a larger pit viper were to strike,
the experts concedes no amount of anti venom would be
enough to save us. We might as well lie down

(38:54):
and smoke a cigarette until the lights go out. So
these snakes are all over the place here and the
next thing on this list is traffickers and FARC armed gorillas. FARC,
I think is the Spanish language acronym for the armed
forces of Colombia. But this says it's becoming increasingly difficult
to bring drugs into the US, so drug traffickers are
turning to other avenues. The lawlessness and lack of residents

(39:17):
make the Datien Gap a privilege path for smuggling cocaine
and other drugs on their journey from South America. So
that's another thing about this area is it's so rife
with crime because it's so like just geographically dangerous to
get in and out of, so basically authorities just don't
even try to get in there. So it's just kind
of like no man's land, so to speak. This continues.

(39:39):
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia have made a name
for themselves since nineteen sixty four, terrorizing the government and
many cities in Colombia. Many from the group have made
their home in the lawless jungles of the Datien Gap.
A backpacker from Sweden was shot in the head in
twenty thirteen and found two years later. Multiple others have
been kidnapped for weeks or months after venturing into the

(39:59):
gap since A piece still in twenty seventeen with the
United Nations. As I mentioned earlier, the group has reformed
into an official political party, but a few thousand rebels
still continue with drugs, arms, and human trafficking. The next
thing on this list is the Brazilian wandering spider. It
says spiders fill the jungles of the dat en gap.
But one of the most medically important that's in quotes.

(40:21):
Medically important is the Brazilian wandering spider. Medically important is
the nice term for you're going to have a really
bad day of this spie too. Is what this person
wrote here. It continues, this family of spiders, there are
more than one, has a like span of five to
seven inches. Oh, I just got chills. Oh this is gross.
I don't know if you if you have seen that
French film Infested. I've watched it twice. Now if you

(40:44):
have seen that movie, please let me know that one.
It was like a rachnophobia if you remember that movie.
Just spiders everywhere, huge spiders. Oh gross, Sorry, Okay. This
says they wander the jungle floor at night and love
to hide in people's hiking boots, logs, and banana plants.
They've been nicknamed the banana spider as that's often where
people run into them. Bites from the spider can put

(41:05):
you in the hospital, or from particularly bad ones cause
death in two to six hours. So it's like, you
don't know if you're bitten by one of these things,
if you're just gonna be really uncomfortable, or if it's
going to kill you. The next thing on this list
is black scorpions. Scorpions look like they're from another planet.
Mike writes, A few species prefer conditions. There's that word

(41:28):
against species. Species. A few species prefer conditions at Colombia
and Southern Panama and call the Datienne Gap home, including
the black scorpion. Black scorpions can be two to four
inches long and have black or reddish black coloring, which
gives them their name. They live under rocks and logs
and hunt for larvae and cockroaches at night. They are
part of the thick tailed scorpion family, giving them their

(41:50):
stocky appearance. The sting is very painful, but thankfully is
rarely deadly to humans as long as you are treated
in a safe amount of time. Next thing here is
the jungle heat and dirty water. Even the heat in
the jungle can put a serious dent in your mood.
Mike rights. Temperatures in the gap can reach a balmy
ninety five degrees fahrenheit with ninety five percent humidity, creating

(42:11):
a terrible problem if you run out of water with
trips through the gap. Averaging between here, he writes, twenty
to fifty days, but I've seen in other sources and
we said earlier it's around ten days, maybe more, depending
on how you're able to how well you're able to
traverse the gap. There's a lot of water in the
Datien Gap, but it is far from clean. Even a

(42:31):
sip can hold a host of viruses or parasites that
could ruin the rest of your trip, so a good
water filter is a must, this says. The next thing
on the list is spiked chunga palm trees or chunga
c hunnga spiked chunga palm trees. Many kinds of trees
call the jungle home, and the local people make use
of all of them. The fiber from the leaves of

(42:51):
the chunga palm is used to make everything from furniture
and hats to jewelry and fishing nets. Perhaps that's why
this palm has one of the best defenses of any
tree in the gap. Long black spines up to eight
inches long cover the chunga to prevent animals from climbing
and taking the fruit. Unfortunately for us, these spines are
covered in all sorts of bacteria. One brush with a
chunga and you might find yourself with infective puncture wounds

(43:14):
embedded with shards of chunga spines. This thing itself maybe
cannot kill you, but it can leave you susceptible to infection,
which could be very dangerous depending on how long you're
out there with no medical attention. The next thing is ticks,
which I think is pretty self explanatory. They can carry diseases.
Apparently they are all over this place when people go
to here. There's a story that he included here of

(43:35):
some backpackers that said that at the end of their
days that they just had to spend an hour or
so just picking ticks off of themselves and off of
their clothes. The next thing on the list is trench foot,
which was first described using during Napoleon's retreat from Russia
in the winter of eighteen twelve. This says, but the
name references a condition most common during World War One.
It starts with persistently wet skin that isn't allowed to dry.

(43:57):
Wet conditions and limited blood flow, which cause the tissue
to tingle or itch, often turn red or blue, and
eventually decay. Any open wounds quickly develop fungal infections. With
all of this happening in as little as ten hours.
It doesn't allow much time to fix the problem, which,
as we've mentioned before, the mud in this area will
suck onto your feet and like hold your shoes, and

(44:18):
by the end of the journey, for many people their
shoes are just gone or disintegrated. And so you know
they can get trench fit this way because it's such
a wet, wet region. The next one is buttflies. Buttflies
have always grossed me out. There are flies that can
lay eggs under your skin and then the larvae will
hatch and crawl out of your skin. So I don't

(44:38):
want to explain that too much more. But of course
that can leave you susceptible to infection as well. This
is one that really threw me for a loop. This
next one, they said, Mic wrote Cold War bombs. He said,
during the Cold War, the US military around thousands of
training missions inside the that Eend Gap, dropping bombs over
the jungle. Most of them detonated, however some did not.
Those bombs have been covered over by jungle growth and

(45:00):
are now hidden on the jungle floor under a thick
layer of vegetation. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, Mike says, of undetonated
explosive likely still lie in the jungle waiting for some
port and fortunate soul to step off the trail, what
little trail there is just a bit too far and
set off a massive explosion that's shocking to me. And
then the last two here, I think are pretty pretty
self explanatory. Are crocodiles and landslides ready to go ahead

(45:24):
and take a quick break. Welcome back, well friends. All right,
So this next rose I want to talk about is
from big think dot com. This says this travel vlogger

(45:46):
crossed the dot em Gap, the world's deadliest migrant route.
And this was published in July of twenty twenty four,
and it says two YouTubers followed South American migrants on
their journey to the US along the way they had
to verse the dot een Gap. This one says one
hundred mile long stretch of undeveloped jungle. Their recordings document
to the hardship migrants endured in search of a better life.

(46:09):
So this one says one hundred I think on average
of the route is like sixty miles, but again the
stretch of land, it just depends on how you traverse it. It
could be sixty. It could be more and I was
reading through this. I'm not going to read through this
for y'all, but this talks about these two YouTubers that
documented their journey. They walked side by side with migrants
to document what this journey was like, and the video

(46:29):
is in this article. But something I wanted to touch
on here that that they wrote in this article is
they talk about the survival mode that people go into.
And also, just if you care to look it up,
the YouTuber who documented this is Timmy Carter, So if
you search Timmy Carter dot een gap or dot eend,

(46:50):
it should pop up for you. But this says crossing
the Doten Gap is as much a physical challenge as
a mental one. The terrain is treacherous, changing from loose
gravel to muddy ground turned to quicksand by the rain
because many of them cannot swim. The Gomunantas or the
like the walkers, the people who are walking the route
hold hands when crossing rivers, the currents beating against their bodies.

(47:10):
Climbing up steep craggy hillsides holding onto thin old ropes
hitched up by previous migrants is hard and scary enough
as it is, but even harder and scarier when you're old, pregnant,
or carrying a tired toddler in your arms. Falling is
a constant fear. So they're talking about how because it's
so treacherous even if you get injured, you could be
left behind because no one's going to carry you there.

(47:32):
You have every person for themselves. It says, food and
water weigh you down. So the gomunantas enter the body
end gap with only the bare essentials. Carter and Rich
ran out of supplies halfway through the journey. By the
time they made it out of the jungle, their faces
had grown noticeably thin. This is a quote. It says
the most difficult part was was mentally though. Carter says,
you don't know when it will end. There is no
guide telling you how far you have to go, how

(47:53):
many days you have left. You just keep going. People
freak out and give up because they earlier in this
article they might that they paid for a guide through this,
and so I think whoever the guide was was someone
who was with one of those cartels, but that they
were talking about these guys because these guys kind of
stuck out. They were Russian and so they were like
what are Russians doing here? Like, why are they choosing

(48:14):
to go through this route? So they were suspicious of them. Yeah,
I mean it's dangerous if like people were suspicious of you,
if if you're not supposed to be there, which I
mean these guys I don't think were supposed to be there.
You know, it was dangerous for them to putting themselves
in that situation. Okay, this is a really hard part
to hear about. This says at one point they passed
a mother, father and baby sitting by the side of

(48:35):
the path begging for food from passers by. The other
Gamunantas just walked past them. Carter and Rich included the YouTubers.
They had already run out themselves, but even if they hadn't,
they doubt they would have given it to them. So
they saw these people begging for food a family, and

(48:55):
nobody gave them anything, whether they had it or not.
Like these YouTubers. They didn't give them anything because they
didn't have anything by that point, but they were saying
like they don't know they would have. And there's a
quote here that says, it's difficult to have compassion for
other people here in the dot een Rich confesses in
his YouTube video, which currently has over four point six
million views. Quote continues that sounds brutal and harsh when

(49:16):
you were sitting at home watching this video on the
internet in America, on your comfy homes in England, wherever
you are. But when you're here and it's a matter
of life or death, that's the reality of it. You
can either save yourself or you can save someone else.
And when it comes down to it, we're all selfish,
he said. Carter concurs. The first day I was there,
I thought, let's help people, he tells Big Think and
his video. He and Rich argue because Carter gave one

(49:39):
of their cans of tuna to a fellow gominante before
they run out, of course, something he admits he shouldn't
have done without prior discussion. As his energy decreased and
his hunger and thirst grew, he like everyone else in
the dot e en stopped helping others. You go into
survival mode. It's cruel, he said. Carter received some criticism
for making this video for this documentary and sharing it.

(50:00):
Of course, you know, like it was my kind of worry.
Here is and I don't know, I've never watched videos
from this person. I don't know them, so I would
assume that their thought process was maybe hoping to bring
attention to it, to show people what's happening. I think
it's been relevant for many years, but especially now. Like
I said earlier, what is happening right now with immigration
is extremely relevant, and I think it's I think it's

(50:21):
important to know. I think maybe to someone who for
some reason hasn't found empathy for immigrants, which is very weird,
can maybe see or hear about this and find that
empathy and find their humanity. I don't know why it
would take this, but anyway, this says. Although Carter has
received some criticism for his video, accusing him of exposing

(50:41):
the migrant route and capitalizing on the coman out this
suffering for clicks and likes, the vast majority of the
responses have been positive, with people believe in the video
to have both social and political value. There's a quote
here that says, I would like to thank you for
documenting this harsh reality. When comment on YouTube reads, I
went with my mother and my two little brothers of
four and five years. I was sixteen, my mother was

(51:02):
thirty seven. Thank you very much, for showing the world
the harsh reality that migrants go through. We are not
the face of a nation. We are people in need
of a better life. Okay. The next source that I
have here is actually from Doctors Without Borders, and this
is an entry called the Datien Gap A Nightmare with
one thousand to one Demons. This is published in twenty

(51:23):
twenty five. I'm not seeing a byeline who this was
written by, and there are some things when I was
reading through this source earlier that stuck out to me.
So one part of this says many of the people
who survived the droney across the Datien Gap are haunted
by the thought of those who were left behind, those
with injured feet or broken bones, too exhausted and too
weak to continue, who wait for rescue or aid that
may never arrive. This quote says I saw at least

(51:45):
ten dead bodies in the jungle, recalls nineteen year old Angel.
But the worst is the people who get left behind,
people who cannot climb the mountains, or who slip in
the rain and mud. It is a route where nobody waits.
You see people sitting down injured who might have been
there for days, waiting for death. Angel left Venezuela four
years ago and has been working in Cali, Colombia. Like

(52:06):
many migrants who arrive in Banama since the start of
the pandemic, Angel could no longer work and decided to
head towards the US. I'm going to jump ahead. That
says the future is uncertain for everyone in Bajo Chiquito,
where access to clean water, showers, and decent toilets is
limited or for some non existent. Eventually everyone will be
transferred to the reception stations in San Vicente and La

(52:27):
Jas Blancas, but from there they will have to make
their own way forward. Some migrants can afford to buy
a bus ticket north, but many cannot, and certain nationalities,
including Colombians, Ecuadorians, and Bolivians, are held for processing and
then deported. Those who have pending administrative or judicial processes,
for example, if they are seeking refugee status in Banama
or a witness in a case against traffickers, are held

(52:48):
at a migrant reception stations for weeks or months. Detained
people describe inadequate food and shelter, a lack of clean
water and showers, and no way to communicate with their families.
I'm going to read that one again. Detained people described
inadequate food and shelter, a lack of clean water and showers,
and no way to communicate with their families. But despite

(53:10):
the risks, people continue to attempt the journey. By the
end of July, around eight thousand migrants were waiting in
Necocric Colombia to start their trek through the dot een Gap.
They warn you from the US. This is a quote.
They warn you from the US. Don't do it. It's terrible,
says Juan. His group was assaulted by a group of
men with rifles and much at this. They took their money,
mobile phones, and food and raped the women in the group.

(53:33):
One continues, but you have to and you think, if
he did it, why can't I do it? But honestly,
don't do it. It's terrible. So even people who have done this,
maybe their feeling is that it's not worth it, depending
on what they went through, what they saw in this journey.
To many people, it is worth it to even attempt,

(53:56):
but then to even maybe make it across and then
to get deported after going through literal hell. Can't imagine.
I can't imagine that. Okay, So the last two sources
that I have here are there. It's talking about the
embeddra people that live in this area. I just wanted
to include this kind of as like an interesting fact

(54:16):
about this area that it's technically habitable, but like I
mentioned earlier, people kind of live in the shores or
the riverfronts of this area, not really in it. But
apparently this is also an area that has a lot
of artifacts, like pre colonial and colonial artifacts that they
just find. And so these last two sources, I'm not

(54:39):
going to go super into them, but I do want
to mention that it's really interesting because it talks about
what research is, like, what classifies as research, what classifies
as archaeology when it's indigenous people or people indigenous to
the area that are doing it. So yeah, it's just
like an interesting kind of food for thought kind of thing.
But the websites that they're from are this one is

(55:00):
just ResearchGate dot net and this is an article that's
called the Mbada Tourism and Indigenous Archaeology quote Rediscovering the
Past in Eastern Banama. This is published in twenty twelve,
and the other one is from sites dot Exeter, dot
ac dot uk for or from the University of Exeter.
It's titled The Last Ginchas Indigenous Embada and Spirits Entangled.

(55:22):
It doesn't so these two don't talk much or at
all about the Gap and like the journey through it,
but more so again about the Embadra people who live
on the Panamanian side of the province. Welcome back, girl friends.

(55:50):
Thank you once again for joining me for today's episode.
I know this one maybe was not the most fun
that we've had. Doing this episode kind of felt very
heavy for me just because of how based in reality
it is and what that reality is. It's again, it's

(56:11):
it's a real life horror story and it's tragic, and
so again I would be so so moved if you
all joined me in my fundraising for Doctors Without Borders,
specifically in honor of the work that they are doing
at the exit points of the een Gap and helping

(56:32):
these people after they've gone what they've gone through with
of course physical care, physical medical attention, and also mental
health services. Because again, if you've listened to the show,
if you've listened to me Rant and Rave, then you
know how I feel about addressing those things hand in
hand and holistically. And this is such a traumatic experience

(56:54):
I cannot even begin to imagine. So again, if you
would like to make a donation to my my birthday
fundraising campaign for Doctors Without Borders, you can visit events
dot Doctors without Borders dot org, slash campaigns slash Sustal. Again.
Links will be all over social media, and I'll include
it in the social media post about this episode and

(57:14):
in the show notes of this episode, of course. So
as always, if you would like to tell your own
scary story, if you have a photo, video, recording, anything
that you think I should share on your Letters from
the Beyond episode or on social media, please visit my
website that's sustalpodcast dot com and hit the submit a
story button. You can also visit my linktree link to
your dot ee slash sustal podcast and hit the tell

(57:35):
me a story button there. Again, Please please please reach
out to event organizers or send their information to me
for events during the spooky season. If you are an
event organizer, please hit me up. Let's work on something together.
I'm so excited to get out there as I am
every year, and we have those two events coming up.
Austin Public Library on the tenth Vidruise Branch and the
night Owls Spirit Social on Halloween Night. Thank you also

(57:59):
so much much. Happy birthday to me, Happy birthday to me,
Happy birthday to me. I am turning a lovely thirty
three and I am just so happy to be able
to celebrate my birthday with you all. I can't believe
it lined up perfectly. Yes I can. I'm a witch.
We're all witches, right, So thank you for being here.
I hope that you took something away from this episode.
If you would like to support the episode, of course,

(58:21):
the easiest way to do so is by interacting wherever
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A huge shout out to this episode's patrons. You are

(58:44):
Liza Rachel, Alejandra Luthor, April d Josette, Sam Mandy, Jules, Lori, Jeanie, Desiree,
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(59:08):
so much. Your support means the underworld to me. I
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not a sustas bye.