nothing was easy about going back to columbia. you could hike and bleed all day and cover just a couple miles. it didn't really occur to us how dangerous it was. four soldiers just materialized out of the bush. we were surrounded and it's just crazy. they were going to take me into

the jungle and put a bullet into my head. i was 21. i went to the university of colorado. i really wasn't doing very well. i wanted to leave. i was thinking about what i was going to do next. i was from colombia. when i was very small, two months, i was adopted by an american couple, and it occurred to me i should go back to colombia. i think it's important for people that have grown up somewhere else to go back. it would be an adventure. i figured i would grow as a person, and then everything would make sense.

i kind of road tripped down from colorado. that was an important part of the trip, was to really get off the tourist track. i wanted to go back to colombia in a way that was meaningful to me. i could fly or take a boat. it was like kung fu or something, the fact that i would be going there. you could take a road and it ends in panama, that's it. but to get to colombia, you have to cross a darion gap. the darion is kind of myth cal. it's hundreds of miles. it's challenging, this idea to cross the darien. frightening. but why should it be easy? i bought a machete, a pair of tropical combat boots, a small

military backpack. didn't really want to carry much. bought a baby blue mosquito net. it's comical what they had at this one shop for a jungle adventure. i was trying to shed my kind of american appearance. i felt like it would be easier to blend in. i don't know if i did a very good job. i looked kind of like a bum, i think. the last thing i needed before i left was a map. not a lot of people asked for a map of the darien, obviously, and i'm looking at what kind of maps are there. and this guy walks in. he goes to the same counter. >> hello, senora. >> he asks about a map of the darien. i thought, hmm, this is kind of strange. i'm just all ears. i'm curious.

>> that's a coincidence. i was just looking for a map of the darien as well. >> robert. >> why are you so interested in the darien? he said he was a journalist. the lady showed us a map. it was all a bunch of trees and you couldn't distinguish one from another. i think both of us were trying to figure out if it was a good fit to go together, so we agreed to meet up at his hotel. already i was thinking about if we were going to travel together how this would go. >> i bought some maps of my own. >> my plan was to kind of go unnoticed through the darien, but he was traveling with another woman who was my age. she's blond and six feet tall. at that point i'm like, well, there's no way we're going to be sneaking through the darien. >> we're trying to figure out the best route.

>> i'm not sure meg was so sure about me coming along, which was funny, because i kind of had my own concerns about them. i think we were all interested in what we would encounter in the darien. >> we could encounter some colombian guerrillas. >> right, the fark. i knew about the fark. it stood for the armed men of columbia. we were taking direct action. i thought they would change the way things were in colombia, poverty. it was romantic. freedom fighters. yeah. there was a discussion about the potential of us being kidnapped. but i had to get to colombia, and i was going to do it this way. >> so how do you feel about us all going together?

>> great. >> let's do it. >> we got on the boat and there we were, headed for the darien. i didn't think there would be any real severe consequences. anything i got into i felt like i could get out of. i think we all felt that way. it would take all day to travel three or four miles, but we were definitely on our way. robert had a gps, but the gps was tough in that part of the world. we tried to get our maps to gel with the gps. we couldn't get the map to coordinate. it became very clear this type of journey was impossible without a guide. we went upriver all day, and we arrived at a native village, cup of tea. at that time we met victor.

he saw us pull in. >> hello! welcome! good morning. >> mark. >> i liked victor right off. he was really friendly. >> good morning, miss. i'm single. >> older. early 50s. victor kind of took us on a tour. we walked to the village. he showed us his house. we told victor we were planning to cross the darien in the colombia. that didn't seem like too big an issue for him. he talked about his experience guiding in the past. and he claimed to have contacts with the farc, which was another relief. it was one less reason to worry with a guide that had contact with the farc. he kind of won us over, you know. leaving cup of tea was phenomenal. it was happening, it was really happening. we had a young boy that was our

guide to the next village. we were on our way. the first couple days were really rough for robert. he had, like, heat exhaustion. it was just really difficult keeping enough fluids in him. we were hiking between like 10 to 12 hours each day. portions of the trail were really slow. we had to cut through brush. they weren't well traveled. we would walk in riverbeds for an hour and then suddenly our guide would skirt off on a very small almost like a game trail that you would never spot on your own. we walked for almost 12 hours coming into pucuro. it was dusk. and we startled the people there. [ foreign language ] >> it was just a really rare occurrence to have people coming

to the village. these young men came out. they had machetes. it felt really hostile. yeah, i'm scared. i'm scared. i have no idea what they're going to do. she might actually be invisible. ♪ but mindy was actually not invisible. ooh, what are you doing? can you see me? she had just always been treated that way. yeah. you don't have to look at me like that. there are worst things than an attractive woman touching your body. i'll go. join the nation that sees you as a priority. ♪ nationwide is on your side you can call mbut,allow... i have a wandering eye. i mean, come on. national gives me the control to choose any car in the aisle i want. i could choose you... or i could choose her if i like her more.

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>> i don't know what's going to happen. are we going to be beat? and it's just crazy. they're all in our face. there was dogs, just unbelievable commotion.

we're uninvited. we're in the darien. we've left the police outpost and all we really have is victor. all i could think was, stay with victor. stay with victor. if anyone is going to sort this out, victor is going to sort it out. victor kept his calm and he walked directly to the chief's home. obviously, he wanted to hear from us what we were doing there and what we were planning. victor negotiated with the tr e tribe. [ foreign language ] >> the next day, victor negotiated guides for us. the plan was for the guides to take us as far as paya, which

was the last panamanian village. i certainly didn't think we had put the most difficult part of the trek behind us. we had yet to reach the border region, the real heart of the jungle, if you will. we hiked all day through the jungle. i remember victor kind of laughing with the guards about the mineral water we were drinking. and then we did run out of water. at first it was like, wow, i'm really thirsty, i'd really like some water. and then it was like, i really don't feel well. i feel lightheaded. we need to find water soon. eventually we found a grove of green bamboo. they would hack off part of the tree and then cut off the top

and you would literally have 6 or 8 ounces of water stored in the tree. it was like a tremendous relief. we hiked all afternoon, and that afternoon we arrived in paya. coming into paya was much different than pucuro, because they were expecting us. we had made it through the last stop before you cross the border into colombia. that evening we attended a tribal meeting. i can remember there was a group of young men that kept dancing in circles, playing the music, enjoying themselves. we had fish, rice and bush meat. iguana. you eat what you're served. and it was good. it was good.

at that time things were moving along pretty well and we were able to negotiate with the chief for guides. i couldn't believe where i was. i felt incredibly fortunate. i felt like i was doing what i set out to do. we were there for a couple days. victor told us that it would be safer if we made contact with the farc now rather than later. he told us that a local commander with the farc would meet with us. we spent a whole day and just hung out. but they never showed up. if the farc had showed up, that would have been a huge relief. but that didn't happen, and the following day we left. leaving paya, i knew we were close to colombia. we were probably about a day or day and a half from the border. paya was our last village, and

beyond that, the really serious part began. hiking through the jungle is what you would expect. everything is sharp and pointy or trying to eat you. i had a compass, but you can't just pick a direction and walk east. there is ravines and valleys. you could hike and bushwhack and bleed all day and cover just a couple miles and not really be any farther than from where you started. there would be be poinpoints wh guide would turn around and we would go back where we came, went off another direction. you don't have any line of sight and you're down under the canopy, and you really don't have a sense even of what direction you're walking. what i noticed more than anything was this feeling we were almost walking in circles. you would pass a tree or some sort of feature of vegetation and you'll swear you already

walked by it. we camped at night and expected to be in colombia the following day. the next morning when we woke up, we had breakfast. and we continued. we knew that we were probably going to cross into colombia that day. right around noon, we decided to stop for lunch. while we're eating, three men who we knew from paya passed us. they were headed to the same village and they were moving quite quickly. they had heavy bags, but they were moving much faster than we were. exchanged pleasantries and they were off. probably wouldn't see them until we got there. so after lunch we grabbed our stuff and got back under way.

suddenly after that, we were up on a ridge line. it was open. there was a storm that came in and knocked down a lot of the trees, and we were all kind of picking our way through. it was at that point that we heard gunshots. it's as old as our time on earth. and as new as tomorrow. you can have a yard. or slightly less. gardening isn't about where we choose to live. it's about how we choose to live. miracle-gro. life starts here. information to the rest of your body at 268 mph. three times the speed of a fastball. take care of your brain with centrum silver men. multivitamins with 20% more vitamin d. my heart beats 100,000 times a day sending oxygen to my muscles...

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[ gunshots ] >> we heard the gunshots. they were very distinct. >> is that what i think it is? >> they were farther up the valley, maybe a half mile or mile away. they were just low bursts of fire. boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. my heart is racing. i remember having my own moment of anxiety, you know. at that point, our guides simply said that they weren't going to continue. and they dropped everything they were carrying and they ran.

there was no discussion. they were going back to paya, end of story. in moments they were gone and robert's gear and our food and everything was just on the trail. >> mark, are you okay? >> now it was victor and meg and robert and myself. before we could talk about what we really wanted to do and what our plan was, two of the men that had passed us earlier in the day showed up. one of them was bleeding, and they were completely terrified. apparently they had been cutting bamboo and people had just started shooting at them. that's all they could say. then one of them sort of showed where the third man had been shot, that they killed him. and they continued back to paya where our guides had just run off to. i was trying to delay panic, you

know. i figured there would be time to panic later on, but at this point we just really need to do figure out what we were going to do. i remember being quiet. i remember not really saying much. i just kind of went back into myself. this wasn't really my game. robert was the one that suggested -- >> i think we keep going. >> toward the ambush. >> it will be safer than to turn back. >> what about victor? >> we stay together. >> mark? are you happy with that? >> i'm scared, but this was something i kind of hoped to encounter, a true, true, true test. >> okay. so we're all agreed. >> it was that important to me that i could deal with whatever it was down the trail. there was a lot of internal monologue. i was thinking about the fact that maybe their first response

was going to be to open fire. robert suggested that we speak loudl loudly so they would have ample warning before we encountered whoever it was that had been shooting. >> where we going, victor? where we going? >> i was kind of reaching a bit of a breaking point. >> i said, mark, what kind of movies do you like? >> keep talking! louder! >> maybe after just 15 or 20 minutes, we made it up to a bluff. and robert actually said -- >> this would be a really good place for an ambush. >> and four soldiers just materialized, they just stood up. short hair, young, probably all in their early 20s. [ foreign language ] >> i remember very distinctly that the soldier directly in front of me had a green ban danna adabandanna

in the center, kind of striking. they had their guns aimed at us, and we had our arms up. we took off our bags and then we sat down. at that point the soldiers were communicating on the radios. we were thinking they were the farc. victor was the one with the farc contacts, and now we were going to fall back on victor's relationship and also robert as a journalist. [ foreign language ] >> they wanted to kind of figure out who we were. >> tell them i'm a journalist. >> robert had articles, and he kind of wanted to, like, demonstrate to them that he actually was a journalist. but they weren't too interested in our story. they started this casual conversation about tiger meat,

tigre, and they asked victor if he had ever had tigre. he said, it's very rich, it's very rich. they said, we really like tigers. tigers eat tigers. you know, predators eat predators. from there they went on to say they had just seen a tiger. in fact, they had shot at one in the jungle. and they kind of hinted at whether or not we had heard the gunfire. >> no. no, no. >> we said no. we all had the good sense to keep our mouth shut. after about an hour of waiting around, another group of soldiers arrived. now there was maybe 30 or 40 soldiers like right where we were. we don't know what the hell is going on. they separate us from victor. victor was nervous from the beginning, and i could kind of see it on his face.

he was too far away to hear what he was saying, but he was talking to the squad commander. eventually victor came back, and the squad commander launched into this speech about the revolutionary armed forces of colombia, the farc. they were members of the farc. they were there to protect the people of colombia. and we listened. when he was done speaking, victor started speaking to me in english. >> his name i don't know. >> he was trying to appear casual but he was struggling. he was really trying to pick his words carefully. >> say that again? >> these men no words. >> he told me they didn't trust him and that he didn't know

them, that he was worried. at that point i was really confused. victor didn't know who they were. they claimed they were farc, but they were making up stories about shooting in the jungle. they haven't killed us, that's good, but it was another story now. how were we going to get out of this? is computing to empower cancer researchers. it used to take two weeks to sequence and analyze a genome; with the microsoft cloud we can analyze 100 per day. whatever i can do to help compute a cure for cancer, that's what i'd like to do. it begins from the second the pursuiwe're born.ier. after all, healthier doesn't happen all by itself. it needs to be earned... every day... using wellness to keep away illness... and believing that a single life can be made better by millions of others. healthier takes somebody who can power modern health care...

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he number on your screen to learn more. i'm dara brown. here's what's happening in illinois. a u.s. soldier was planning an isis attack on a military base there. meanwhile, a pennsylvania woman was charged with trying to join isis in syria. an uber driver has been released from the city's joint terrorism task force. those are your headlines. now it's back to "lock up."

they wanted to see our maps, and they had some questions about paya and who was there and what was there. they decided that they were going into panama for themselves, but they needed a guide to retrace our steps. >> what did he say? >> he said they want to take victor with them to panama. >> there was a brief argument. >> no, tell them there's no reason to take him to panama. >> we were pretty emphatic about it but victor didn't really say anything on his own behalf. i think he realized things were beyond his control. i mean, we really pleaded with them. but they assured us, they said, it's not to worry. we're just going to secure the area. a situation that i put myself in. decision after decision led me to this point running into the farc. this is almost exactly what i

thought might happen. did i not realize the seriousness of this? i was really worried. i was convinced victor was probably dead. we more or less stayed put right where we were. they put us right in the middle of this group of soldiers, maybe 20, so we slept surrounded. no one was going to sneak off in the middle of the night. and i don't remember sleeping a lot that night. the soldiers, they would pull guard duty all night. every couple hours four or five soldiers would get up and go and take post and four or five would come back. i don't know what they wanted. i don't know what we would do if we were permanently held. to be so foolish as to just stumble across a border the way

we did. our ability to make choices ended once we walked down the trail. in the morning they moved us. it was very warm and there was a particular smell in the area. it could have been anything, but i could smell -- it smelled like death, that something had happened in that location. the two men that ran back and the third that had been killed, we saw their things. they were just kind of torn open, chewed apart. his body wasn't there. it was just the bags that the men had been carrying, but it felt like a body. their things felt like a body. at that point we were kind of

with this small group of soldiers. kind of made a camp there in the jungle and we just waited. so i'm thinking, okay, so this is the farc, the left wing, the freedom fighters. they were young, really young. kids, really. 16, 17, 18 years old. i wasn't an expert about the farc, but i had some pretty pointed questions, kind of philosophical stuff. but any conversation that i tried to engage them with just didn't go anywhere. >> an ipod. >> they were curious about robert's ipod. they wanted to talk about music. they wanted to talk about their families. at night they were kind of jumpy, and i think that just comes with being in the jungle for as long as they had been. it was just on the edge of

darkness. i became aware of this really distinct noise. and i asked if anyone else heard it. it was distant but it was low. it kept building in intensity over a span of maybe four or five minutes. the soldiers started to become alarmed, because it continued to get louder and louder and louder. >> is that a helicopter? >> we were thinking maybe it was a helicopter, but the sound was becoming more complex. there was this kind of clicking, almost like a metallic sound. now the soldiers are totally spooked, and their little squad leader is telling them to take positions and they don't want to go. we're all like, what do you think it is? robert looks at us and he says -- >> it sounds like a column of men coming toward us.

>> i listened and it's just right there. yeah. of course. it's a massive amount of soldiers running toward us through the forest. and then the noise just rose to a level where the soldiers just opened up. robert is like, get as far away from the muzzle blasts as possible. i literally tried to bury my head in the jungle. and they ceased firing, and there was just silence. just complete silence. and then someone says --

it's pigs. wild pigs. that's exactly what it was. helicopters have a really distinct sound to them, blackhawks, kind of low, throaty. we all kind of looked at it but it was impossible for them to see us. we were certainly kind of under guard, but we weren't restrained, our hands were never bound. we also really didn't talk about escaping. that was a step that i don't think we were prepared to even think about. there was opportunities. they were kind of careless with their weapons. they would just leave them around. sometimes they would forget them. but then once you escape, where do you go? we didn't have provisions on us, then we really would have been on our own. frankly, we didn't have a lot of our own survival skills.

then that evening, another group of soldiers arrived. >> you recognize those men? >> they were the soldiers that went into panama. they had heavier mortars, russian squad machine guns. the commander that originally took victor assures us that victor is going to be coming along any minute. and they demand all of our electronic equipment. they took our media, our passports, everything we had. the level of anxiety, it's gradually building. it was like, grab your bag, get your stuff, we need to leave. as we were climbing out of this ridge line, robert and i began this conversation which was basically, how do we really know these people are who they say they are? we thought if we were going to

run into somebody, it would be the farc. but i remember victor was nervous from the beginning that he didn't really know who they were. when he left, he was really quiet. i'm certain he feared for his life. it's possible he was thinking they were sworn enemy of the farc. paramilitaries. i knew there were rumors about them using chain saws on people. your grass proves it. get ortho weed b gon. the label tells the story. gives you season-long control of all these types of bugs. spectracide gives you season-long control... of just ants. their label says so. bugged by more than ants? get ortho bug b gon. the label tells the story. she thought she'd feel better after seeing her doctor. and she might have if not for kari, the identity thief who stole jill's social security number

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it was pretty rare that the paramilitaries would take people and then release them. now, i had no idea what was going to happen next. we hiked all night. moving at night, you just follow the soldier in front of you. you can't see anything. just pitch black dark. nobody can use a flashlight because there was potential to run into other groups. it just feels like it's never going to end. finally, we arrived at the village that was kind of our original destination in colombia. we come out onto this really large soccer field and there's

dozens of soldiers already sacked down on the field. and we just crashed. we're all beyond words, just so fatigued. i don't remember sleeping. i must have, but just a couple hours later, 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning, the soldier woke me up. there was about six soldiers. i didn't recognize any of them. these guys were older. they meant business, and they told us to get up. of course, at that point it's just like, why, are you kidding me? we hiked all night, we've only slept for a couple hours and we're moving again. i'm waking up now, and i'm kind of realizing this isn't probably the best situation. i don't know these guys. they're not the soldiers that we kind of had a relationship with. it just becomes apparent that for whatever reason they don't want us to be seen by anybody in

the village. at this point, i'm consciously fearful for my life. they take us to a graveyard, to a kuna burial site outside the village. i look at meg, and i'm like, what do you think? she has a kind way of putting things. she's like, i don't know -- >> i think they're going to do us. >> i'm like, really? >> i think you're right. >> that's exactly how i feel. is this it? is this how it's going to go down? she's like, i don't know. that's what it feels like. i'm like, now i know what's going to happen. they're going to kill us. they kept telling us they were going to release us and they never did. we've been in the jungle days. and now we're in a graveyard. they took our media, so there is no evidence now. they have everything, they have us. we're going to be shot.

so we waited. and four or five soldiers showed up, and they took me by myself. meg was just like -- she just said goodbye to me. >> goodbye. >> they both said goodbye to me. >> see ya. it was -- i went with them. i left. now i know what's going to happen. they're going to kill us. i don't know why, but they're going to kill us.

i kind of gave up at that point. i feel kind of, in a weird way, ready. i mean, maybe this is how it should have been. i mean, i'm back in colombia, right? things have kind of come around, you know. you always think you would try to run, grab a weapon or something, but oddly enough, that wasn't on my mind. i just figured they were going to take me into the jungle and put me on my knees and put a bullet in my head. vite vite to help protect your eye health. as you age, your eyes can lose vital nutrients. ocuvite helps replenish key eye nutrients. ocuvite is a vitamin made just for your eyes from the eye care experts at bausch + lomb. ocuvite has a unique formula that's just not found in any leading multivitamin. your eyes are unique so help protect your eye health with ocuvite. vo: after years of being treated like she was invisible, it occurred to mindy

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they took me out on the riverbank. most of the entire guerrilla attachment was there, and another superior had showed up. they sat me down, like, right in the middle. and now it's just like, well, what's going to happen next?

the commander offered me a cigarette. and we started this conversation about politics. he wants to know what i think about the paramilitaries. i'm pretty sure they're not the farc anymore. i told them bhawhat i thought o them. i figured if they wanted to shoot me, they could shoot me. i told them the paramilitary was probably the biggest problem in colombia at at ththat time. i talked about the massacres. i think i probably was ranting. partway through the rant, this commander kind of interrupts me and pulls off his t-shirt and there it is. we're paramilitary. the skull and crossbones are kind of their little tag. what do you think about that?

he said, i would take the cigarette now. i had just run my mouth off. it was a big joke. it became clear that they had gotten instructions to play along with his farc story line. and the joke really was on me, but i laughed, too. once everybody kind of laughed at me, i kind of became convinced they thought we were completely harmless. robert and meg were down the riverbank when they saw me. they were surprised to see me alive. they tell us that we can go. i almost couldn't believe it.

the next day, there is some people here to pick us up. we thought it was going to be the red cross, but it was a colombian priest and a nun from a convent. i hadn't really gotten time to really think about what had happened. i was still wound up. this was a huge continuum of emotion. it was like dread and then relief. i felt like there was going to be a point where i would have to kind of dump all the stress and anxiety i was feeling, but at that point i was hanging in there, i think. i was hanging in there. we were out of the jungle, and we were definitely in colombia. the u.s. embassy sent this jet for us. and then, same day, they fly us

to bogatar. they sat us down in their office and they're just all ears. >> so, we need to go through all the details of your trip. >> they want to know everything. >> all the details you can remember. >> i was starting to feel burned out. >> i want to know everything about your guide. >> they wanted to know about victor. >> where did you meet him? >> questions about where we met him, what he had done in certain situations. is he okay? >> you haven't heard? >> it was then we got the full story about what had happened after victor left with the paramilitaries. they got victor to lead them back into panama, and when they got to paya, there was kind of a celebration under way. for whatever reason, they didn't like the cooperation they were getting. the chief was killed by the

paramilitaries. his son was left for dead. from there they left paya and they went even deeper into panama, all the way to pucuro. i'm guessing if victor wasn't convinced before he was a dead man, he's absolutely convinced now. so victor escapes. somewhere between paya and pucuro. this is like a 50-year-old man trying to outrun an entire squad of hardened, trained paramilitary soldiers in the jungle, and he outruns them. by the time the paramilitary show up, the village is empty. they looted, burned a couple buildings to the ground and left. >> they burned a couple buildings to the ground and left. they took what they wanted. >> when i heard about what happened, i blamed myself. this was an act of terrorism. it was a first paramilitary

incursion into panama. our guides were from paya. there had been people killed. i mean, everything kind of fell away. the room started spinning. i just felt suddenly really horrible. i could just feel a fever coming on and they asked me -- >> are you okay? >> i'm like, no. i need to lie down. >> right this way. >> they sat me down and this nurse came in. she just said, what happened to you? i just completely lost it. i just cried. it felt really good. i couldn't explain to her what had happened to me, because i didn't know what had happened to me. but i had made it to where i wanted to be. i was back in colombia. that in itself was kind of overwhelming. clearly, i just had this day in

bogota and that was it. i got a cab and i went to central park in the middle of the city. i walked, sat on a bench. i had more questions sitting on that bench than i did when i left. there had been people killed, and maybe it was our fault. whether or not the paramilitaries would have gone into panama without us is up for argument. but i felt responsible for what happened. even eight years later, i still think about it. i still think about the choices i made to take that trip. i had gotten this idea in my head that i would personally pay any cost to cross the darien. but in the end i didn't have to pay it, really. other people

we were going down to mexico and we were buying steroids with counterfeit money. we were going over the border and we had all the stuff packed in the spare tire. i was thinking to myself, don't start acting weird. be calm. i was not about to get caught there. not in mexico.