Alexander Darin takes a deep breath, shoulders a backpack full of his belongings and walks across the Rumichaca International Bridge, the main border crossing between Colombia and Ecuador in the Andes Mountains.

Pushing his 3-year-old daughter Zoe’s stroller, Alexander, his wife, Francis, their 12-year-old daughter Saemi and their puppy are making the 5,000-kilometer journey from Venezuela to Chile, where he hopes to find work as a cook.

“The trip has been harsh, every day we are freezing and hungry. It is difficult to get a lift,” says Alexander, exhausted.

They left Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, a month earlier without any money for transportation. He hopes the family will succeed in their trip to Chile, which they are making “step by step”, selling sweets on the streets of the towns they pass through.