Mother, daughter desperate to leave Venezuela flee on foot

Barely able to feed her daughter and struggling to earn a living, Sandra Cadiz made the desperate decision to leave Venezuela.

But unlike most of the millions who have fled the nation's deadly shortages and spiraling hyperinflation in an exodus that rivals even the European refugee crisis in numbers, they couldn't afford a bus or plane. Instead, they would have to flee by foot, risking their lives as they tried to cross over two thousand miles of often unforgiving terrain ripe with danger.

In this Aug. 31, 2018 photo, Venezuelan Sandra Cadiz rests with her 10-year-old daughter Angelis on a dirt floor near a gas station in Pamplona, Colombia, on their journey to Peru. Cadiz took out her life savings in Venezuelan bolivars for the trip, and by the time the two reached Lima, they didn’t have a cent in their pockets. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this Sept. 2, 2018 photo, 10-year-old Venezuelan Angelis sits in a car with her mother Sandra Cadiz as they get a free ride from a driver to the next city, Lebrija, Colombia, on their journey to Peru. A police officer offered to hail down a ride, and a man in an old boxy Chevrolet Samurai agreed to take them. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this Sept. 4, 2018 photo, Venezuelan Sandra Cadiz and her 10-year-old daughter Angelis embrace after spending the night outside a Biomax gas station in a remote stretch of farmland known only as “Kilometer 17” in Santander state, Colombia, on their journey to Peru. A doctor had recently told Cadiz that her daughter was malnourished. The skinny 10-year-old was at least 10 pounds underweight and only eating twice a day. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this Sept. 1, 2018 photo, 10-year-old Venezuelan Angelis combs the hair of her mother Sandra Cadiz as they take a break from walking to the Berlin paramo, which leads to the city of Bucaramanga, Colombia, on their journey to Peru. The daughter of a housewife and a cemetery worker, Cadiz had grown up to know great misfortune, but she had never expected to know exile. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this Aug. 31, 2018 photo, Venezuelan migrant Orlando, 44, gets medical treatment for his feet as he rests from walking across the country, outside the home of Marta Duque, who opens her doors to provide shelter for Venezuelan families with young children, in Pamplona, Colombia. Pamplona is one of the last cities migrants reach before venturing up a frigid Berlin paramo, one of the most feared parts of the journey by foot, with a high altitude and temperatures that dip to 10 degrees below freezing. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this Sept. 2, 2018 photo, Venezuelan Sandra Cadiz holds the hand of her 10-year-old daughter Angelis as they walk on the shoulder of the road during their journey to Peru, near Dagota, Colombia. When Sandra Cadiz began struggling to feed her daughter, she knew it was time to leave Venezuela. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this Sept. 3, 2018 photo, Venezuelan Sandra Cadiz and her 10-year-old daughter Angelis, thank gas station worker Manuel Velasquez after he helped them get a ride in the cabin of a truck in Peroles, Colombia, on their journey to Peru. Whenever the two got a ride in the cabin of a truck, Cadiz made a point of seating her daughter closest to the passenger door, putting herself as a protective layer between the driver and her daughter. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this Sept. 2, 2018 photo, Venezuelan Sandra Cadiz inspects the foot of her 10-year-old daughter Angelis who complained of pain as they take a break from their walk to Peru along the shoulder of the road near Dagota, Colombia. When President Nicolas Maduro announced he'd give those with a “Fatherland Card” a special bonus, Cadiz saw an opportunity to buy two bus tickets to the Colombia border or purchase her daughter a pair of new shoes. “Let’s go, mama,” Angelis told her. “I’ll walk in my broken shoes.” (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this Sept. 5, 2018 photo, Venezuelan Sandra Cadiz listens to a voice message from her son Leonardo as she and her 10-year-old daughter Angelis take a bus from Cali to Ipiales, Colombia. After five days of walking and hitching rides they had gathered enough money from generous Colombians to begin buying bus tickets. The ride took them one border closer toward reaching Peru, where they hoped to reunite with Leonardo and his family. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this Aug. 31, 2018 photo, Venezuelans illegally cross into Colombia, to Villa del Rosario, along a path known as a "trocha." Uncontrolled by Venezuelan or Colombian authorities, the trochas are ruled by bands of armed men sporting rifles and dressed in fatigues. They charge migrants about $10 to be let through, frequently robbing or assaulting those who can’t pay. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this Sept 1, 2018 photo, fatigued Venezuelan Sandra Cadiz throws herself on the grass as she takes a break from walking to the Berlin paramo leading to the city of Bucaramanga, Colombia, on her journey to Peru. Like a growing number of desperate Venezuelans, Cadiz and her 10-year-old daughter journeyed by foot, risking their lives as they set out to cross an unforgiving terrain of frigid mountaintops, scorching rural valleys and perilous border crossings. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this Sept. 1, 2018 photo, Venezuelan Sandra Cadiz holds the hand of her 10-year-old daughter, who's scared of the trucks racing by, as they wait for an opportunity to cross a highway on their way to the Berlin paramo, which leads to the city of Bucaramanga, Colombia, on their journey to Peru. Of the millions of Venezuelans who have fled their nation’s spiraling hyperinflation, deadly medical shortages and withering democracy in an exodus that rivals even the European refugee crisis in numbers, they were the least fortunate: The ones who could not afford the comfort of a bus or plane. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this Sept. 2, 2018 photo, Venezuelan Sandra Cadiz gets a free ride from a motorcyclist to Peroles, Colombia, on her journey to Peru. The driver then returned for her 10-year-old daughter. Nine days and nearly two thousand miles after fleeing Caracas, Cadiz and her 10-year-old daughter reached the final border they’d set out to cross. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this Aug. 31, 2018 photo, Venezuelan migrants line up for free bread and coffee, donated by a Colombian family from their car, at a gas station in Pamplona, Colombia. Millions have fled Venezuela’s deadly shortages and spiraling hyperinflation in an exodus that rivals even the European refugee crisis in numbers. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this Sept. 2, 2018 photo, Venezuelan Sandra Cadiz holds up her handmade sign carrying the Spanish message: “Blessed driver, please help us with a ride,” as her 10-year-old daughter Angelis stands with her on the road leaving Giron, Colombia, as they make their way to Peru. As rising numbers of Venezuelans flee, those who cannot afford a plane or bus ticket out are going by foot. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this Sept. 3, 2018 photo, Venezuelan Sandra Cadiz and her 10-year-old daughter Angelis, lie on the floor of a gas station where they spent the night at a place known only as “Kilometer 17" in Santander state, Colombia, on their journey to Peru. All through the night it rained and thundered. Water blew onto their blankets, forcing them to repeatedly get up and move to whichever edge of the gas station had managed to stay dry. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this Sept. 1, 2018 photo, fatigued Venezuelan Sandra Cadiz leans on a branch she's using as a walking stick as she takes a short break from walking to the Berlin paramo, which leads to the city of Bucaramanga, Colombia, on her journey to Peru. When Venezuela’s oil-rich economy was booming, Cadiz's small stand selling candy, cigarettes and cell phone minutes provided enough income to put meat on the dinner table in a Caracas neighborhood known simply as “The Cemetery.” (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this Sept. 4, 2018 photo, 10-year-old Venezuelan Angelis looks up at her mother Sandra Cadiz on the back of a bus at the stop in San Juan de la Paz, Colombia, on their journey to Peru. It was in San Juan De La Paz that Cadiz decided to switch her strategy: She’d barter with the 250,000 or so pesos - about $80 - she’d now collected from generous Colombians who’d spotted her walking and given her money to buy her way on to buses. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this Sept. 5, 2018 photo, 10-year-old Venezuelan Angelis takes a picture of her mother Sandra Cadiz after they crossed the Colombian border into Huaquillas, Ecuador, as they journey to Peru. In total they had to go through three separate migration lines, but eventually, they were let through into Ecuador. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this Sept. 5, 2018 photo, 10-year-old Venezuelan Angelis peers from a window of the free bus that will take her and her mother from Rumichaca, on the border with Colombia, across the country to Huaquillas, Ecuador, near the border with Peru, their final destination. While in one of the immigration lines in Ecuador, a woman had urged Angelis and her mother to go to the Red Cross tent, and within minutes of arriving she learned the Ecuadorean government was providing women and children a ride to Peru, a gesture apparently aimed at aiding those who come walking – while also getting them out. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this Sept. 6, 2018 photo, Venezuelans wait in line to be attended by Peruvian immigration officials in hopes of entering the country, in Tumbes, Peru. Many Venezuelans' final destination is Lima, Peru, a city where most believe they will have more opportunities than in Colombia or Ecuador, the countries they must pass along the way. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this Sept. 7, 2018 photo, the belongings of Venezuelan mother Sandra Cadiz and her 10-year-old daughter Angelis, which they carried by foot on their journey from Venezuela to Peru, sit neatly displayed for a picture in Huaquillas, Ecuador. They carried old clothes, shoes, a brush with bristles bent in opposing directions and a smashed roll of toilet paper. There was also an old, heavy iron gas burner Cadiz’s a sister had insisted she deliver to a niece in Lima. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this Sept. 7, 2018 photo, a Venezuelan woman covers her eyes with a Peruvian "health" passport to get some sleep near the Peruvian immigration office in Tumbes, Peru. At the border, Peruvian immigration authorities give foreigners a "Health Passport" after they pass a health check-up. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this Sept. 7, 2018 photo, Venezuelans rest as they wait in a shipping container near Peru's immigration office in Aguas Verdes, Peru. Venezuelan migrants who can't afford a bus or plane flee by foot, risking their lives as they try to cross through four countries and over two thousand miles of often unforgiving terrain ripe with danger to reach Peru. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this photo Sept. 7, 2018 photo, cellphones belonging to Venezuelans are charged for free at the immigration office in Aguas Verdes, Peru. It’s not known how many reach their final destination. Facebook groups are filled with posts from Venezuelans looking for friends and family members who took off walking and disappeared. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this Sept. 8, 2018 photo, Sandra Cadiz, right, smiles as she reunites with her son Leonardo, front left, and her daughter-in-law Daniela Gomez, as she and her 10-year-old daughter Angelis, far left, arrive to the bus station in Lima, Peru, after their long trip from Venezuela. Cadiz immediately noticed that her son and his family looked like they’d gained weight. Angelis, meanwhile, admired her baby niece’s sparkling new shoes. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this Sept. 8, 2018, Venezuelan Sandra Cadiz, left, embraces her daughter-in-law Daniela Gomez as she arrives at the bus station in Lima, Peru, her final destination after leaving Venezuela. Cadiz spent all but her last six dollars on the bus tickets, getting her and her daughter seats overlooking Peru’s desert terrains in the 18-hour ride to the capital. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this Sept 8, 2018 photo, Sandra Cadiz cries as she reunites with her son's family at the bus station in Lima, Peru, at the end of her long trip from Venezuela. When Cadiz’ son Leonardo, his wife and their daughter walked up to the bus station they wrapped their newly arrived family members in an embrace, gathered their bags and began the final walk home. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

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Text from the AP news story, Their money worthless, Venezuela’s desperate flee by foot, by Christine Armario.

Photos by Ariana Cubillos