The Darien Gap

This is well worth a watch:

Ericka Andersen, at Culture11's The Confabulum, has the skinny:

Ever heard of the Darien Gap? I hadn’t until I ran into a Vanguard Video report on Current.com. Current’s news team travels around the world exploring untold stories in sometimes dangerous places.

Here, Jael travels to Yuvisa, the end of the Pan-American Highway, near the Darien Gap, where South America is separated from entering Central America. The Pan-American Highway runs from Alaska to Argentina, with a sixty mile stretch that isn’t paved. This is called the Darien Gap.

The Gap is referred to as the “stopper” because often drug trafficking is hindered here. There are no plans to pave the break as it prevents border violence and separates two continents. This reporter’s team ventured into the secluded villages located on the sides of the river gaps. One community had a high percentage of Albino individuals because they rarely mix outside of their community.

Watch the team bounce down the highway, sleep in cockroach-infested hotels, consider eating oversized rodents, risk their lives in the jungles and meet a community of people in villages we might never have seen otherwise. I couldn’t stop watching it and normally I have about a 30-second online video attention span.

One of many places I'd love to go in life, but sadly fear that my love of cold beer, warm beds, and not dying in suspicious circumstances will likely never allow.

UPDATE: The video might not be loading properly; check out the original here if not!