The Darien Gap.
The Darien Gap remains the last gap in the Pan-American highway from North to South America. It was ever the major obstacle to one of the last epic car journeys to be achieved - the trip from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego.
Now, Patricia Upton has produced an Adventurer's Guide to Crossing the Darien Gap (details below). This 40 page guide includes a wealth of information for the expeditioner - getting there, shipping, embassies, paperwork, customs and legal matters, accommodation, health and medicine, contacts, sources of information, politics and guerrillas(!), and of course the route.
Patricia Upton is well qualified to write about the Darien Gap. Loren Upton has traversed the area (with others) in 1976, 1977 and 1979, and with Patricia and others in 1985 - 1987 and 1995. Between 1985 and 1987 they completed the first all land crossing of the gap in a 1966 Jeep CJ5 (earlier crossing included floating vehicles down rivers or through the Atrato Swamp). In 1995 the Uptons, with Juan Rivas, traversed the gap using a two wheel drive Rokon Trail-Breaker motorcycle.
The guide includes such sobering notes as <DL><DD>1976 One expedition member mysteriously shot and killed. <DD>1977 Jeep lost in accident in Ecuador. <DD>1979 Jeep lost to an unsavory encounter with a Columbian Park official. </DD></DL>This is plainly not a trip for the novice.