I was at the amazing Balboa Yacht Club dockside patio bar/restaurant circa 1997, [since burned down,] Carib to Pacific, talking with other skippers, crew, etc.
Somebody directed a young Swedish couple to us boat captains and hands. The pair were intent on a M/C ride from Canada to Chile. Boy-Girl-Bike.
They planned to ride their one bike from Colombia to Cape Horn, or as close as possible. We were all saying, “DON’T DO IT! It’s FARC land! They will kidnap you both, and gang rape your blond g/f!”
In response, they were like, “Good Karma, bro, bring good vibes, all people are just people...” bla bla blah.
But even THEY realized that transiting the Darien Gap was OUT OF THE QUESTION!!!!
Even these two “good Karma” Swedes knew that they had to put their bike on a boat from Colon to Colombia.
The Darien Gab is still like that. It’s wild.
It’s not only dangerous for guerrillas and bandits but it’s an over 100 mile rough trek that requires jungle mountain climbing essentially
In steamy hot weather
The Choco of northwest Colombia that borders Darien has plenty disputes between Cauca valley drug cartels and autodefensas and FARC and ELN and FARC breakaways
I think there are smaller ferries run the shorter distance from villages on Panama Carib coast to towns below the Darien Colombian border on Colombian Carib coast just a few hours
There are major lines run from Colon to Cartagena
The pacific side may have similar
I wouldn’t try it
I don’t have the appetite for all that shit anymore nor the knees lol
Might as well your contested areas of Algeria or the Congo or Burma or Ukraine