I'm John Batser. My colleague, Michael Jan, war correspondent is in Panama. He is at the

edge of the Panama highway. He is just now returning from a trip into the Darian

Gap, where the unbarred indigenous people dominate the scene. In addition, the Darian Gap is

where the migrants coming from all over the world must pass in order to reach Panama on

the Nicaragua, on to Guatemala, through El Salvador, on to Mexico, onto the US is the ambition.

His last week, Michael has traveled around, so we're going to catch up with him now. You can hear the

rain. It is a rain forest, so you would expect to be dripping. Michael just emerged from the jungle,

fortunately in time not to get stuck in the mud, which goes to your waist if you're in the wrong

place. Michael, a very good evening to you. The last we spoke, you were in Panama City, having

traveled there with one of the leaders of the Umbara people. He was traveling, he was a mayor, I believe,

he was traveling to a Panama. Since then, you've come back to the Umbara. What have you been doing

this last week? What did you learn in Panama City before you came back, Michael? Good evening to you.

Good afternoon from, well, here we are, good evening from Panama, from, I'm near Metatí, actually,

I'm in Darian province, so I'm not in Panama City anymore. By the way, when people here say

Panama, they mean Panama City. Anyway, we just rushed out of the jungle because you can hear the

rains. We knew we were going to get stuck in that peanut butter mud. It's really great mud. Let's

put it that way. It's the kind of bogs down armies. We saw the rain coming. We were out at Bajo

Chiquito where the migrants first emerged after six, ten, twelve days, depending on what's going on

out there with the rains and the floods and whatnot. Interestingly, in the last about week,

because I was there last Tuesday, well, about ten days ago Tuesday, and the place was flooded.

231 had come in that day as of about noon, and then more were still coming in. But today,

when we first got there at about eight in the morning or seven thirty, only three had come in so far,

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