The Darien Gap opens
Half a million people walk through a roadless jungle in a single year.
- When
- Known to
- ± 183 days
- Era
- Contemporary, Holocene
- Where
- Darien Gap, Panama · 8.4000° N, 77.5000° W
Crossings of the Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama reached about 250,000 in 2022 and 520,000 in 2023, against a few thousand a year a decade earlier — most of them Venezuelans, alongside Haitians, Ecuadorians, Chinese and Afghans. The route is a week of jungle with no road, and the traffic fell sharply again in 2025 as Panama and the United States tightened enforcement.