Why the Americas Still Aren't Connected by a Road 

Fact: a COPA airlines plane crashed in the Darien gap and was one of the hardest plane wreckage’s to find due to the location

As a panamenian, this video is surprisingly accurate. We don't want the Darien Gap to be opened and the reasons given here are pretty on point.

Man, I gotta appreciate these videos for a second. The way you explain things in combination with your graphics is so straightforward and easy to follow. Especially when describing strategic situations, this is such easily-digestible content. Great craftsmanship involved and a TON of research I'm sure! You're doing good work to educate myself and many others!

The Panama canal construction was a French project in the late 1800's that failed due to lack of funding. The USA took over the proyect in 1904. Oh!! And Panama's independence was from Spain in the early 1800's, but Panama became part of the Great Colombia for protection, however, that protection came at a very high price to the Panamanians that desided to separate from it. There is a lot more on the Torrijos - Carter treatie, but that is a story for another day, but overall, great video. Thank you 👍

If the Darien Gap was American territory there would already be a 6 lane highway plowing through

Civil Engineer here: not only is the construction of a road a nightmare, but before that, immense permitting and surveying must be conducted. That means that every acre of the gap that would be used for a roadway must be surveyed by people or drones in this environment, which is its own issue.

4:55 Concrete doesn't dry, it cures. In fact, allowing concrete to dry out as it cures will cause damage. In dry climates you need to keep the surface wet for several days. They make concrete that will set under water, so really the rain is not a huge problem. The heat and humidity is however.

Geopolitical issues aside, I think it's great that there's still an area untouched by the modern world. Not implying that this is the only area like that, but there needs to be some blank spots on the map.

I went through the Panama canal at the age of 8, in 1973.... I love the fact that the Pacific entrance is further east than the Atlantic entrance...

Ironic that a giant road that crosses a whole continent suddenly comes to a stop at a town called Turbo.

I'm so glad that I found this channel. I'm in Europe and never heard of this. Extremely educational and well done.

I often wondered why the Darien gap still exists, but now I know. Awesome video

Another big reason why there is no hurry to build a highway through the gap is that it functions as something of a firebreak for holding back the spread of hoof-and-mouth disease and screwworm to North American agriculture. The US, Mexico, and Panama maintain an extensive program of spreading sterile screwworm flies in the Gap to keep outbreaks south of the border.

I briefly worked on one of the many proposals for an electrical grid interconnection point between Panama and Colombia, and even that, with HVDC terminals way outside the gap, connecting underwater, is still such an unbelievable expensive and complicated endeavor that I don’t see it ever getting done either. Personally as a Panamanian that has worked in Darien, I don’t see the gap ever getting closed. Another thing that went unmentioned in this video is that the area where the gap exists is home to several indigeous groups that are fairly well protected by our laws and basically self rule themselves, and have no intentions of getting their millennial homeland destroyed. That said, many of these groups also benefit massively by the drug trade, enabling and assisting traffickers through their lands. And this is not even mentioning the immigration concerns already existing in panama due to the massive and unregulated migration of colombians in the 90s and venezuelans in the 2000s. It’s all so very complicated and we have plenty of other things to worry already…

Man, your channel is great. I've read and listened to this issue by latin americans (I'm argentinian) and while most of us focus on the humanitarian part of the problem, it's hard to grasp how all the factors weight into the decition to let the Darien be what it is. Now, your video made me utter "the gringo understands!" because, man, people in other places that are unaffected by this situation simply not only don't care but don't understand! Is so refreshing seeing how you understand it from the perspective of the different nations that I'm really happy to see it explained in a concise and interesting way, with images to illustrate it. Great great work, man, thank you!

Amazing video! This is the first I've ever even heard of the Darien Gap...

Just FYI, hardening concrete in a wet environment is not only not difficult, but it's actually incredibly easy with the right concrete chemistry, since there are water hardening concretes that will harden more the wetter they get. This is what they use for building bridges and dams. The real issue is with ensuring it doesn't crack (self healing concrete is also a thing to help this), because water getting into any rebar lattice holding the concrete together will rust it apart and cause the slab to spall.

Just a little correction: the mountains in the gap are not higher than those in Australia, they are 400m lower than mt Kosciuszko

Wow! This video is soooooo informative! I'm impressed 💯

There’s a quick and simple answer: There’s no way in hell the US would allow or want that.

I am from Panama. What is going on in Darien is way worst than what is being reported and unscrupulous people and organizations are profiting from it. That being said, I hope the gap is never opened. We are a third world country with incompetent authorities that will sell us out to cartels and guerrillas in a second.

Fun fact Darien’s lethal environment is why Scotland lost its independence to England. Scotland’s attempt to bridge Atlantic to Pacific trade pre-Canal, and get stinking rich, bankrupted Scotland when all their people sent to develop a road in Darien died.

One other point not fully fleshef out in this piece is that even if a road was built through this area, it would need CONSTANT maintenance and patrolling due to some of the reasons mentioned. This alone, alongside the massive investment to build to the road, must add to the decision not to build. Also, having an armed presence that close to Panama would not make them very happy.

Thank you for sharing this information 📯

I've seen a video about the geographical challenges of the Darien gap before, but knowing the political climate in the area really adds a lot to the story!

In 1961, Chevrolet took 3 1961 Corvairs thru the Darien Gap. Search "Daring the Darien" to watch a GM promotional film about that trip, keeping in mind that GM downplayed the disease aspect of the trip. One of the cars is still in the jungle somewhere, as it was too damaged to bring back home. Great video, RLL.

How our parrents describe their commute to school:

Just learned about the Darien Gap from some facebook post about someone wanting to drive from far South America to Alaska. Interesting stuff. Always was fascinated with the Panama canal though.

one thing: common misconception that you need a cell signal to accurately know your location via Google Maps. If you download the map area ahead of time, your phone has a GPS receiver that operates independently from cell service and with a clear view of the sky (regardless of cell service) you can know your location on the planet at all times.

Great video. One thing though. Google maps with preloaded maps, or another offline oriented map app, work 100% fine without cell service. GPS is global and doesn't require internet.

17:10 far right???? You mean farleft...

The best explanation ever about this topic

I was actually on an expedition through the darien gap last month and the conditions there were equal to hell so you´re hella right to say that it is hard to cross. I could not make it all the way cause of nursea(8 out of 13 gave up due to bad health conditions) ,still it was a nice experience and the enviroment is one of a kind :)

As a Colombian I would really doubt Colombia would be willing to conquer panama at any point, Venezuela, Ecuador and parts of Brazil were also Colombian territory, and Colombia has never tried to retake them in the last century (as much as I am aware of) and specially because the US is the biggest Colombian ally in modern geopolitics. And with the centralized structure of the government I would doubt it would be managed properly (that's why they lost it too so yeah). Colombia's issues also lie in wars with multiple guerrilla groups since more than 50 years ago, even with a "peace treaty" with "las FARC" that was made a couple years ago, it made that the individuals that didn't agree with them got separated from the main lead and make even smaller groups, so the war is not really over and there are other groups remaining, but the main problem is the crazy amounts of people that had to leave their homes and lands to not get killed by drug cartels and guerrilla conflicts. So if it was not enough with the drugs and war we have a really divided political demographic making progress really difficult, so making a decision to invade an allied country in this state is extrememy unlikely. And we are also a "strategic ally" for NATO since 2022, which implies in case of a war NATO would aid us (or viceversa) with military supplies and resources. So attacking a US ally (panama) which is also our ally and NATO's would not be wise at all. And tbh it lacks any purpose and in the long term they would get independence again at some point for the geographical gap and cultural differences. A south american war would be more likely to happen with venezuela being a Russian and chinese ally, so in case of a world war that would be definitely a point of conflict. Another option would be when natural resources like water get so scarce that it requires bigger forces to conquer other ones in order to survive, in that case colombia would definitely would be invaded from other powers, even the US if needed. But that's just my point if view. Great video, nice job

Amazing story about something I have never known anything about. Very helpful, thankyou, job well done.

going the long way around south america, once you got to the southern mountain ranges, I imagine it would be very scenic and beautiful to look at.

In Spanish it's called "el tapón del Darién", meaning, "the Darien plug or stopper". Very straightforward.

5:26 - 5:35 Thank you RealLifeLore!

Another thing to mention is that the Darien gap is not only home to dangerous animals but also to indigenous people, and they are savages. I am Venezuelan, so I know people who have walked the gap, and I have heard many stories of how indigenous people rape, kill, and kidnap people with little regard for material things, although they sometimes demand sex and cash for safe passage. The cartel/guerrilla asks for money for passage, but the indigenous people outright rape and kill if they feel like it. Bear in mind that these indigenous people are not jungle people; they have modern weapons and clothes and have some relationship with the local guerilla groups, but they are their own thing.

My uncles went through the Darien Gap back in the 70’s. They were on ten-speeds and said they traded sugar, salt and other resources to get through.

The Darien Gap! One of my favorite things to learn about!

This Man Has Almost Single Handedly Kept Me Up To Date With Geopolitics And I Can’t Thank Him Enough.

It is always fun to notice that the description of continents is so random, especially when it comes to "The Americas". In here is being said that Costa Rica belongs to North America but, if you say that to any person from any country form Belize/Guatemala trough Panama, they will want to separate themselves from North America (Canada, the USA and Mexico) and from any southern country and call themselves Central America. Depending where in the world you are from, including the Americas, people will say there are 2 (North and South) or 3 (North, Central and South) or just a single continent (America) with some sub-continents North, Central and South. Asking a professor from the USA once about what is the parameter used to describe whether a region belongs to North America or not, he told me that is based on the language: Canada and the USA having English as their main one (though this is somehow debatable since the USA doesn't actually have, by law, an official language) however, putting that aside, other people said that the main reason is to use an easier way to separate countries by what is being considered to be the main race in the region: Canada and the USA (mainly white people) and the rest of the countries (mainly NOT white people). Note: I am using "The Americas" as a neutral name, but there are by far way more people who call the whole continent as America, while the few use the word America to call a single country. And final thought: Where are you from? America. Me too! I am from Mexico. Ok, then I am from the United States. Me too! I am from the United States of Mexico (official name). Ok, then I am from the United States of America. Ah, then we are from different places.

2:37. Incorrect. Mount Kosciuszko in Australia is from memory 2228m above sea level. It's definitely in the 2k - 2.5k range. 1845m is up the top of some of the ski resorts. Pretty high still.

You are the best! Geopolitics is so important

I've been seeing a lot of content about the Darien gap in recent weeks or moths. NY Times podcast (The Daily) had an episode on a a reporter who did the travel through the Darien gap with migrants. It was tough. They saw at least one dead body. The major problems they discussed is that it's often hilly (ups and downs), muddy, streams, insects, very hot and humid, and not close to any civilization if you get sick or injured. And that's usually how the deaths occur - a person gets sick or injured and cannot go any further and succumbs to the conditions. They ran into one 9yr old child separated from her mother and being looked after by one of the men making the trip. The reporter falls behind to see if she can cross path with the mother. She does. The woman has blisters and possibly infections in her feet and could not keep up. She lost her daughter near some hill. if those blisters or infections were any worse, it could be her body that others see later on.

very infornative content

Concrete does not dry; it cures. It will even cure underwater, and cure stronger than if poured in hot sunshine. Rainfall does not prevent concrete from "drying", though it will retard curing somewhat. Rainfall will interfere with the surface finish, but there are ways to deal with that. Some construction specifications call for concrete to be kept wet as it cures.

This and the most recent video on Mexico’s mountainous geography have been top tier. Thank you so much for the work you do and the content you provide!

It’s crazy to see how much this channel has improved over time, I’ve been watching for years and every video is just as entertaining as the last.

2:10 people in the Caribbean be like, sounds like home

Soo cool nice info

As a Brazilian, i found the people "fleeing" sao paulo to colombia part pretty funny 😂

Amazing video! Side note, as a Dominican I hate the hypocrisy in my country over illegal immigrants. Our people hate on Haitians who are looking for a better life yet they turn a blind eye when it is their family moving to the States for the same reason. Luckily now the DR is in a much better place than before, hopefully more people stay.

Interesting and informative. Excellent photography job/maps enabling viewers to better understand what the orator is describing. The 2 countries north & south of the Darien gap. Aren't interested with investing in paved road. That's the reason no connection.

Tropical disease wreaking havoc on construction workers was also a problem for the Panama Canal. Walter Reed, a name that may be recognizable from a US military hospital in the DC area, was noted for research on yellow fever which was helpful to the successful canal project.

Everyone who was wondering why the Aztec and Incan empires couldn't have met each other, here's why

Was thinking about this yesterday, the answer is clearly a costal "bridge" road on the gulf side

I like how video of the Swedish coastal guard vessel KVB 002 Triton is shown at @12:16

"Venoms spiders!" ~ Shows a harmless golden orb weaver

I started following this channel during the height of the pandemic and never looked back. Thanks for the very interesting topics as always, RealLifeLore! More power! Keep the videos coming!

I feel like I’ve seen this one somewhere before…

5:27 Nice scenery

5:28 the items on her back serve two purposes. Counter balance, and convenience/sustenance.

I visited Yaviza 15 years ago on a mission trip. While the Darien Gap is harsh, it's still quite beautiful, especially coming from a place like the Great Plains of the United States. I took so many pictures of just the massive amounts of jungle trees because there were so few trees back home. Also, pretty much everyone in Yaviza lived in a shack, the roads in the town were essentially wide sidewalks since they were made of concrete, but sometimes on those roads you would see someone driving a brand new Nissan Pathfinder. One day, some members of our group, including me, went out into the jungle to help clear land for a farm. We put so much insect repellent on ourselves that we basically had a bath in insect repellent and washed our clothes in insect repellent. We also learned how to say "Don't shoot" in Spanish, though thankfully we never had to use it.

For those of you wondering, he did a video of this a while a back. It’s called “What If We Built a Road around the World,” also some of his videos are remakes of videos he did almost 3-5 years ago such as the North Sentinel Island video for example.

Maybe a railroad between Turbo and Avisa would be easier to get done than a highway

Tallest mountain in Australia is Mount Kosciuszko at 2228m, taller than Cerro Tacarcuna.

I really appreciate the detail you went into in this video. It was an eye opener.

i remember when this video was first posted and emphasized in the roughness of the terrain over the much much rougher geopolitical obstacles that makes the darien gap also known in spanish as the darien's plug (tapon del darien)

It reminds me of New Guinea. There are no road or rail links across the Owen Stanley range.

a while ago a video appeared on you tube about a young lady calling herself Itchy boots and driving the pan American highway on a motorcycle and her efforts to cross the Darien gap so as to continue all the way north to Alaska she elected to take a boat ride around it

I appreciate that real life lore probably could have ended the video after 5:18 ‐ 5:37 but he didn't, he gives us all the juicy details. Thank you, RealLifeLore ❤

@2:41 the tallest mountain in Australia is Mt Kosciusko which is 2,228m above sea level

Because the Highway of the America's goes from a 4 lane highway south through Panama and at the Colombia border it dead ends into jungle and a mule trail. Pretty wild.

Only one thing missing from this video: why do they call the gap, the Darien Gap. Otherwise, this was one of the best videos you’ve done to date. My daughter and I always learn so much from your videos.

There was a proposal for a coast road raised on concrete piers along the shore line of the Caribbean. It would be in effect the longest over pass in the world. It would literally stand on the beach and in the mangroves just 2 meters above the sea. In some places it would touch land only enough to create a base area for maintenance crews and a food and toilet stop. Needless to say the proposal came from someone that engineers bridges and over passes. The sea breeze would help keep the mosquitoes and other lethal bugs at bay.

RLL is on a tear - keep it up! 3rd video in what, a week? Lot a love from Portugal and always nice to see a new upload!🎉

4:07 "Venomus spiders". Shows a Nephila, one of the most chilled, non venomus (for humans) spiders in the whole Southamerican rainforest.

Smh, it hurts that a significant part of the reason the gap hasn't been bridged is because of the US war on drugs that makes illicit substances so valuable; if drugs were all legalized in America, and followed the model Colorado uses for their legal MJ, it would discourage illicit sales of the substances due to the fact that it would be easier, and similarly lucrative, to sell stuff legally. They specifically need to follow the Colorado model, because many of the other states that have legalized MJ have had a rough time, due to irrational decisions by their legislators, like allowing some towns to choose not to have dispensaries, which immediately increased the amount of drug crime in those regions, due to the lack of readily available legal routes of acquisition. Making things illegal only increases the value of those things, and by extension, increases the power and reach of the criminal organizations, who want to make as much money as possible as quickly as possible, with no care for the people who will be negatively impacted by their actions. If America really wants to reduce the impact of the war on drugs, they need to stop fighting it they way they have, and instead focus on establishing legitimate routes to acquire the drugs that are easier to use than the illegitimate routes, cause right now, the actions of the American government are directly responsible for the incredibly lucrative markets the drug trade exploits.

Great job for making content i didn’t even know i needed to watch 👏

So much important information this episode. I really love this channel 🤩

I'm convinced. I'm never going to try crossing this. I admire those who do it.

We should never have given that canal back 😂

True story. After I got about of the army, I was a drunken hobo living in my car which, you can imagine ends with crossing law enforcement eventually. Arrest for DUI in Virginia, got bail, got car out of impound. Decides to keep drinking, and chose to skip my court date. Where was I? Driving through North Carolina, after deciding I would hide out in Venezuela since there is no extradition. Had no passport, no luggage, a backseat full of empty booze bottles. I expected to make it too! That damn GPS seemed to be broken, wouldn’t let me set a route to Caracas, where I would live like a king! 🤦‍♂️Google learned me a lesson that day.

16:57 that's simply not true you can use google maps without the internet, simply by pre-downloading the map, and tracking your location with GPS. no internet required

I never thought that hiking and wild camping would be so popular here.

Damn those knockers on 5.29 are huuuge 🎉😮

3:38 Thank you for using the word 'plethora'; it means 'a lot' to me.

Steve-O and Chris Pontius crossed the Darien Gap. Pontius said it was one of the most frustrating things that he's glad he's done but would never want to do again.

Love your content! I have learned so much from you - thanks!

This fact blew my mind, for some reason!

RealLifeLore, I commend you for bringing these modern problems to light. I feel like it is easy to brush over the current state of our world because it isn't covered by the news or because it's just too confusing to understand. You make these issues accessible and engaging. I've learned a lot from your videos and wish the schools I attended took advantage of this content.

An incredibly informative video; great job! (as always... But this one was particularly great!)

Thankyou

Heck, that long a walk sounds painful even on flat terrain in a temparate environment

Those are some serious mountains at 5:30

These videos are amazing, keep it up :-)

I learned about this from a backpacker in Costa Rica that had biked from USA MN whereas I flew from IA. Some coincidence, the linearity.

Any highway would have to be elevated so the jungle wouldn't just take it over, plus to be able to control access. That way it could be a toll road with vehicle inspections; it wouldn't hurt to have an inspection station at the halfway point, either. Though the plan I've wished for since high school is not a highway but a railroad; that also would have to be elevated. It could also carry cars, again with inspections.