Trade needs are met by cargo ships.
Yech. I am never leaving the house ever again.
As I said, lots of illegal Colombian immigrants come through this way now, even when there is no road. It would be easier if there was a road and all they had to do was go around the checkpoints (or bribe the guards).
Not on Panama’s side. Panama doesn’t export all that much. Much of its economy is based on the Canal, banking, service industries, and money laundering. Colombia is the one with an interest in the road, because they want to be able to trade directly with Central America and Mexico.
I doubt that it would bump tourism all that much. There aren’t that many people interested in driving such long distances, with multiple border crossings and huge amounts of red tape, just to say they’ve done it. Not many people drive to Panama from the US now, and having a road open to South America wouldn’t attract very many more.
Bizarrely Google maps shows a piece of the Trans-America highway disconnected from anything right across the Columbia-Panama border. Somehow I don’t think that’s real.
If Columbia ever builds a road up to Acandi then it seems you could bridge the gap along the north coast without going through the Darien Parque Nacional.
BTW, does anyone really believe those 2 wheel drive Corvairs actually made it the whole way? The documentary shows them getting to Yaviza, and claims they have gone 3/4 of the way. Then they show them at a border stone with Columbia written on one side and Panama on the other, then it cuts to a montage of South American cities.
In the 1960’s there still would have been may 100’s of kms from the Columbian border to any roads. I’m thinking they just bashed through the Jungle to Yaziza to get some dramatic footage, then built a prop stone border post, filmed that, then shipped the cars to South America. Who would know?
Thank you, Gods Turban and Tutu, an International (lack of), crisis not blamed on the UK.
Retires to big cabinet of War trophy and 2012 medals.
Peter
You know, EmilyG, the forest industry in Québec and Ontario has been taking a beating in the last few years, so there is a lot of equipment out there that can be picked up for a song. Although the gas milage is not too good, and the top speed is pretty slow, once you get to the Gap, a harvester would get you through without difficulty.
You mean like the moon landing?
Look, they had three 4x4 trucks with winches, and ongoing re-supply.
:dubious:
I find the you tube films pretty unconvincing when you read about what it took to get other expeditions through that are confirmed to have gone all the way. They claim to have only gone across one river by boat and forded the rest.
The only other expedition to do it entirely with no boat crossings took over 700 days.
It was an advertising stunt, it wasn’t really necessary for them to really cross the entire gap, just necessary to get footage that makes the cars look rugged.
That is a pretty cool idea actually.
You might need to do some retrofitting though, as the machines arent really ideal for that climate.
Duration would be contingent upon the equipment and workforce available to make a trail for the three 4x4 trucks, not on whether or not three of the six vehicles woud have to have been winched along by those trucks much of the way.
You know that trying to prove that something didn’t happen is very difficult, right? Lacking firsthand knowledge of failure of the endeavor leaves us having to rely on the information that exists that indicates they were successful.
While I agree that the Corvairs probably relied on the 4x4’s making trail and heavy winching, I will mention that light rear-engine RWD cars like the VW Beetle or the Corvair are actually quite capable off-road. I would think a stock Corvair would have lots of problems with ground clearance, but probably not with traction.
I remember reading about the British Trans-Americas Expedition in 1972.
It may have been in National Geographic.
That was what I recalled vaguely until Colibri’s excellent and entertaining post reminded me more fully.
I have two lasting impressions that I recollect: how remarkable it is that you could theoretically drive from Barrow Point to Tierra del Fuego, and that Range Rovers are amazingly cool.
Point Barrow.
I just did a little investigating, and it turns out you are correct that they did not make it all the way through the Gap. However, they did make it as far as the Panama/Colombia border post at Palo de las Letras, where at least one of the cars was abandoned.
In my copy of The Hundred Days of Darien, about the British Trans-America Expedition, is this passage:
The book only mentions one Corvair being found at the border. However, this account implies all three were abandoned there. Actually, it appears to be uncertain what happened to the other two cars. Here’s a photoof the remains of one Corvair taken in Darien about 1990. This account suggests one of the cars was shipped back to the US for promotional purposes. (The same photo appears here as well.)
Even so, just getting from the Bayano River to the Colombian border would have been a remarkable achievement for a 2WD car even if they did not make it all the way. At that time there was not even a primitive road to Yaviza. The current road between the Bayano and Yaviza was built in the mid-1970s, after the British expedition went through.
Just barely, and that would also mean crossing a small mountain range. And the rest of the border in that region is occupied by the Kuna and Embera Comarcas. The Kuna would probably oppose any attempt to build a road through that area. I’m not sure about the Embera.
[And once again, it’s ColOmbia.]
Which is what? Watch this from 7:00 mins on.
The film makes a strange claim that they suddenly exit the Jungle at Colombian border, even though there should have been many miles to go to hit a roadhead. Then cut to the south american montage. It doesn’t even state explicitly that they kept going all the way through.
ninjad by Colibri… yep seems they only made it to the border.
Meh.
They opened the film questing for South America which was blocked by the Darien Gap.
If you define South America by the watershed, then they stopped short.
If you define South America by the international boundary, then they finished.
Either way, what they did was a very long way from doing only what was “just necessary to get footage that makes the cars look rugged.”
Indeed, the astronauts really did land on the moon.
You, sir, are a pedant.
Well played.
And you expect the same from me… Next Time.
<insert insane laughter here>