What they don't tell you about the Darién Jungle

Colombian actor and comedianRaniel Mendoza documented on his social networks the terrible experience he experienced whencross the Darien jungle, consideredthe most dangerous migration route, which hundreds of thousands of people cross on their way to the United States.

On his Facebook page “I am Raniell”, where more than 240 thousand Internet users follow him, Mendoza uploaded twovideos in which he recounted the hard moments he experienced during thedifficult journey through what is also known as the Darién Gap.

From Mexico City, and after several days away from social networks, Mendoza returned to the networks to give his testimony and confessed that it was not easy for him to get there.

On the waysaw people die, some destroyed by mines; He found others lying in the middle of the mountains because they could not continue on the road; faced the danger of flooding rivers; walked through torrential downpours; He crossed a river full of crocodiles... but managed to get out of the risky “adventure” alive.

The journey began in Necoclí, Colombia, where he had to take a yacht that took him to Acandí, still on Colombian soil, from where the next day, at dawn, they left in groups for the journey through the jungle.

The influencer recommended thatWhoever decides to follow the migratory route does not do it alone, that he be accompanied by other people, so that they can support each other, especially if they are women, who “are more vulnerable.”

Mendoza said that once they left the first camp they spent more than 12 hours walking, through rivers, puddles, sand... “After you grasp what the jungle is, from there onwards you will not know anything about it.” which is concrete,” he warned. “Everything is mud, water, mud, river.”

He narrated that they had to climb three mountains, some easier than others. They had to climb one of them for two hours. To reach the fourth camp, before reaching the peak known as “The Flag,” the group I was in took a day, but there are people who invest two or three days, depending “on the circumstances and the energies they have.”

“I tell it like that, but the thing is not to tell it, the thing is to live it,” he confessed.

After reaching the “La Bandera” hill, where the border between Colombia and Panama is marked, he thought - like many - that it was the last thing and everything had ended.

“What I didn't know was that this was just the beginning,” were his words.

In the second video, Mendoza recounted very hard and sad moments that he witnessed.

“That's where the difficult part comes from. "You have to go down a mountain where there is pure mud for three hours," he said. “You go down and you have to be very careful, a minimal fall, a bad slip, and there is a cliff on this side and one on the other, there is no end to it. Pure cliff down. From The Flag down, you are adrift.”

“When you cross La Bandera pa'bajo, you get sick, you die, and that's where you stay. Nobody is going to pick you up there, nobody swims. There you were,” the influencer warned with regret.

He recalled that on the journey, many blue bags appear tied to trees, and he recommended that potential migrants embarking on the route that they should be guided by these and never do so by places where red bags are seen.

“I give advice to all the people who want to go into the jungle, if you see a red bag, don't go in there. There are parts where there are many mines, if you see a red bag, don't go there, always look for the blue ones," he advised, and recounted a tragic event that occurred to a group of people in which he was and they were left behind.

“Because they wanted to cut the road, take an easier path, they went for a red bag, there was a mine, it exploded and 14 people died,” he revealed.

For him, The Flag's journey downwards is “the most desperate thing in the Darién jungle.” He explained that from Acandí to that place is difficult, hard “because you have to walk a lot, climb hills, but that is easy, because there are people who guide, and you can even pay them to carry your bags,” but from La Bandera from now on “there is no one who is going to help you.”

After the flag is lowered, he stressed, “you will see everything, dead,abandoned people”. “I had to see a woman who had been waiting for her children for five days because her legs were no longer working, three hours on the road,” he said.

The actor mentioned many other difficulties that arise during the journey, such as the presence of numerous rivers, which "grow and you don't realize it", and for this reason he assured that boots should not be used, as they fill with water and due to their weight they prevent walking, and a lot of clothes, which in the end have to be thrown away.

Almost at the end of the second video, the influencer reveals another of the dangers that migrants face. After arriving at the Bajo Chiquito town, at the exit of the jungle, the migrants register and then take a canoe to take them to what he calls the UN, which is the Lajas Blancas Migratory Center, in Panama.

“The canoe that is going to take you to Panama, those canoes are like that, literally -and he makes a gesture with his hands showing their narrowness-; My body is the canoe. And there are 15 people. Fat, skinny, medium, short, big. One wrong move and you go downhill,” he said, and then he mentioned the crocodiles.

"My heart, to say the least, was here - he points to his throat - every time I saw the crocodiles, because - as I tell you - the canoes are too small, and one wrong move and you go to the ground, and you don't know if that's deep, if it's short, how many crocodiles there are down there when you fall,” concluded Mendoza, who did not indicate whether he will continue his documentary series, although his followers already expect it.

The flow of migrants through the Darién Gap does not stop; On the contrary, it continues to grow.Some 417,000 people have crossed the jungle so far in 2023, as reported by the Pan American Development Foundation to the networkCNN.