July 10, 2025

The Darién Gap

The Darién Gap
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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!

Become a Patron here!

WEBVTT

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A, Girlfriends, it's me Adrian or Aiden. Either way, I

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am still your host and you are still listening to Soustal,

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the podcast of ooky, spooky, scary stories from Latin American cultures.

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Welcome back, girlfriends. Thank you so much for returning. And

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if this is your first time, welcome, We've been waiting

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for you around the ceremonial summoning sacrificial circle. Just kidding,

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You're fine here, goolfriends. Hello, huge news, well, actually a

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couple of big things. So before I say what I

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was gonna say, I just want to wish a very

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happy ten year anniversary to jeff and myself. We tychnically

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our anniversary is on the fourth. It's July fourth, So sorry, America,

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the country. The fireworks are for us. Sorry, but not sorry. Actually, Jeffrey,

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as you know, is our resident co researcher and ghost

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writer and the love of my life. I'll say it

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very plainly. I cannot help it. I love that man.

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I have loved him for ten years and I will

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love him for the next a million. So happy anniversary

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to us, very excited. Ten years. A decade is a

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very long time to do anything, and it is the

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best thing I've done in my life is to be

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in love with him. So Jeff, if you hear this,

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I love you so much and I will move on

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before I cry, because I will. The next thing I

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was going to say is that today, Thursday, July tenth,

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is also my birthday. Not as exciting, but oh my god,

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ten years July tenth. Wow. Anyway, And normally I wouldn't

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say anything, but I am going to ask you all

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for a gift. So I'm just going to go ahead

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and reveal today's episode. So you've already seen it in

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the title today the show is about the do Em Gap,

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which is a real place between Columbia and Banama. And

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this is a migration route and it's a very dangerous one.

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And in doing this story, we decided to write a

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fictional story based off of this real place, based off

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of real experiences. This is one of those things where

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life reality is just one hundred times a thousand times

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more scary than any ghost story. So what I'm asking

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you all is to make a donation in honor of

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my birthday to Doctors Without Borders. Doctors without Borders, we

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found out in putting this story together, does a lot

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of work at one of the main locations that people

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come through too after making this journey, and I'm going

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to explain all about it, of course in the story,

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but also when we go over in the context of

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the episode after the story. I just wanted to preface

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it with this before we go into the story, so

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that it's on your minds as you're listening, and then

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we'll of course bring this up again after. But when

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under my birthday, I am running a fundraiser on Doctors

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Without Borders for a month, so from July tenth to

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August tenth, and you can learn more about it by

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visiting events dot Doctors Without Borders, dot org, slash campaigns

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slash sustal, and of course I will put links to

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this in my link tree that's linked your dot e

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slash sustal. I will also I'll put it in wherever

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I can put a link. I will put a link

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on my social pages and of course that's at Sustal

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podcast on every platform, so if you look at my

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social media pages, you will find where to go to

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that place. But again it's events, dot Doctors Without Boarders,

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dot org, slash campaigns, slash Sustal. I wrote just like

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the first number that came into my head is you

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can set a goal. I set a goal of five

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hundred dollars. We'll see what happens. I think any amount

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of money raised for this is amazing, is great, and

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if we somehow surpass that goal, that would be mind

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blowing and I would be so so happy and so

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honored and so excited and moved by everyone's willingness to

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donate and your compassion for the work that's being done

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not only in the exit of the dot een gap

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but around the world. So again, please visit that link,

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and I will also say just quick updates about the show.

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I have two events coming up in October. On the tenth,

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I will be at the Ruise Branch once more of

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the Austin Public Library doing another live storytelling session and discussion.

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The last one was so much fun. Again, thank you

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for having me Austin Public Library, and thank you to

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everybody who showed up and showed out. It was so

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much fun. So please make it out to the next one.

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Of course, I will be posting about those on social media.

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And on October thirty, first Halloween Night, I will be

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at the Spirit Social hosted by the Night Owl Podcast. Again.

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I did this event last year. I will be doing

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a panel. I will have a table present, so please

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come by say hi, have a blast on Halloween Night

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with me and all the other amazing creators that will

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be out there. More information will be coming about that

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and I will be posting about it, but that it

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means that I have a lot of space open for

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the rest of October. So, as I've always said, if

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you are someone who organizes events, if you know someone

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who's organizing an event, please reach out to me. If

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you see an event that you think that I should

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be involved in, send me the information and I will

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reach out to the organizers and lock me in. Book

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me up for the time in October. And also, you know, honestly,

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spooky season it usually always ramps up around August, in September,

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and then of course it's in full swing in October

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and then it kind of trickles into November sometimes December,

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so it's my busiest time of year. Of course, I

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am available all year long three six five through six

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five party Gool, but in Spooky season things get especially busy,

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so please please reach out to me. I'm always willing

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to work with other creators, with organizers to bring the

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spookiness to your events. So again, you can send me

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emails to Sustalpodcasts at gmail dot com. You can visit

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my socials and send me a DM that's at soostal

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Podcasts on every platform, or you can visit my website

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and hit the contact button. That's sustal podcast dot com.

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Before we get into today's story, I do want to

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let you know so that you aren't caught off guard,

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that there are mentions of assault through the story and

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the sources, So please be advised, as always, take care

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of yourselves. Now, let's go ahead and jump into the story,

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which is inspired by the dot En Gap. There's a

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place where the map breaks, where South and Central America

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are said to touch, but somehow don't, where the Pan

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American Highway ends and the wilderness begins. That place is

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called the dot e n Gap. It's not just a

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gap in geography, it's a gap in humanity, ina in safety,

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a place where the jungle takes and only sometimes gives back.

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The story you are about to hear is about a

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woman named Lucia and how she came to walk through

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that place alone, hunted and watched by things older than

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the trees themselves. Lucia was thirty four years old, a teacher,

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a mother, a woman who once believed life had rules.

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If she studied hard and worked honestly, things would work out.

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She lived in Maracaibo, Venezuela, where the lights flickered more

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than they stayed on. She had a daughter, Anita, just

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eleven years old. Her husband was gone, caught in a protest,

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never to return home. Lucia taught literature in a school

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that barely paid her enough to afford the basics, sometimes

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leaving her to pick up odd jobs or rat their food.

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Her refrigerator stopped working a year ago, so she sold

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it for parts. When Anita became sick, pale, coughing, fevered,

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the doctor said she needed special medication, medication that cost

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more than Lucilla earned in two months. She borrowed, she begged,

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and then one night she decided, I will go and

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will find a way to send for her. I'll go north.

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After making sure Anita would be looked after by family,

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she kissed her forehead while she slept and left before sunrise.

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The plan was to travel by bus and foot through Columbia,

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then cross into Panama through the jungle. Everyone knew about

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that een. They called it Elin fier no Vede, the

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green hell, but it was free, and that made it

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the only option. Once she was on the other side,

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she could find better paying work and money to her family.

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To Anita. In the Colombian town of Akandi, she joined

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a group of migrants preparing to cross, people young and old,

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even families with toddlers strapped to their backs. Their guide

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was a man called Elbana. He looked more like a

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predator than a guide. He was slim, angular, with a

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snake tattoo curling around his neck. He wore mirrored sunglasses

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even in the shade, and spoke like everything he said

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was a joke no one should laugh at. Lucilla didn't

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trust him, but what choice did she have. The night

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before crossing, as the migrants cooked over small fires, a

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woman appeared. She was part of the indigenous and Beda

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people of the region, with long black hair and beads

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that shimmered like river stones. She said little, just stood

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at the edge of the group. When she finally spoke,

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it was to Lucia, there are places in that jungle

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that don't belong to people. Places the world forgot to

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tame some places that the earth protects. When the trees

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stop speaking, when the wind feels wrong, turn around and

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leave that place. Lucilla nodded, unsure whether to take the

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words as myth, metaphor or something else. The woman's last

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words lingered. The man who leads you will betray you,

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but the dadienne will only take those who stop listening.

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They entered the jungle just after sunrise. The first challenge

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was mud, not soft, doughy mud. It was deep, clinging,

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sucking mud that tried to steal shoes and refused to

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let go. Every step was a fight. Then came the

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hills that were more like walls of c Gaminants climbed

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on all fours, slipping, scraping hands raw. Lucilla helped an

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older woman who was hyperventilating. No one else stopped. The

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heat was relentless, Sweat poured from bodies. The air was

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so thick it felt like breathing through a damp cloth.

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Rivers had to be crossed chest deep, with currents strong

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enough to steal your footing if you hesitated. The water

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stung with insects. One man dropped his pack in a

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current and tried to chase it. He didn't come back.

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He would be the first to get separated, but not

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the last. Elbana said nothing, just lit a cigarette. On

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the night of day two, they slept on the wet

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ground under makeshift tarps of plastic and sticks, but the

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jungle never slept. It groaned, buzzed, hissed. That night, Lusia

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heard the first cries, human but not distant, drawn out,

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like something calling for help, but never getting closer. Others

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heard it too. No one moved. Then came the lights,

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white blue orbs, floating between trees, low to the ground.

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They moved like they were watching, waiting. When someone tried

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to walk toward them, they vanished. El Bana grunted, ghosts,

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don't kill you, snakes will sleep. No one slept so

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much as they waited in torment. They lost the next

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member of their group on the evening of day three.

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There was a boy named Raphael. He was seventeen, very

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quiet and polite. He helped Lucia across a ravine, once

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offering his arm. He never spoke unless spoken to. That night,

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Ye walked twenty feet from the group to relieve himself.

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He never came back. They called for him, searched the

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brush with flashlights, nothing, not even footprints. Elbana muttered something

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about jaguars, but no one believed it. Something had taken him.

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They left without him. At dawn on the fourth day,

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Elbana stopped the group. The prices changed. He said, no

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more charity. You want to finish. Pay again. Some protested.

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He raised his machete. Lucilla gave him her last American dollars.

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The emergency stash meant for Anita's medicine. It wasn't enough.

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That night, he looked at the women. You can pay

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another way. The threat hung in the air like his

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cigarette smoke. One of his men grabbed a girl barely

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out of her teens. Lucilla didn't wait. She ran into

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the dark, into the jungle alone. She didn't know how long.

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She ran hours, maybe more. Branches tore at her clothes,

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roots caught her feet, but she never stopped. Eventually the

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jungle quieted too quiet. She was alone. She was just

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another person, separated from the group. She knew they wouldn't

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look for her. No guides, no maps, no group. Then

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a whisper in her mind, west head west. The fifth

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day dragged on for what felt like forever. She rash

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into what little she had, drank rain water from leaves,

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sucked a juice from the green guava, tied her shoes

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with strips of her torn shirt. She hallucinated voices at night, sobbing, whimpering.

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Once she heard a baby crying. It reminded her of

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an Anita's own cries as an infant. She needed to

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help the baby. She followed the sound through the dark

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for half an hour before realizing the jungle was playing

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tricks on her. There was no baby. By the morning

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of the sixth day, Lucilla's body was no longer her own.

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It had become something separate. It was an aching, blistering vessel,

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pulled forward only by stubborn will and the memory of

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her daughter's smile. Her feet, wrapped in the remains of

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her socks and shredded shoes, throbbed with every step. Her

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lips had cracked days ago. Her belly no longer growled,

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It just ached with a dull, quiet desperation. The forest

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canopy pressed close around her, thick as a roof of

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green iron, filtering the sun into a dim and sour light.

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Every breath was warm and wet and tasted faintly of rot.

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She had slept the night before under the roots of

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a fallen tree, curled like an animal, waking every few

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00:16:05.759 --> 00:16:09.159
hours to swat at biding flies or listen to distant

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sounds that might have been human or animal, both equally

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as dangerous. In the Datienne, the line between dreams and

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00:16:17.679 --> 00:16:21.840
waking started to blur. She walked for hours that morning,

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moving west as best she could, trusting the faint direction

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of the sun and the slope of the land. At

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one point she slipped into a gully, her knee smashing

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against a buried root. She screamed, sharp, involuntary, and sobbed

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once before pushing herself up again. She had long since

250
00:16:43.440 --> 00:16:48.360
stopped expecting rescue, and then as she climbed another ridge,

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slick with moss and loose clay, her head broke the

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tree line and she saw it a clearing, a wide,

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flat patch of land, nestled in the jungle rea trees,

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but free of underbrush, no vines, no thorns, no shadows,

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00:17:06.480 --> 00:17:11.720
just open space. At first, Lucille gasped, not in fear,

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but in relief. An open place meant safety, sight lines,

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a chance to sit with her back to a tree,

258
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and to see any predator or person approaching. She thought, here, here,

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00:17:24.359 --> 00:17:28.480
I can breathe, maybe sleep, maybe prey to the heavens

260
00:17:28.480 --> 00:17:32.759
for help. She stepped forward, her heart lifting for the

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00:17:32.799 --> 00:17:37.160
first time in days. That was when the jungle went quiet.

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No birds, no bugs, no wind. Not even the leaves moved.

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The shift was sudden, like someone flipping a switch. Lucilla

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00:17:49.440 --> 00:17:54.519
paused midstep. She turned in a slow circle. The air

265
00:17:54.720 --> 00:17:59.240
was perfectly still. The canopy above the clearing was too clean.

266
00:18:00.160 --> 00:18:05.119
It had been rearranged, pruned. A circle of light bathed

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the ground, but it wasn't sunlight as she knew it.

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It felt too white, too exact, as if it had

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been painted on the space. In the center of the

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00:18:16.480 --> 00:18:21.319
clearing stood a structure, or perhaps a formation of stones,

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00:18:22.000 --> 00:18:26.039
not natural, smooth and black, each one the size of

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00:18:26.079 --> 00:18:31.119
a football, stacked in a precise spiral. The spiral coiled

273
00:18:31.160 --> 00:18:34.559
inward and upward into a narrow column as tall as

274
00:18:34.559 --> 00:18:38.240
her chest. There were no carvings, but the surface of

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00:18:38.279 --> 00:18:42.920
the stones shimmered faintly, like they were sweating or breathing.

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The surrounding trees stood like guards, tall, perfectly spaced, no

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00:18:50.039 --> 00:18:54.160
branches lower than twenty feet up. Their trunks were too smooth,

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almost like polished wood, not a scratch on them. The

279
00:18:58.839 --> 00:19:02.839
ground was dry. No insects crawled here, no fungi, no

280
00:19:03.000 --> 00:19:08.200
fallen leaves. It was too perfect. And her own breathing,

281
00:19:08.920 --> 00:19:12.839
her own heart beat, sounded too loud in this place.

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The words from the imbedab woman returned to her then,

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00:19:17.240 --> 00:19:21.519
as if carried on some windless current. When the trees

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00:19:21.759 --> 00:19:28.400
stop speaking, when the wind feels wrong, turn around and

285
00:19:28.640 --> 00:19:35.920
leave that place. Lucia took a step backward. Her foot

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00:19:35.960 --> 00:19:40.240
caught on nothing. She stumbled. Her hand reached out to

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00:19:40.279 --> 00:19:42.920
steady herself against a near by tree, but her palm

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00:19:43.000 --> 00:19:47.599
never made contact. Instead, she felt cold, a rush of

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00:19:47.680 --> 00:19:51.160
air that passed through her like needles, not just on

290
00:19:51.240 --> 00:19:55.759
her skin but in her bones, a deep, unnatural chill

291
00:19:55.839 --> 00:20:01.039
that seemed to whisper, you do not belong here. Her

292
00:20:01.039 --> 00:20:06.119
teeth began to chatter. The cold wasn't physical, not entirely,

293
00:20:06.599 --> 00:20:09.480
It was spiritual. It was the kind of cold you

294
00:20:09.519 --> 00:20:12.799
felt at the edge of a grave, a place where

295
00:20:12.880 --> 00:20:18.519
something unseen brushes against you, not with malice, but with indifference.

296
00:20:19.680 --> 00:20:22.480
She saw the spiral stones flicker for just a moment,

297
00:20:22.960 --> 00:20:27.279
as if something invisible had moved around them, a distortion,

298
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a breath, a veil parting. She heard no voices, but

299
00:20:32.920 --> 00:20:35.799
she understood. This was not a place meant for the living.

300
00:20:36.640 --> 00:20:41.279
It wasn't haunted, it wasn't cursed. It was sacred, and

301
00:20:41.400 --> 00:20:46.119
it was guarded. The veil is thin here, she whispered aloud,

302
00:20:46.720 --> 00:20:52.839
barely breathing too thin. Her legs responded before her mind did.

303
00:20:53.440 --> 00:20:56.880
She backed out of the clearing, step by step, eyes

304
00:20:56.960 --> 00:21:00.359
never leaving the center. Only when the insects came began

305
00:21:00.400 --> 00:21:04.039
buzzing again. Only when the trees once more rustled faintly

306
00:21:04.079 --> 00:21:07.480
did she turn and flee. She didn't stop until the

307
00:21:07.519 --> 00:21:10.880
sound of her footfalls were masked again by the familiar

308
00:21:11.000 --> 00:21:14.440
chaos of the jungle. Only then did she collapse to

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00:21:14.480 --> 00:21:18.359
her knees, sobbing, not out of fear, but out of

310
00:21:18.440 --> 00:21:23.519
overwhelming understanding. The jungle had let her see and let

311
00:21:23.559 --> 00:21:26.799
her leave, But if she had stayed even a few

312
00:21:26.839 --> 00:21:30.559
minutes more, she didn't want to imagine what would have happened.

313
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After the clearing came a swamp, waist deep, thick with

314
00:21:36.079 --> 00:21:40.480
leeches and decay. Each step was a gambol of solid

315
00:21:40.519 --> 00:21:45.359
ground or a sinkhole. Her skin was raw, her thighs chafed,

316
00:21:45.680 --> 00:21:50.680
her shoes had disintegrated. She walked on blistered, bleeding feet.

317
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Then came the hunger days of only leaves and mud

318
00:21:55.240 --> 00:21:58.680
thick water she knew would make her sick. She chewed

319
00:21:58.720 --> 00:22:02.599
bark just to keep her jaw moving. She thought of Anita,

320
00:22:02.720 --> 00:22:05.720
to keep herself sane. It would all be worth it

321
00:22:05.839 --> 00:22:11.000
to save Anita. Two more days passed after Lucia fled

322
00:22:11.079 --> 00:22:15.000
the clearing, the place where time and sound had disappeared

323
00:22:15.559 --> 00:22:18.079
and the jungle had shown her a sliver of the

324
00:22:18.119 --> 00:22:21.519
spirit world. But what haunted her more than the cold

325
00:22:21.680 --> 00:22:26.279
or the silence was how beautiful the place had been designed,

326
00:22:26.759 --> 00:22:32.599
measured intentional. She had nearly stayed now on the eighth day,

327
00:22:33.119 --> 00:22:37.720
her mind was fraying, her body too. She hadn't eaten

328
00:22:37.799 --> 00:22:41.759
in nearly two days. Her legs trembled, her lips bled

329
00:22:41.799 --> 00:22:44.680
when she moved her mouth, which she rarely did anymore.

330
00:22:45.160 --> 00:22:48.720
She walked through waste, deep black water, tugged forward by

331
00:22:48.759 --> 00:22:52.799
pure instinct. She climbed a slope so steep she had

332
00:22:52.920 --> 00:22:55.799
to dig hand hold into the earth and pray the

333
00:22:55.920 --> 00:23:00.519
roots she grabbed didn't tear loose. She was surviving, but

334
00:23:00.680 --> 00:23:05.359
just barely. And worse than the hunger, worse than the exhaustion,

335
00:23:06.119 --> 00:23:10.839
was being alone. No voices, no other heartbeat to match hers,

336
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just the endless throb of the forest, the groaning creak

337
00:23:16.000 --> 00:23:20.599
of trees, and the occasional half heard whisper of something

338
00:23:20.680 --> 00:23:27.119
moving just behind her, never close, never far, just lingering.

339
00:23:28.839 --> 00:23:32.000
After two more days of walking through the treacherous jungle,

340
00:23:32.279 --> 00:23:36.200
heading west, she heard an engine. At first she thought

341
00:23:36.240 --> 00:23:41.000
she was dreaming, Then she smelt exhaust. She clawed through

342
00:23:41.039 --> 00:23:45.079
a wall of vines and emerged blinking onto highway. One

343
00:23:45.799 --> 00:23:48.799
her legs gave out. The jungle had let her go.

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One of the truck drivers stopped and asked if she

345
00:23:52.480 --> 00:23:55.839
needed help. Without waiting for her to respond, he motioned

346
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for her to hop into the bed of the truck.

347
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Despite it being the middle of the day, She quickly

348
00:24:01.000 --> 00:24:04.440
fell asleep. During the ride, Lucilla made it to a

349
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refugee center in Panama. Half of her original group had

350
00:24:08.119 --> 00:24:11.079
made it there as well. They told her that Albana

351
00:24:11.200 --> 00:24:14.960
had vanished one night. He had just disappeared into the trees,

352
00:24:15.400 --> 00:24:20.039
leaving them lost. Some thought he fled. Others whispered that

353
00:24:20.119 --> 00:24:24.799
the jungle had taken him. No one searched from there.

354
00:24:24.839 --> 00:24:27.559
She rejoined the remnants of the group and moved north,

355
00:24:28.279 --> 00:24:33.640
step by aching step into Costa Rica, then Nicaragua and beyond.

356
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Each new country brought more fences, more lines to wade in,

357
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more questions from people who had never known hunger in

358
00:24:41.359 --> 00:24:44.799
their bones the way she did. She spent nights in

359
00:24:44.839 --> 00:24:49.640
crowded shelters, days pressed into the backs of trucks and buses,

360
00:24:50.079 --> 00:24:54.160
wrapped in heat and fear. She sold her last necklace

361
00:24:54.200 --> 00:24:57.319
for a ride. She borrowed a stranger's phone, just to

362
00:24:57.359 --> 00:25:01.720
hear Anita's voice for one blessed minute. She told herself

363
00:25:02.000 --> 00:25:06.559
again and again, the hardest part is behind me. I

364
00:25:06.640 --> 00:25:09.519
made it through the jungle. I crossed the place where

365
00:25:09.559 --> 00:25:12.839
the world ends. If I can just make it to Texas,

366
00:25:12.920 --> 00:25:15.720
I can work, I can send money, I can bring

367
00:25:15.720 --> 00:25:20.400
Anita back to me. But Lucia didn't yet know what

368
00:25:20.480 --> 00:25:24.160
waited beyond that final border. She didn't know how many

369
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kinds of wilderness there were. She had faced silence in

370
00:25:28.400 --> 00:25:32.039
the heart of the earth, but in the land of

371
00:25:32.160 --> 00:25:36.680
walls and policies, she would learn there are places just

372
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as dangerous as the dai Enn, Welcome back, well friends,

373
00:25:57.279 --> 00:26:00.640
thank you so much for listening to that story. Immediately,

374
00:26:00.680 --> 00:26:02.799
I just want to say that, of course we took

375
00:26:02.839 --> 00:26:07.400
creative liberties when writing a fictional story on a show

376
00:26:07.440 --> 00:26:09.759
that is about the paranormal. Of course we weaved in.

377
00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:12.319
I mean, this whole story was a fiction, right based

378
00:26:12.440 --> 00:26:16.440
off of accounts of people who have been through the

379
00:26:16.599 --> 00:26:19.799
that een Gap. But we wrote a story based off

380
00:26:19.839 --> 00:26:21.920
of this. I'm going to jump into the sources. I

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00:26:21.960 --> 00:26:25.519
will say as I was going through the sources, it

382
00:26:25.640 --> 00:26:28.400
was really hard and it was really emotional for me,

383
00:26:28.839 --> 00:26:32.400
especially with everything going on right now. I'm simply not

384
00:26:32.440 --> 00:26:35.240
a bystander but a witness right to what's happening in

385
00:26:35.279 --> 00:26:38.000
the world right now, and so it was a little

386
00:26:38.039 --> 00:26:39.640
rough for me. And I'm just going to say that.

387
00:26:39.640 --> 00:26:42.359
I'm just going to preface that because I mean, they,

388
00:26:42.480 --> 00:26:46.880
like we mentioned earlier, they refer to the that een

389
00:26:47.079 --> 00:26:50.759
Gap as Ellen Fierro Noveda or the Green Hell. There

390
00:26:50.799 --> 00:26:53.319
have been other places that are called that, but I

391
00:26:53.319 --> 00:26:57.119
think this one also definitely earns that name. So we're

392
00:26:57.119 --> 00:26:59.839
going to jump into the sources, and this first one

393
00:27:00.160 --> 00:27:05.680
is from ACFR dot org or the Council of I

394
00:27:05.680 --> 00:27:09.279
Think Foreign Relations, and this is an article titled Crossing

395
00:27:09.319 --> 00:27:12.319
the dot een Gap Migrants risk death on the journey

396
00:27:12.319 --> 00:27:15.000
to the US. Again, all direct links are on Patreon

397
00:27:15.039 --> 00:27:17.839
dot com, slash Cystal podcast. But again this is CFR

398
00:27:17.880 --> 00:27:20.359
dot org. So just to this does a really great

399
00:27:20.400 --> 00:27:23.279
job of explaining exactly what this place is. And this says,

400
00:27:23.319 --> 00:27:26.279
and also this was published by Dana Roy. The photo

401
00:27:26.400 --> 00:27:31.279
editor was Sabina Baumgardner in July of twenty twenty four,

402
00:27:31.359 --> 00:27:33.599
so about a year ago. This says the dot een

403
00:27:33.720 --> 00:27:36.240
Gap is an imposing obstacle on one of the world's

404
00:27:36.240 --> 00:27:40.119
most dangerous migration routes. The remote roadless crossing on the

405
00:27:40.160 --> 00:27:44.000
border between Columbia and Banama consists of more than sixty

406
00:27:44.079 --> 00:27:48.160
miles of dense rainforest, steep mountains, and vast swamps. It

407
00:27:48.240 --> 00:27:52.279
is the only overland path connecting Central and South America.

408
00:27:52.559 --> 00:27:55.000
Over the past few years, it has become a leading

409
00:27:55.079 --> 00:27:58.039
transit point for migrants in search of work and safety

410
00:27:58.079 --> 00:28:01.440
in the United States, as authorities have on other routes

411
00:28:01.480 --> 00:28:04.839
by air and see. I think the first question that

412
00:28:04.880 --> 00:28:07.559
some people may have when hearing about this journey and

413
00:28:07.640 --> 00:28:11.519
this route is why would people risk their lives knowing

414
00:28:11.720 --> 00:28:14.640
that this place is a risk is it's extremely dangerous.

415
00:28:14.640 --> 00:28:17.000
Why would they enter this because you know, as it's

416
00:28:17.000 --> 00:28:20.400
said here is there has been a crackdown on other routes,

417
00:28:20.440 --> 00:28:22.880
whether by flying or by boat. And even then it

418
00:28:23.039 --> 00:28:26.160
said that the waters in that kind of area, that

419
00:28:26.160 --> 00:28:28.359
that region or surrounding that region, that the water can

420
00:28:28.400 --> 00:28:32.640
also be dangerous. But it's kind of like the last resort, right,

421
00:28:33.000 --> 00:28:36.000
I think obviously people would not knowingly put their lives

422
00:28:36.039 --> 00:28:38.599
at risk if they didn't have to, if they had

423
00:28:38.640 --> 00:28:41.599
another choice, and for many people, this is the only choice.

424
00:28:41.720 --> 00:28:44.759
This continues here. There are great pictures in this in

425
00:28:44.799 --> 00:28:46.400
this article as well. I'm going to try and post

426
00:28:46.480 --> 00:28:49.079
some on the socials of course, and in the video

427
00:28:49.119 --> 00:28:51.559
as we go along. This says or this continues. However,

428
00:28:51.680 --> 00:28:55.240
migrants face many challenges on this land journey northward, including

429
00:28:55.240 --> 00:28:58.519
treacherous terrain, exposure to disease, and violence at the hands

430
00:28:58.519 --> 00:29:01.400
of criminal groups. As the number of migrants grows, with

431
00:29:01.480 --> 00:29:04.119
more than half a million making the trek in twenty

432
00:29:04.240 --> 00:29:07.160
twenty three, so too does the impact on the indigenous

433
00:29:07.160 --> 00:29:11.279
communities whose lands they often traverse. International aid organizations have

434
00:29:11.359 --> 00:29:14.119
sought to manage the crisis by setting up temporary housing

435
00:29:14.200 --> 00:29:17.839
and providing basic services to those arriving in Banama, even

436
00:29:17.920 --> 00:29:20.839
as the Panamanian government has announced new measures to crack

437
00:29:20.880 --> 00:29:23.960
down on migrants and asylum seekers entering the country. So,

438
00:29:24.279 --> 00:29:26.839
of course, and there are references. A little bit later,

439
00:29:27.000 --> 00:29:30.359
there is reference to an indigenous woman in this story,

440
00:29:30.519 --> 00:29:34.119
and this is from the Embda people. They are an

441
00:29:34.200 --> 00:29:38.519
Amerindian indigenous group in this area. They're said to live

442
00:29:38.599 --> 00:29:41.920
in the da En province or region, but it is

443
00:29:42.200 --> 00:29:43.559
I looked it up and I was looking at the map,

444
00:29:43.599 --> 00:29:44.960
and I'll see if I can put a picture in

445
00:29:45.039 --> 00:29:47.920
the video here too. They live along the riverbanks and

446
00:29:47.960 --> 00:29:51.599
the shores of Banama near the Dadian so they are

447
00:29:51.599 --> 00:29:53.640
not like in the thick of it, but they do

448
00:29:53.880 --> 00:29:57.039
technically live in that area. There's also a picture here

449
00:29:57.119 --> 00:30:02.240
that highlights what the En gap is between Panama and Colombia. Oftentimes,

450
00:30:02.279 --> 00:30:04.640
the way that people make this journey is is by

451
00:30:04.640 --> 00:30:08.559
other means of transportation. They'll go to this city called

452
00:30:08.680 --> 00:30:11.519
Niko KLi and then from there they take an hour

453
00:30:11.640 --> 00:30:15.079
ferry to a Gandhi, which is technically also in the

454
00:30:15.119 --> 00:30:17.400
Datian Gap. But it's kind of like the closest you

455
00:30:17.440 --> 00:30:19.759
can get to the exit of it on the other side,

456
00:30:19.799 --> 00:30:21.359
you know what I mean. So it's like the shortest

457
00:30:21.400 --> 00:30:24.119
route possible, I'm assuming because this place it does stretch

458
00:30:24.359 --> 00:30:27.359
pretty long, more than sixty miles. But the route that

459
00:30:27.359 --> 00:30:30.039
people take is said to be on average from each

460
00:30:30.079 --> 00:30:32.640
source that we've seen, was about sixty miles. And it's

461
00:30:32.640 --> 00:30:35.559
also said that this route can take anywhere from five

462
00:30:35.680 --> 00:30:38.599
days to ten days. That it just depends on the

463
00:30:38.720 --> 00:30:42.039
weather because again, as mentioned, there's tons of mud, and

464
00:30:42.119 --> 00:30:44.440
it's like there's pictures in this as well. The mud.

465
00:30:44.440 --> 00:30:46.279
You can tell it's like kind of soupy. It's that

466
00:30:46.319 --> 00:30:48.839
consisting that you get stuck in really easy. And this

467
00:30:48.960 --> 00:30:51.559
is also known as the wettest region of the world,

468
00:30:51.680 --> 00:30:55.519
so it rains a lot. But also it is extremely hot,

469
00:30:55.640 --> 00:30:57.440
so I think it says on average that it's about

470
00:30:57.519 --> 00:31:00.920
ninety five degrees with like ninety five percent humidity, So

471
00:31:01.200 --> 00:31:04.680
it is treacherous. It's dangerous. You know, people pass out

472
00:31:04.720 --> 00:31:07.559
from the heat and from dehydration on this route. I'm

473
00:31:07.559 --> 00:31:10.720
skipping ahead. In this source, there's a section here called

474
00:31:10.720 --> 00:31:14.039
faced with Danger, and this says once in Akandi migrants

475
00:31:14.039 --> 00:31:17.079
will head for the Een Gap Jungle, a dangerous hike

476
00:31:17.160 --> 00:31:19.000
that can take ten or more days. I don't know

477
00:31:19.000 --> 00:31:20.440
where I got five days from. That's my about ten

478
00:31:20.480 --> 00:31:22.759
or more days. Many paid to be led by local

479
00:31:22.799 --> 00:31:26.680
guides or goyotas. Along the route are smugglers and criminal groups,

480
00:31:26.720 --> 00:31:30.640
including members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which

481
00:31:30.680 --> 00:31:33.440
I think is said now to be officially recognized as

482
00:31:33.480 --> 00:31:37.880
a political party by the government, but they still have

483
00:31:38.079 --> 00:31:41.000
like factions that are pretty violent and that still deal

484
00:31:41.119 --> 00:31:44.400
with trafficking and drugs and that kind of thing. This continues,

485
00:31:44.440 --> 00:31:47.920
and the Gulf Clan, a paramilitary group and Colombia's largest

486
00:31:48.000 --> 00:31:51.880
drug cartel. These groups often extort and sexually assault migrants.

487
00:31:52.000 --> 00:31:54.920
There's a quote here that says, deep in the Jungle, robbery, rape,

488
00:31:54.960 --> 00:31:58.480
and human trafficking are as dangerous as wild animals, insects,

489
00:31:58.599 --> 00:32:01.359
and the absolute lack of safe drinking water. And that

490
00:32:01.400 --> 00:32:03.799
was a quote by John Guff, the Regional director for

491
00:32:03.880 --> 00:32:07.519
Latin America and the Caribbean at the UN Children's Fund

492
00:32:08.000 --> 00:32:10.359
or UNICEF. He said that in in October twenty twenty

493
00:32:10.359 --> 00:32:13.279
one years release. He continues, week after week, more children

494
00:32:13.400 --> 00:32:16.079
are dying, losing their parents, or getting separated from their

495
00:32:16.079 --> 00:32:19.559
relatives while on this perilous journey. UNITSEF estimated that half

496
00:32:19.559 --> 00:32:21.920
of the children who crossed in the first six months

497
00:32:21.920 --> 00:32:24.640
of twenty twenty three were under five years old. And

498
00:32:24.680 --> 00:32:29.000
I believe in the first six months of twenty twenty

499
00:32:29.079 --> 00:32:32.960
three there was sixty deaths. So that's like ten deaths

500
00:32:33.000 --> 00:32:35.680
per month of people trying to make it through the

501
00:32:35.759 --> 00:32:38.599
dotti En Gap. And again, people are taking their children,

502
00:32:38.720 --> 00:32:41.920
and God, it's terrifying. It's terrifying to think of anybody

503
00:32:41.960 --> 00:32:45.000
doing this, but to think of children and children being

504
00:32:45.039 --> 00:32:48.440
taken through here and by no means, by no means

505
00:32:48.480 --> 00:32:50.920
at all. Am I trying to pass judgment. I'm just

506
00:32:50.920 --> 00:32:53.319
thinking about how much scary scary it might be for

507
00:32:53.440 --> 00:32:56.279
kids and for the parents trying to get their kids across.

508
00:32:56.319 --> 00:33:00.559
Like again, I don't think anybody would do this willingly

509
00:33:00.640 --> 00:33:02.920
if this was not the only option. And so I'm

510
00:33:02.960 --> 00:33:06.079
trying really hard to stay calm about this because you

511
00:33:06.160 --> 00:33:10.160
all know my stance on like immigration and the way

512
00:33:10.200 --> 00:33:13.599
that migrants and immigrants are treated, and so learning about

513
00:33:13.599 --> 00:33:16.880
this and learning about the hell that people go through,

514
00:33:16.920 --> 00:33:19.200
that people put themselves through for a chance at a

515
00:33:19.240 --> 00:33:21.920
better life. It boils my blood and it makes me

516
00:33:22.359 --> 00:33:25.400
I can't even get into it. You know, if you

517
00:33:25.480 --> 00:33:28.519
know me, you know so I'll I'm just gonna continue here.

518
00:33:28.599 --> 00:33:31.640
This says the environment presents an equally large challenge. The

519
00:33:31.720 --> 00:33:33.920
dot Een Gap is one of the wettest regions in

520
00:33:33.960 --> 00:33:37.279
the world. Here we go, and frequent rainfall can trigger landslides.

521
00:33:37.319 --> 00:33:41.640
In the mountainous terrain, temperatures can reach ninety five degrees fahrenheit,

522
00:33:41.799 --> 00:33:47.000
with high humidity, exacerbating persistent thirst and hunger. The area's wildlife,

523
00:33:47.000 --> 00:33:50.680
including crocodiles and venomous snakes, add to the dangers migrants face.

524
00:33:50.920 --> 00:33:52.759
It says here, I'm gonna skip ahead again. This is

525
00:33:52.799 --> 00:33:54.920
a section called heading for the United States, it says.

526
00:33:54.960 --> 00:33:59.119
Another common exit point is the indigenous village of Ghanan Membryo,

527
00:33:59.640 --> 00:34:03.279
but there at the Bajochigito exit point, they are met

528
00:34:03.319 --> 00:34:07.200
by international humanitarian organizations such as like I mentioned earlier,

529
00:34:07.279 --> 00:34:10.000
Doctors Without Borders and UNI STUFF, which have set up

530
00:34:10.039 --> 00:34:13.480
reception centers to provide medical care and mental health services,

531
00:34:13.519 --> 00:34:16.239
as well as access to essentials such as water, hygiene

532
00:34:16.239 --> 00:34:18.960
and sanitation. At the time of this article, They wrote

533
00:34:18.960 --> 00:34:21.559
that in March of twenty twenty four, the Panamanian government

534
00:34:21.679 --> 00:34:25.119
suspended Doctors Without Borders operations in the country, but in

535
00:34:25.159 --> 00:34:27.960
October of twenty twenty four, so a few months after

536
00:34:28.000 --> 00:34:31.960
that happened, negotiations took place, and Doctors Without Borders is

537
00:34:32.039 --> 00:34:35.440
currently operating in this region and at the exit point

538
00:34:35.559 --> 00:34:39.000
of the dot E end gap. So that's why I

539
00:34:39.039 --> 00:34:42.119
wanted to kind of use this episode to bring awareness

540
00:34:42.199 --> 00:34:45.119
and also use my birthday to ask people to make

541
00:34:45.119 --> 00:34:48.360
donations to Doctors Without Borders because doing this episode just

542
00:34:48.519 --> 00:34:50.719
like it brought up again I'm gonna keep saying it

543
00:34:50.719 --> 00:34:52.679
brought up so many feelings, but also I didn't want

544
00:34:52.719 --> 00:34:55.639
this to be I'm trying really hard for this to

545
00:34:55.679 --> 00:34:57.639
not be exploitative and for it to feel like I'm

546
00:34:57.639 --> 00:35:01.000
doing this purely for entertainment purposes. Obviously, I want to

547
00:35:01.000 --> 00:35:04.159
also educate and to start conversations with you all, and

548
00:35:04.239 --> 00:35:07.039
so again I'm trying to do this as like respectfully

549
00:35:07.039 --> 00:35:09.920
as I can and to kind of bring awareness to

550
00:35:10.440 --> 00:35:13.920
the lengths that people are willing to go for again,

551
00:35:14.119 --> 00:35:16.639
just a better shot at life, for better opportunities, which

552
00:35:16.679 --> 00:35:18.320
I think is something that we already know but this

553
00:35:18.480 --> 00:35:20.840
was something. I this the Dotti end Gap before during

554
00:35:20.880 --> 00:35:23.599
this episode, I had no idea existed, and I knew that,

555
00:35:23.679 --> 00:35:28.559
you know, journeys into the States were dangerous and were

556
00:35:29.039 --> 00:35:31.880
life threatening. But again, hearing about about this one was

557
00:35:32.239 --> 00:35:35.480
it sounds like a movie or something like. It sounds

558
00:35:35.519 --> 00:35:38.519
almost not real. How terrifying it is or it must

559
00:35:38.599 --> 00:35:41.480
be Okay, continuing, I'm gonna skip to the end here,

560
00:35:41.599 --> 00:35:43.719
the last two paragraphs. Here this says, but to get

561
00:35:43.719 --> 00:35:45.920
to the United States, migrants have to cross half a

562
00:35:45.920 --> 00:35:48.199
dozen more borders, where they face the risk of being

563
00:35:48.199 --> 00:35:51.440
stopped or deported. Even if they reach the southern US border,

564
00:35:51.559 --> 00:35:55.440
a journey of roughly twenty five hundred miles from Central America,

565
00:35:55.519 --> 00:35:58.360
many are turned away or expelled back to their home countries.

566
00:35:58.440 --> 00:36:01.280
In April twenty twenty three, US officials announced they had

567
00:36:01.280 --> 00:36:03.760
struck a deal with Colombia and Banama to shut down

568
00:36:03.800 --> 00:36:06.440
the dot En Gap route. The proposed sixty day plan

569
00:36:06.519 --> 00:36:08.400
was pitched as a part of a broader effort to

570
00:36:08.440 --> 00:36:12.360
stem unexpected surge in the legal migration at the US

571
00:36:12.400 --> 00:36:15.000
Mexico border. As part of the plan, launched in June,

572
00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:19.719
Banama's government will dedicate some twelve hundred immigration agents, border police,

573
00:36:19.760 --> 00:36:23.519
and naval Air Service members to combat transnational organized crime

574
00:36:23.599 --> 00:36:25.400
in the jungle. So again, this is something that was

575
00:36:25.400 --> 00:36:27.840
supposed to launch in twenty twenty three twenty twenty four.

576
00:36:27.880 --> 00:36:31.280
Maybe A continues, but migrant numbers have only grown as

577
00:36:31.400 --> 00:36:34.559
hundreds of thousands of people continue to flee worsening poverty

578
00:36:34.599 --> 00:36:37.679
and unrest in the so called Northern Triangle countries of

579
00:36:37.800 --> 00:36:41.920
El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras and beyond. In September twenty

580
00:36:41.960 --> 00:36:45.480
twenty three, Panamanian authorities announced that they were increasing migrant

581
00:36:45.519 --> 00:36:49.519
deportations and implementing stricter requirements for foreigners seeking short term

582
00:36:49.559 --> 00:36:52.000
stays in the country. In July twenty twenty four, newly

583
00:36:52.039 --> 00:36:56.239
elected Panamanian President Jose Mulino announced that US officials would

584
00:36:56.239 --> 00:36:59.239
begin training Panamanian personnel to screen and deport migrants who

585
00:36:59.320 --> 00:37:02.239
entered the country illegally. That same month, it was reported

586
00:37:02.239 --> 00:37:05.760
that the Panamanian government had installed barbed wire fencing through

587
00:37:05.760 --> 00:37:10.239
the jungle to dissuade crossings. This is some people's only option,

588
00:37:10.679 --> 00:37:13.719
and now it is possibly turning into not an option,

589
00:37:14.199 --> 00:37:17.440
even though they're you know, like we've said many times

590
00:37:17.519 --> 00:37:21.440
willing to place their lives at huge risk, and I

591
00:37:21.440 --> 00:37:26.159
think of anything, adding things like barbed wired fences only

592
00:37:26.199 --> 00:37:28.360
adds to the danger. It only adds to the danger

593
00:37:28.360 --> 00:37:30.920
because people are still going to try and make this journey,

594
00:37:31.079 --> 00:37:34.360
and so throwing in fucking barred wire fences is only

595
00:37:34.360 --> 00:37:36.000
going to make it harder and more dangerous for them

596
00:37:36.039 --> 00:37:39.679
because they're still going to try. Who Okay, moving on

597
00:37:39.719 --> 00:37:42.079
to the next one. This is from a website called

598
00:37:42.079 --> 00:37:46.079
Thebanuel dot com. This was published by Mike Richard in

599
00:37:46.159 --> 00:37:48.519
March of twenty twenty five. It's called inside the dot

600
00:37:48.480 --> 00:37:51.280
een Gap, one of the world's most dangerous jungles. And

601
00:37:51.480 --> 00:37:54.639
if you cannot say dot een, I've also heard this

602
00:37:54.719 --> 00:37:58.000
referred to as Darien the Darien Gap, but it is

603
00:37:58.239 --> 00:38:01.840
the Doten Gap. I wanted to you read here. Mike

604
00:38:01.920 --> 00:38:04.119
put together kind of like a listicle of some of

605
00:38:04.159 --> 00:38:07.280
the dangers some of the wildlife that people face in

606
00:38:07.360 --> 00:38:09.840
the end Gap. So the first one here is a

607
00:38:09.920 --> 00:38:13.119
fertilance pit viper. The furdilance pit viper is among the

608
00:38:13.159 --> 00:38:16.559
most venomous creatures in the n Gap. They are irritable,

609
00:38:16.599 --> 00:38:19.360
fast moving, and large enough to buit above your knees.

610
00:38:19.440 --> 00:38:22.239
Anti venom usually solves the problem if you get bitten,

611
00:38:22.400 --> 00:38:25.440
but if left untreated, the venom can cause local necrosis

612
00:38:25.559 --> 00:38:28.280
or death of body tissue, leading to gangreen or, in

613
00:38:28.440 --> 00:38:33.960
worst cases death. Conflict journalist Jason Motlag crossed the gap

614
00:38:33.960 --> 00:38:36.880
in twenty sixteen for a Dateline story. After receiving his

615
00:38:36.920 --> 00:38:40.039
group's anti venom kit and instructions. Before the crossing, he said,

616
00:38:40.039 --> 00:38:42.039
if one of us is bitten, we have ten minutes

617
00:38:42.079 --> 00:38:45.039
to inject the anti venom before death. We can only

618
00:38:45.039 --> 00:38:48.199
carry six vials. If a larger pit viper were to strike,

619
00:38:48.320 --> 00:38:51.840
the experts concedes no amount of anti venom would be

620
00:38:52.000 --> 00:38:54.239
enough to save us. We might as well lie down

621
00:38:54.320 --> 00:38:56.360
and smoke a cigarette until the lights go out. So

622
00:38:56.400 --> 00:38:58.559
these snakes are all over the place here and the

623
00:38:58.599 --> 00:39:04.079
next thing on this list is traffickers and FARC armed gorillas. FARC,

624
00:39:04.360 --> 00:39:08.079
I think is the Spanish language acronym for the armed

625
00:39:08.079 --> 00:39:11.159
forces of Colombia. But this says it's becoming increasingly difficult

626
00:39:11.199 --> 00:39:13.880
to bring drugs into the US, so drug traffickers are

627
00:39:13.920 --> 00:39:17.159
turning to other avenues. The lawlessness and lack of residents

628
00:39:17.199 --> 00:39:20.199
make the Datien Gap a privilege path for smuggling cocaine

629
00:39:20.239 --> 00:39:22.639
and other drugs on their journey from South America. So

630
00:39:22.639 --> 00:39:26.199
that's another thing about this area is it's so rife

631
00:39:26.400 --> 00:39:31.480
with crime because it's so like just geographically dangerous to

632
00:39:31.519 --> 00:39:34.800
get in and out of, so basically authorities just don't

633
00:39:34.840 --> 00:39:36.400
even try to get in there. So it's just kind

634
00:39:36.440 --> 00:39:39.199
of like no man's land, so to speak. This continues.

635
00:39:39.239 --> 00:39:42.320
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia have made a name

636
00:39:42.400 --> 00:39:45.599
for themselves since nineteen sixty four, terrorizing the government and

637
00:39:45.679 --> 00:39:48.119
many cities in Colombia. Many from the group have made

638
00:39:48.159 --> 00:39:50.760
their home in the lawless jungles of the Datien Gap.

639
00:39:50.880 --> 00:39:53.159
A backpacker from Sweden was shot in the head in

640
00:39:53.239 --> 00:39:56.800
twenty thirteen and found two years later. Multiple others have

641
00:39:56.840 --> 00:39:59.639
been kidnapped for weeks or months after venturing into the

642
00:39:59.679 --> 00:40:02.119
gap since A piece still in twenty seventeen with the

643
00:40:02.199 --> 00:40:05.039
United Nations. As I mentioned earlier, the group has reformed

644
00:40:05.039 --> 00:40:08.039
into an official political party, but a few thousand rebels

645
00:40:08.079 --> 00:40:11.840
still continue with drugs, arms, and human trafficking. The next

646
00:40:11.880 --> 00:40:15.719
thing on this list is the Brazilian wandering spider. It

647
00:40:15.880 --> 00:40:18.559
says spiders fill the jungles of the dat en gap.

648
00:40:18.559 --> 00:40:21.280
But one of the most medically important that's in quotes.

649
00:40:21.320 --> 00:40:25.519
Medically important is the Brazilian wandering spider. Medically important is

650
00:40:25.559 --> 00:40:27.679
the nice term for you're going to have a really

651
00:40:27.679 --> 00:40:30.199
bad day of this spie too. Is what this person

652
00:40:30.239 --> 00:40:32.880
wrote here. It continues, this family of spiders, there are

653
00:40:32.920 --> 00:40:35.559
more than one, has a like span of five to

654
00:40:35.679 --> 00:40:38.519
seven inches. Oh, I just got chills. Oh this is gross.

655
00:40:39.039 --> 00:40:40.719
I don't know if you if you have seen that

656
00:40:40.760 --> 00:40:44.199
French film Infested. I've watched it twice. Now if you

657
00:40:44.280 --> 00:40:46.480
have seen that movie, please let me know that one.

658
00:40:46.639 --> 00:40:49.239
It was like a rachnophobia if you remember that movie.

659
00:40:49.320 --> 00:40:53.400
Just spiders everywhere, huge spiders. Oh gross, Sorry, Okay. This

660
00:40:53.719 --> 00:40:56.159
says they wander the jungle floor at night and love

661
00:40:56.239 --> 00:40:59.599
to hide in people's hiking boots, logs, and banana plants.

662
00:40:59.599 --> 00:41:02.480
They've been nicknamed the banana spider as that's often where

663
00:41:02.519 --> 00:41:04.960
people run into them. Bites from the spider can put

664
00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:08.840
you in the hospital, or from particularly bad ones cause

665
00:41:08.920 --> 00:41:11.519
death in two to six hours. So it's like, you

666
00:41:11.599 --> 00:41:14.320
don't know if you're bitten by one of these things,

667
00:41:14.960 --> 00:41:19.039
if you're just gonna be really uncomfortable, or if it's

668
00:41:19.079 --> 00:41:20.760
going to kill you. The next thing on this list

669
00:41:20.920 --> 00:41:24.760
is black scorpions. Scorpions look like they're from another planet.

670
00:41:24.880 --> 00:41:28.079
Mike writes, A few species prefer conditions. There's that word

671
00:41:28.079 --> 00:41:32.400
against species. Species. A few species prefer conditions at Colombia

672
00:41:32.400 --> 00:41:35.679
and Southern Panama and call the Datienne Gap home, including

673
00:41:35.719 --> 00:41:38.639
the black scorpion. Black scorpions can be two to four

674
00:41:38.679 --> 00:41:42.079
inches long and have black or reddish black coloring, which

675
00:41:42.119 --> 00:41:44.679
gives them their name. They live under rocks and logs

676
00:41:44.679 --> 00:41:47.440
and hunt for larvae and cockroaches at night. They are

677
00:41:47.480 --> 00:41:50.039
part of the thick tailed scorpion family, giving them their

678
00:41:50.079 --> 00:41:53.519
stocky appearance. The sting is very painful, but thankfully is

679
00:41:53.599 --> 00:41:56.079
rarely deadly to humans as long as you are treated

680
00:41:56.119 --> 00:41:58.880
in a safe amount of time. Next thing here is

681
00:41:58.960 --> 00:42:01.920
the jungle heat and dirty water. Even the heat in

682
00:42:01.960 --> 00:42:04.199
the jungle can put a serious dent in your mood.

683
00:42:04.679 --> 00:42:07.400
Mike rights. Temperatures in the gap can reach a balmy

684
00:42:07.519 --> 00:42:11.159
ninety five degrees fahrenheit with ninety five percent humidity, creating

685
00:42:11.159 --> 00:42:13.280
a terrible problem if you run out of water with

686
00:42:13.400 --> 00:42:16.880
trips through the gap. Averaging between here, he writes, twenty

687
00:42:16.880 --> 00:42:19.440
to fifty days, but I've seen in other sources and

688
00:42:19.519 --> 00:42:22.880
we said earlier it's around ten days, maybe more, depending

689
00:42:22.880 --> 00:42:25.400
on how you're able to how well you're able to

690
00:42:25.440 --> 00:42:28.239
traverse the gap. There's a lot of water in the

691
00:42:28.320 --> 00:42:31.199
Datien Gap, but it is far from clean. Even a

692
00:42:31.280 --> 00:42:34.320
sip can hold a host of viruses or parasites that

693
00:42:34.360 --> 00:42:36.679
could ruin the rest of your trip, so a good

694
00:42:36.679 --> 00:42:39.079
water filter is a must, this says. The next thing

695
00:42:39.079 --> 00:42:43.159
on the list is spiked chunga palm trees or chunga

696
00:42:43.519 --> 00:42:47.119
c hunnga spiked chunga palm trees. Many kinds of trees

697
00:42:47.159 --> 00:42:49.400
call the jungle home, and the local people make use

698
00:42:49.440 --> 00:42:51.599
of all of them. The fiber from the leaves of

699
00:42:51.639 --> 00:42:54.719
the chunga palm is used to make everything from furniture

700
00:42:54.760 --> 00:42:57.519
and hats to jewelry and fishing nets. Perhaps that's why

701
00:42:57.519 --> 00:42:59.639
this palm has one of the best defenses of any

702
00:42:59.679 --> 00:43:02.360
tree in the gap. Long black spines up to eight

703
00:43:02.400 --> 00:43:05.440
inches long cover the chunga to prevent animals from climbing

704
00:43:05.519 --> 00:43:08.679
and taking the fruit. Unfortunately for us, these spines are

705
00:43:08.679 --> 00:43:11.360
covered in all sorts of bacteria. One brush with a

706
00:43:11.480 --> 00:43:14.320
chunga and you might find yourself with infective puncture wounds

707
00:43:14.400 --> 00:43:18.239
embedded with shards of chunga spines. This thing itself maybe

708
00:43:18.280 --> 00:43:21.880
cannot kill you, but it can leave you susceptible to infection,

709
00:43:22.079 --> 00:43:24.320
which could be very dangerous depending on how long you're

710
00:43:24.320 --> 00:43:27.280
out there with no medical attention. The next thing is ticks,

711
00:43:27.320 --> 00:43:30.480
which I think is pretty self explanatory. They can carry diseases.

712
00:43:30.519 --> 00:43:33.000
Apparently they are all over this place when people go

713
00:43:33.079 --> 00:43:35.760
to here. There's a story that he included here of

714
00:43:35.800 --> 00:43:37.840
some backpackers that said that at the end of their

715
00:43:37.920 --> 00:43:40.880
days that they just had to spend an hour or

716
00:43:40.960 --> 00:43:43.320
so just picking ticks off of themselves and off of

717
00:43:43.360 --> 00:43:45.880
their clothes. The next thing on the list is trench foot,

718
00:43:45.920 --> 00:43:49.320
which was first described using during Napoleon's retreat from Russia

719
00:43:49.360 --> 00:43:51.239
in the winter of eighteen twelve. This says, but the

720
00:43:51.320 --> 00:43:54.840
name references a condition most common during World War One.

721
00:43:55.000 --> 00:43:57.719
It starts with persistently wet skin that isn't allowed to dry.

722
00:43:57.760 --> 00:44:00.719
Wet conditions and limited blood flow, which cause the tissue

723
00:44:00.719 --> 00:44:02.960
to tingle or itch, often turn red or blue, and

724
00:44:03.079 --> 00:44:06.920
eventually decay. Any open wounds quickly develop fungal infections. With

725
00:44:06.960 --> 00:44:08.880
all of this happening in as little as ten hours.

726
00:44:08.920 --> 00:44:11.280
It doesn't allow much time to fix the problem, which,

727
00:44:11.320 --> 00:44:14.800
as we've mentioned before, the mud in this area will

728
00:44:15.000 --> 00:44:18.000
suck onto your feet and like hold your shoes, and

729
00:44:18.039 --> 00:44:19.880
by the end of the journey, for many people their

730
00:44:19.880 --> 00:44:23.519
shoes are just gone or disintegrated. And so you know

731
00:44:23.599 --> 00:44:25.599
they can get trench fit this way because it's such

732
00:44:25.599 --> 00:44:28.840
a wet, wet region. The next one is buttflies. Buttflies

733
00:44:28.880 --> 00:44:31.480
have always grossed me out. There are flies that can

734
00:44:32.000 --> 00:44:36.480
lay eggs under your skin and then the larvae will

735
00:44:36.519 --> 00:44:38.320
hatch and crawl out of your skin. So I don't

736
00:44:38.320 --> 00:44:40.280
want to explain that too much more. But of course

737
00:44:40.320 --> 00:44:43.119
that can leave you susceptible to infection as well. This

738
00:44:43.159 --> 00:44:45.239
is one that really threw me for a loop. This

739
00:44:45.320 --> 00:44:49.119
next one, they said, Mic wrote Cold War bombs. He said,

740
00:44:49.199 --> 00:44:51.519
during the Cold War, the US military around thousands of

741
00:44:51.559 --> 00:44:54.239
training missions inside the that Eend Gap, dropping bombs over

742
00:44:54.280 --> 00:44:57.159
the jungle. Most of them detonated, however some did not.

743
00:44:57.559 --> 00:45:00.519
Those bombs have been covered over by jungle growth and

744
00:45:00.639 --> 00:45:02.679
are now hidden on the jungle floor under a thick

745
00:45:02.719 --> 00:45:07.239
layer of vegetation. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, Mike says, of undetonated

746
00:45:07.280 --> 00:45:10.599
explosive likely still lie in the jungle waiting for some

747
00:45:10.719 --> 00:45:13.039
port and fortunate soul to step off the trail, what

748
00:45:13.079 --> 00:45:15.119
little trail there is just a bit too far and

749
00:45:15.119 --> 00:45:18.400
set off a massive explosion that's shocking to me. And

750
00:45:18.400 --> 00:45:20.639
then the last two here, I think are pretty pretty

751
00:45:20.639 --> 00:45:24.599
self explanatory. Are crocodiles and landslides ready to go ahead

752
00:45:24.639 --> 00:45:40.840
and take a quick break. Welcome back, well friends. All right,

753
00:45:40.920 --> 00:45:42.840
So this next rose I want to talk about is

754
00:45:42.840 --> 00:45:46.440
from big think dot com. This says this travel vlogger

755
00:45:46.519 --> 00:45:49.800
crossed the dot em Gap, the world's deadliest migrant route.

756
00:45:49.880 --> 00:45:53.760
And this was published in July of twenty twenty four,

757
00:45:53.960 --> 00:45:57.159
and it says two YouTubers followed South American migrants on

758
00:45:57.199 --> 00:45:59.679
their journey to the US along the way they had

759
00:45:59.719 --> 00:46:02.440
to verse the dot een Gap. This one says one

760
00:46:02.559 --> 00:46:06.159
hundred mile long stretch of undeveloped jungle. Their recordings document

761
00:46:06.199 --> 00:46:09.480
to the hardship migrants endured in search of a better life.

762
00:46:09.559 --> 00:46:11.800
So this one says one hundred I think on average

763
00:46:11.800 --> 00:46:14.239
of the route is like sixty miles, but again the

764
00:46:14.280 --> 00:46:17.440
stretch of land, it just depends on how you traverse it. It

765
00:46:17.360 --> 00:46:19.199
could be sixty. It could be more and I was

766
00:46:19.239 --> 00:46:21.039
reading through this. I'm not going to read through this

767
00:46:21.079 --> 00:46:23.320
for y'all, but this talks about these two YouTubers that

768
00:46:23.480 --> 00:46:26.960
documented their journey. They walked side by side with migrants

769
00:46:27.000 --> 00:46:29.840
to document what this journey was like, and the video

770
00:46:29.960 --> 00:46:33.480
is in this article. But something I wanted to touch

771
00:46:33.519 --> 00:46:36.519
on here that that they wrote in this article is

772
00:46:36.519 --> 00:46:39.519
they talk about the survival mode that people go into.

773
00:46:39.800 --> 00:46:42.360
And also, just if you care to look it up,

774
00:46:42.480 --> 00:46:46.480
the YouTuber who documented this is Timmy Carter, So if

775
00:46:46.519 --> 00:46:49.920
you search Timmy Carter dot een gap or dot eend,

776
00:46:50.000 --> 00:46:52.440
it should pop up for you. But this says crossing

777
00:46:52.519 --> 00:46:55.440
the Doten Gap is as much a physical challenge as

778
00:46:55.440 --> 00:46:58.360
a mental one. The terrain is treacherous, changing from loose

779
00:46:58.400 --> 00:47:01.280
gravel to muddy ground turned to quicksand by the rain

780
00:47:01.400 --> 00:47:05.199
because many of them cannot swim. The Gomunantas or the

781
00:47:05.280 --> 00:47:07.199
like the walkers, the people who are walking the route

782
00:47:07.239 --> 00:47:10.519
hold hands when crossing rivers, the currents beating against their bodies.

783
00:47:10.559 --> 00:47:14.400
Climbing up steep craggy hillsides holding onto thin old ropes

784
00:47:14.480 --> 00:47:17.239
hitched up by previous migrants is hard and scary enough

785
00:47:17.280 --> 00:47:20.159
as it is, but even harder and scarier when you're old, pregnant,

786
00:47:20.199 --> 00:47:23.199
or carrying a tired toddler in your arms. Falling is

787
00:47:23.199 --> 00:47:25.880
a constant fear. So they're talking about how because it's

788
00:47:25.880 --> 00:47:28.800
so treacherous even if you get injured, you could be

789
00:47:28.880 --> 00:47:32.199
left behind because no one's going to carry you there.

790
00:47:32.320 --> 00:47:34.880
You have every person for themselves. It says, food and

791
00:47:34.920 --> 00:47:37.159
water weigh you down. So the gomunantas enter the body

792
00:47:37.239 --> 00:47:39.719
end gap with only the bare essentials. Carter and Rich

793
00:47:39.800 --> 00:47:42.000
ran out of supplies halfway through the journey. By the

794
00:47:42.000 --> 00:47:43.679
time they made it out of the jungle, their faces

795
00:47:43.679 --> 00:47:46.039
had grown noticeably thin. This is a quote. It says

796
00:47:46.079 --> 00:47:49.400
the most difficult part was was mentally though. Carter says,

797
00:47:49.480 --> 00:47:51.159
you don't know when it will end. There is no

798
00:47:51.239 --> 00:47:53.440
guide telling you how far you have to go, how

799
00:47:53.440 --> 00:47:56.199
many days you have left. You just keep going. People

800
00:47:56.239 --> 00:47:59.400
freak out and give up because they earlier in this

801
00:47:59.519 --> 00:48:02.199
article they might that they paid for a guide through this,

802
00:48:02.320 --> 00:48:04.639
and so I think whoever the guide was was someone

803
00:48:04.639 --> 00:48:07.320
who was with one of those cartels, but that they

804
00:48:07.360 --> 00:48:09.719
were talking about these guys because these guys kind of

805
00:48:09.719 --> 00:48:11.559
stuck out. They were Russian and so they were like

806
00:48:11.599 --> 00:48:13.960
what are Russians doing here? Like, why are they choosing

807
00:48:14.000 --> 00:48:16.599
to go through this route? So they were suspicious of them. Yeah,

808
00:48:16.599 --> 00:48:18.960
I mean it's dangerous if like people were suspicious of you,

809
00:48:19.039 --> 00:48:21.679
if if you're not supposed to be there, which I

810
00:48:21.719 --> 00:48:23.840
mean these guys I don't think were supposed to be there.

811
00:48:23.880 --> 00:48:25.559
You know, it was dangerous for them to putting themselves

812
00:48:25.559 --> 00:48:28.840
in that situation. Okay, this is a really hard part

813
00:48:29.280 --> 00:48:32.920
to hear about. This says at one point they passed

814
00:48:32.960 --> 00:48:35.280
a mother, father and baby sitting by the side of

815
00:48:35.320 --> 00:48:38.239
the path begging for food from passers by. The other

816
00:48:38.280 --> 00:48:43.039
Gamunantas just walked past them. Carter and Rich included the YouTubers.

817
00:48:43.159 --> 00:48:46.519
They had already run out themselves, but even if they hadn't,

818
00:48:46.679 --> 00:48:49.320
they doubt they would have given it to them. So

819
00:48:50.880 --> 00:48:55.360
they saw these people begging for food a family, and

820
00:48:55.719 --> 00:48:58.480
nobody gave them anything, whether they had it or not.

821
00:48:58.599 --> 00:49:01.000
Like these YouTubers. They didn't give them anything because they

822
00:49:01.000 --> 00:49:03.400
didn't have anything by that point, but they were saying

823
00:49:03.519 --> 00:49:05.800
like they don't know they would have. And there's a

824
00:49:05.840 --> 00:49:08.440
quote here that says, it's difficult to have compassion for

825
00:49:08.519 --> 00:49:11.039
other people here in the dot een Rich confesses in

826
00:49:11.079 --> 00:49:13.679
his YouTube video, which currently has over four point six

827
00:49:13.719 --> 00:49:16.519
million views. Quote continues that sounds brutal and harsh when

828
00:49:16.559 --> 00:49:18.599
you were sitting at home watching this video on the

829
00:49:18.599 --> 00:49:21.679
internet in America, on your comfy homes in England, wherever

830
00:49:21.719 --> 00:49:23.760
you are. But when you're here and it's a matter

831
00:49:23.800 --> 00:49:26.119
of life or death, that's the reality of it. You

832
00:49:26.159 --> 00:49:28.400
can either save yourself or you can save someone else.

833
00:49:28.440 --> 00:49:30.920
And when it comes down to it, we're all selfish,

834
00:49:31.000 --> 00:49:33.599
he said. Carter concurs. The first day I was there,

835
00:49:33.679 --> 00:49:36.000
I thought, let's help people, he tells Big Think and

836
00:49:36.079 --> 00:49:39.199
his video. He and Rich argue because Carter gave one

837
00:49:39.239 --> 00:49:41.880
of their cans of tuna to a fellow gominante before

838
00:49:41.880 --> 00:49:44.239
they run out, of course, something he admits he shouldn't

839
00:49:44.239 --> 00:49:47.079
have done without prior discussion. As his energy decreased and

840
00:49:47.119 --> 00:49:49.840
his hunger and thirst grew, he like everyone else in

841
00:49:49.880 --> 00:49:52.199
the dot e en stopped helping others. You go into

842
00:49:52.239 --> 00:49:56.519
survival mode. It's cruel, he said. Carter received some criticism

843
00:49:56.679 --> 00:50:00.719
for making this video for this documentary and sharing it.

844
00:50:00.800 --> 00:50:03.360
Of course, you know, like it was my kind of worry.

845
00:50:03.400 --> 00:50:05.960
Here is and I don't know, I've never watched videos

846
00:50:05.960 --> 00:50:07.880
from this person. I don't know them, so I would

847
00:50:07.880 --> 00:50:10.920
assume that their thought process was maybe hoping to bring

848
00:50:10.920 --> 00:50:13.679
attention to it, to show people what's happening. I think

849
00:50:13.719 --> 00:50:15.960
it's been relevant for many years, but especially now. Like

850
00:50:16.000 --> 00:50:18.440
I said earlier, what is happening right now with immigration

851
00:50:18.599 --> 00:50:21.119
is extremely relevant, and I think it's I think it's

852
00:50:21.159 --> 00:50:24.840
important to know. I think maybe to someone who for

853
00:50:24.960 --> 00:50:29.800
some reason hasn't found empathy for immigrants, which is very weird,

854
00:50:29.960 --> 00:50:32.960
can maybe see or hear about this and find that

855
00:50:33.079 --> 00:50:35.760
empathy and find their humanity. I don't know why it

856
00:50:35.760 --> 00:50:38.440
would take this, but anyway, this says. Although Carter has

857
00:50:38.480 --> 00:50:41.360
received some criticism for his video, accusing him of exposing

858
00:50:41.400 --> 00:50:43.880
the migrant route and capitalizing on the coman out this

859
00:50:43.960 --> 00:50:46.280
suffering for clicks and likes, the vast majority of the

860
00:50:46.280 --> 00:50:49.000
responses have been positive, with people believe in the video

861
00:50:49.039 --> 00:50:51.559
to have both social and political value. There's a quote

862
00:50:51.559 --> 00:50:53.239
here that says, I would like to thank you for

863
00:50:53.320 --> 00:50:56.679
documenting this harsh reality. When comment on YouTube reads, I

864
00:50:56.719 --> 00:50:59.119
went with my mother and my two little brothers of

865
00:50:59.159 --> 00:51:02.000
four and five years. I was sixteen, my mother was

866
00:51:02.039 --> 00:51:04.599
thirty seven. Thank you very much, for showing the world

867
00:51:04.679 --> 00:51:07.280
the harsh reality that migrants go through. We are not

868
00:51:07.360 --> 00:51:09.519
the face of a nation. We are people in need

869
00:51:09.639 --> 00:51:13.679
of a better life. Okay. The next source that I

870
00:51:13.719 --> 00:51:17.079
have here is actually from Doctors Without Borders, and this

871
00:51:17.199 --> 00:51:19.840
is an entry called the Datien Gap A Nightmare with

872
00:51:19.880 --> 00:51:23.000
one thousand to one Demons. This is published in twenty

873
00:51:23.079 --> 00:51:25.960
twenty five. I'm not seeing a byeline who this was

874
00:51:26.000 --> 00:51:27.639
written by, and there are some things when I was

875
00:51:27.639 --> 00:51:29.519
reading through this source earlier that stuck out to me.

876
00:51:29.639 --> 00:51:31.480
So one part of this says many of the people

877
00:51:31.480 --> 00:51:34.320
who survived the droney across the Datien Gap are haunted

878
00:51:34.360 --> 00:51:36.719
by the thought of those who were left behind, those

879
00:51:36.760 --> 00:51:39.920
with injured feet or broken bones, too exhausted and too

880
00:51:39.960 --> 00:51:42.920
weak to continue, who wait for rescue or aid that

881
00:51:43.000 --> 00:51:45.800
may never arrive. This quote says I saw at least

882
00:51:45.800 --> 00:51:49.079
ten dead bodies in the jungle, recalls nineteen year old Angel.

883
00:51:49.239 --> 00:51:51.719
But the worst is the people who get left behind,

884
00:51:51.800 --> 00:51:54.320
people who cannot climb the mountains, or who slip in

885
00:51:54.320 --> 00:51:56.920
the rain and mud. It is a route where nobody waits.

886
00:51:57.159 --> 00:51:59.880
You see people sitting down injured who might have been

887
00:51:59.880 --> 00:52:03.280
there for days, waiting for death. Angel left Venezuela four

888
00:52:03.360 --> 00:52:06.400
years ago and has been working in Cali, Colombia. Like

889
00:52:06.440 --> 00:52:09.559
many migrants who arrive in Banama since the start of

890
00:52:09.599 --> 00:52:12.199
the pandemic, Angel could no longer work and decided to

891
00:52:12.320 --> 00:52:14.840
head towards the US. I'm going to jump ahead. That

892
00:52:14.920 --> 00:52:17.800
says the future is uncertain for everyone in Bajo Chiquito,

893
00:52:17.880 --> 00:52:21.039
where access to clean water, showers, and decent toilets is

894
00:52:21.079 --> 00:52:24.559
limited or for some non existent. Eventually everyone will be

895
00:52:24.599 --> 00:52:27.440
transferred to the reception stations in San Vicente and La

896
00:52:27.559 --> 00:52:29.519
Jas Blancas, but from there they will have to make

897
00:52:29.559 --> 00:52:31.960
their own way forward. Some migrants can afford to buy

898
00:52:31.960 --> 00:52:35.199
a bus ticket north, but many cannot, and certain nationalities,

899
00:52:35.239 --> 00:52:39.440
including Colombians, Ecuadorians, and Bolivians, are held for processing and

900
00:52:39.599 --> 00:52:43.480
then deported. Those who have pending administrative or judicial processes,

901
00:52:43.519 --> 00:52:46.280
for example, if they are seeking refugee status in Banama

902
00:52:46.320 --> 00:52:48.679
or a witness in a case against traffickers, are held

903
00:52:48.679 --> 00:52:51.960
at a migrant reception stations for weeks or months. Detained

904
00:52:52.000 --> 00:52:55.800
people describe inadequate food and shelter, a lack of clean

905
00:52:55.840 --> 00:52:58.920
water and showers, and no way to communicate with their families.

906
00:52:59.000 --> 00:53:01.960
I'm going to read that one again. Detained people described

907
00:53:02.199 --> 00:53:06.480
inadequate food and shelter, a lack of clean water and showers,

908
00:53:06.800 --> 00:53:10.320
and no way to communicate with their families. But despite

909
00:53:10.360 --> 00:53:13.559
the risks, people continue to attempt the journey. By the

910
00:53:13.599 --> 00:53:16.519
end of July, around eight thousand migrants were waiting in

911
00:53:16.599 --> 00:53:20.159
Necocric Colombia to start their trek through the dot een Gap.

912
00:53:20.239 --> 00:53:22.159
They warn you from the US. This is a quote.

913
00:53:22.199 --> 00:53:24.960
They warn you from the US. Don't do it. It's terrible,

914
00:53:25.159 --> 00:53:27.400
says Juan. His group was assaulted by a group of

915
00:53:27.400 --> 00:53:30.000
men with rifles and much at this. They took their money,

916
00:53:30.079 --> 00:53:32.679
mobile phones, and food and raped the women in the group.

917
00:53:33.199 --> 00:53:36.320
One continues, but you have to and you think, if

918
00:53:36.320 --> 00:53:39.320
he did it, why can't I do it? But honestly,

919
00:53:39.440 --> 00:53:45.320
don't do it. It's terrible. So even people who have done this,

920
00:53:46.440 --> 00:53:49.360
maybe their feeling is that it's not worth it, depending

921
00:53:49.400 --> 00:53:53.079
on what they went through, what they saw in this journey.

922
00:53:53.159 --> 00:53:55.840
To many people, it is worth it to even attempt,

923
00:53:56.159 --> 00:53:59.760
but then to even maybe make it across and then

924
00:53:59.800 --> 00:54:03.679
to get deported after going through literal hell. Can't imagine.

925
00:54:03.719 --> 00:54:07.079
I can't imagine that. Okay, So the last two sources

926
00:54:07.480 --> 00:54:10.440
that I have here are there. It's talking about the

927
00:54:10.679 --> 00:54:13.440
embeddra people that live in this area. I just wanted

928
00:54:13.440 --> 00:54:16.480
to include this kind of as like an interesting fact

929
00:54:16.800 --> 00:54:20.199
about this area that it's technically habitable, but like I

930
00:54:20.239 --> 00:54:23.639
mentioned earlier, people kind of live in the shores or

931
00:54:24.239 --> 00:54:28.559
the riverfronts of this area, not really in it. But

932
00:54:28.679 --> 00:54:31.360
apparently this is also an area that has a lot

933
00:54:31.440 --> 00:54:35.679
of artifacts, like pre colonial and colonial artifacts that they

934
00:54:35.760 --> 00:54:39.159
just find. And so these last two sources, I'm not

935
00:54:39.199 --> 00:54:40.760
going to go super into them, but I do want

936
00:54:40.800 --> 00:54:43.599
to mention that it's really interesting because it talks about

937
00:54:43.679 --> 00:54:47.760
what research is, like, what classifies as research, what classifies

938
00:54:47.800 --> 00:54:51.599
as archaeology when it's indigenous people or people indigenous to

939
00:54:51.639 --> 00:54:54.039
the area that are doing it. So yeah, it's just

940
00:54:54.159 --> 00:54:56.559
like an interesting kind of food for thought kind of thing.

941
00:54:56.679 --> 00:54:59.960
But the websites that they're from are this one is

942
00:55:00.119 --> 00:55:03.360
just ResearchGate dot net and this is an article that's

943
00:55:03.400 --> 00:55:07.719
called the Mbada Tourism and Indigenous Archaeology quote Rediscovering the

944
00:55:07.760 --> 00:55:10.559
Past in Eastern Banama. This is published in twenty twelve,

945
00:55:10.599 --> 00:55:13.480
and the other one is from sites dot Exeter, dot

946
00:55:13.480 --> 00:55:16.519
ac dot uk for or from the University of Exeter.

947
00:55:16.519 --> 00:55:21.880
It's titled The Last Ginchas Indigenous Embada and Spirits Entangled.

948
00:55:22.199 --> 00:55:25.920
It doesn't so these two don't talk much or at

949
00:55:25.920 --> 00:55:29.159
all about the Gap and like the journey through it,

950
00:55:29.199 --> 00:55:32.039
but more so again about the Embadra people who live

951
00:55:32.360 --> 00:55:50.719
on the Panamanian side of the province. Welcome back, girl friends.

952
00:55:50.800 --> 00:55:53.719
Thank you once again for joining me for today's episode.

953
00:55:53.920 --> 00:55:58.079
I know this one maybe was not the most fun

954
00:55:58.800 --> 00:56:03.000
that we've had. Doing this episode kind of felt very

955
00:56:03.039 --> 00:56:07.599
heavy for me just because of how based in reality

956
00:56:07.679 --> 00:56:11.119
it is and what that reality is. It's again, it's

957
00:56:11.280 --> 00:56:15.400
it's a real life horror story and it's tragic, and

958
00:56:15.480 --> 00:56:21.119
so again I would be so so moved if you

959
00:56:21.159 --> 00:56:25.679
all joined me in my fundraising for Doctors Without Borders,

960
00:56:25.800 --> 00:56:28.679
specifically in honor of the work that they are doing

961
00:56:28.960 --> 00:56:32.760
at the exit points of the een Gap and helping

962
00:56:32.840 --> 00:56:36.360
these people after they've gone what they've gone through with

963
00:56:36.840 --> 00:56:40.320
of course physical care, physical medical attention, and also mental

964
00:56:40.360 --> 00:56:43.679
health services. Because again, if you've listened to the show,

965
00:56:43.719 --> 00:56:46.079
if you've listened to me Rant and Rave, then you

966
00:56:46.159 --> 00:56:49.239
know how I feel about addressing those things hand in

967
00:56:49.280 --> 00:56:54.199
hand and holistically. And this is such a traumatic experience

968
00:56:54.280 --> 00:56:57.480
I cannot even begin to imagine. So again, if you

969
00:56:57.480 --> 00:57:01.039
would like to make a donation to my my birthday

970
00:57:01.400 --> 00:57:05.039
fundraising campaign for Doctors Without Borders, you can visit events

971
00:57:05.079 --> 00:57:10.079
dot Doctors without Borders dot org, slash campaigns slash Sustal. Again.

972
00:57:10.119 --> 00:57:12.039
Links will be all over social media, and I'll include

973
00:57:12.039 --> 00:57:14.159
it in the social media post about this episode and

974
00:57:14.360 --> 00:57:16.599
in the show notes of this episode, of course. So

975
00:57:17.039 --> 00:57:19.639
as always, if you would like to tell your own

976
00:57:19.679 --> 00:57:23.000
scary story, if you have a photo, video, recording, anything

977
00:57:23.039 --> 00:57:24.559
that you think I should share on your Letters from

978
00:57:24.559 --> 00:57:27.440
the Beyond episode or on social media, please visit my

979
00:57:27.480 --> 00:57:30.800
website that's sustalpodcast dot com and hit the submit a

980
00:57:30.800 --> 00:57:32.960
story button. You can also visit my linktree link to

981
00:57:33.000 --> 00:57:35.840
your dot ee slash sustal podcast and hit the tell

982
00:57:35.840 --> 00:57:38.840
me a story button there. Again, Please please please reach

983
00:57:38.880 --> 00:57:41.719
out to event organizers or send their information to me

984
00:57:41.960 --> 00:57:44.239
for events during the spooky season. If you are an

985
00:57:44.280 --> 00:57:47.159
event organizer, please hit me up. Let's work on something together.

986
00:57:47.239 --> 00:57:49.039
I'm so excited to get out there as I am

987
00:57:49.199 --> 00:57:51.679
every year, and we have those two events coming up.

988
00:57:51.719 --> 00:57:55.079
Austin Public Library on the tenth Vidruise Branch and the

989
00:57:55.480 --> 00:57:59.719
night Owls Spirit Social on Halloween Night. Thank you also

990
00:57:59.760 --> 00:58:02.239
so much much. Happy birthday to me, Happy birthday to me,

991
00:58:02.239 --> 00:58:05.199
Happy birthday to me. I am turning a lovely thirty

992
00:58:05.440 --> 00:58:08.679
three and I am just so happy to be able

993
00:58:08.679 --> 00:58:11.599
to celebrate my birthday with you all. I can't believe

994
00:58:11.639 --> 00:58:14.159
it lined up perfectly. Yes I can. I'm a witch.

995
00:58:14.199 --> 00:58:16.440
We're all witches, right, So thank you for being here.

996
00:58:16.559 --> 00:58:19.280
I hope that you took something away from this episode.

997
00:58:19.440 --> 00:58:21.599
If you would like to support the episode, of course,

998
00:58:21.920 --> 00:58:24.559
the easiest way to do so is by interacting wherever

999
00:58:24.599 --> 00:58:27.800
you are listening by sharing it with your own girlfriends,

1000
00:58:27.920 --> 00:58:30.840
and if you would like to support in exchange for

1001
00:58:31.159 --> 00:58:34.800
exclusive perks and goodies, you can do so by visiting

1002
00:58:34.840 --> 00:58:38.960
patreon dot com slash Sustal podcast and checking out the

1003
00:58:39.719 --> 00:58:41.639
tears and seeing if any of those work for you.

1004
00:58:41.880 --> 00:58:44.360
A huge shout out to this episode's patrons. You are

1005
00:58:44.559 --> 00:58:51.239
Liza Rachel, Alejandra Luthor, April d Josette, Sam Mandy, Jules, Lori, Jeanie, Desiree,

1006
00:58:51.320 --> 00:58:57.280
c Ashes, Nedessa rachel A, Asusana, Marlene Chatta, Laney, Desiree,

1007
00:58:57.400 --> 00:59:03.559
Carla archerd Dicadodo Vanessa, Mariza Nieves, Monor, mal Iris, mad Floor,

1008
00:59:03.760 --> 00:59:08.000
Selina Nightingville, Clint and Rachel w. Thank you all so

1009
00:59:08.000 --> 00:59:10.440
so much. Your support means the underworld to me. I

1010
00:59:10.480 --> 00:59:12.840
will talk to you in the next episode or I

1011
00:59:12.880 --> 00:59:15.559
will see you because this is also a video version,

1012
00:59:15.679 --> 00:59:18.199
of course, for Best school Friends on Patreon. Until then,

1013
00:59:18.840 --> 01:00:18.519
not a sustas bye.