Itinerary




From Fairbanks to Ushuaia. The route starts from the extreme northern Alaska, just below the Arctic Circle. And some 60,000 km (37,000 miles) further, there is Ushuaia. The capital of the Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego is considered the southernmost city in the world.

Biodiversity, geodiversity. Between those two towns, I would have passed through 16 countries, faced the frozen vastness of the Canada’s North-West territories, gone along the Rocky Mountains, criss-crossed Aztecs’ and Mayas’ Mexico and Central America, explored numerous Columbian ecosystems, crossed the Equator, travelled up and down the country of the Incas, overcome the harshness of the Altiplano, gone through the Atacama Desert, got over the Andes and been thrilled by the variety of Argentine landscapes.

The Pan-American Highway. It is a network of roads running along the American continent. It is composed by a main route from North to South America and several unofficial ones. It passes through 14 countries in Northern, Central and Southern America, without mentioning ramifications towards Venezuela, Brazil or Bolivia. Its length varies between 15,000 and 30,000 miles, depending on including or not unofficial sections.
According to Guinness World Records, the Pan-American Highway is the world’s longest “motorable road”, much longer than the Australia’s Highway 1 (9,000 miles around the Australian continent), the Trans-Siberian Highway (6,800 miles from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok) and the Trans-Canada Highway (5,000 miles linking the Pacific ocean to the Atlantic ocean).

The must-visit sites. In front of the gigantism of the Americas, there are some inevitable places to stop off at: frozen lakes in Canada, numerous national parks, San Francisco, the Grand Canyon, remnants of Maya civilisation, the Panama Canal, Machu Pichu, Buenos Aires, Patagonia.

The major steps


Date Km (Mile) Day
Fairbanks Alaska 23 January 0 1
Anchorage Alaska 5 February 785 (488) 14
Prince Rupert Canada 20 February 2,775 (1,725) 29
Edmonton Canada 27 February 4,310 (2,679) 36
Calgary Canada 5 March 4,610 (2,865) 43
Bozeman USA 16 March 6,045 (3,757) 54
Portland USA 24 March 7,290 (4,531) 62
San Francisco USA 14 April 8,750 (5,438) 83
Grand Canyon USA 7 May 10,850 (6,743) 106
Chihuahua Mexico 4 June 13,610 (8,459) 134
La Paz Mexico 13 June 14,605 (9,077) 143
Mexico Mexico 4 July 16,740 (10,404) 164
Oaxaca Mexico 13 July 17,790 (11,057) 173
Merida Mexico 30 July 20,865 (12,968) 190
Belize City Belize 4 August 21,815 (13,558) 195
Guatemala Guatemala 14 August 23,255 (14,453) 205
San Salvador Salvador 18 August 23,525 (14,621) 209
Choluteca Honduras 20 August 23,825 (14,807) 211
Managua Nicaragua 20 August 24,040 (14,941) 211
San Jose Costa Rica 26 August 24,630 (15,308) 217
Panama Panama 3 September 25,865 (16,075) 225
Bogota Colombia 17 September 27,175 (16,889) 239
EQUATOR Ecuador 20 October 29,980 (18,633) 272
Galapagos Ecuador 25 October 30,445 (18,922) 277
Lima Peru 14 November 33,710 (20,951) 297
Machu Pichu Peru 23 November 35,415 (22,011) 306
La Paz Bolivia 28 November 36,385 (22,613) 311
San Pedro de Atacama Chile 30 December 41,960 (26,078) 343
Santiago Chile 4 January 44,020 (27,359) 348
Córdoba Argentina 24 January 48,440 (30,106) 368
Asunción Paraguay 27 January 50,620 (31,461) 371
Iguazú Argentina 4 February 51,350 (31,914) 379
Porto Alegre Brazil 6 February 52,260 (32,480) 381
Montevideo Uruguay 10 February 53,150 (33,033) 385
Buenos Aires Argentina 13 February 53,375 (33,173) 388
Patagonia Argentina 5 March

Ushuaia Argentina 15 April