Kidnapped in Colombia: Gap Year Gone Wrong (Part 1 of 2)

Real Survival Stories

NOISER

Documentary, History, Society & Culture, Wilderness, Sports

4.8 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 30 October 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A British backpacker nears the end of his gap year in South America. Before flying home, Matt Scott signs up for a guided trek into the mountains of northern Colombia. But within days, the trip will take a sinister turn. As he and his fellow tourists are taken hostage at gunpoint, Matt will be left to wonder: who are these men? And what do they want? Should he do as they command? Or take his chances against the jungle, and run?… A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins. Written by Joe Viner | Produced by Ed Baranski | Assistant Producer: Luke Lonergan | Exec produced by Joel Duddell | Sound supervisor: Tom Pink | Sound design by Matt Peaty | Assembly edit by Rob Plummer | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Ralph Tittley. For ad-free listening, bonus material and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Click the subscription banner at the top of the feed to get started. Or go to noiser.com/subscriptions If you have an amazing survival story of your own that you’d like to put forward for the show, let us know. Drop us an email at support@noiser.com Our sister podcast Short History Of… has a new book! Pre-order your copy of A Short History of Ancient Rome now at noiser.com/books Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Please stand clear of the gap.
0:01.8	Another morning, another reminder there's a gap to be careful of.
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0:33.2	It's the dead of night.
0:35.5	September the 12th, 2003, in the far north of Colombia.
0:41.6	Somewhere deep in the mountains of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta,
0:45.9	a group of armed men creep through the jungle.
0:50.1	In their camouflage and black flak jackets,
0:52.6	the men are almost invisible,
0:55.5	blending with the darkness around them, detectable only by the shards of silver moonlight glinting of the muzzles of
1:00.7	their assault rifles.
1:05.6	They emerge from the jungle onto a treeless hilltop, where they spread out,, swift choreographed, weapons poised.
1:13.6	A head, silhouetted against the indigo sky are the shadowy outlines of two wooden cabins.
1:21.6	The night air is cool as the men steal across the clearing, the ground beneath their boots
1:28.0	still wet from yesterday's rain.
1:31.4	When they reach the cabins, the 20 or so men divide into smaller units, with one group
	...

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