The Pan-American Highway is the world's longest road. It stretches around 30,000 kilometres from Alaska all the way down to Argentina - except for one 100-kilometre piece in Panama, where the rainforest is just too dense, wet and wild for a road to be built through it. Engineers gave up. So in this one part of the world, the road simply stops.
The Darién is one of the most diverse places on the planet. Scientists have counted more than 500 species of bird, more than 200 species of mammal, and uncountable insects and frogs. New species are still being found - sometimes a tiny frog or beetle no one has ever named before turns up on a single research trip.
Indigenous Panamanians have lived in and around the Darién for thousands of years. The Emberá and Wounaan peoples are known across the world for their beautifully woven baskets, made from a fine palm fibre and coloured with plant dyes. Each basket can take months to make.
Because there is no road, people travel through the Darién by river. Long, narrow canoes called 'piraguas' carry families, food and supplies. Children who grow up here learn to handle a canoe almost as early as children elsewhere learn to ride a bike.