Darién Gap: One Of Planet Earth's Most Inhospitable Frontiers

There’s a good reason why there’s no road between North America and South America: the Darién Gap, a geographical chokepoint brimming with danger, disease, and violence. In times gone by, many considered the gap to be impassable, but in the 21st century, the region has become one of the busiest – and most perilous – human migration routes on the planet. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

The Darién Gap is a formidable patch of thick jungle found along a skinny portion of land over the borders of Panama and Colombia, occupying the narrow land bridge between South America and Central America.

In the 20th century, there was a big push to build a Pan-American Highway from Alaska to the southern tip of Argentina. It was lar