The red line is our cycle route so far and the dashed red line is the intended route for the remainder of our journey through South America.  We flew into Anchorage airport, in Alaska, on 25th July 2003 and from there travelled by bus to Fairbanks via Denali National Park to commence our cycle journey.  The plane tickets we have require us to make our return flight from Buenos Aires, Argentina within a year (ie. before 24th July 2004).

General Route Considerations

Since setting out on the journey we have heard of and met a number of others who are cycling the length of some or all of North, Central and South America.  All have different routes, however, so far the general trend is to remain on or close to the Pacific Coast.  This trend is particularly so for the sections from Vancouver to San Diego and the Andean route from Columbia/Ecuador to Chile.  Indeed we believe it was the route of the first cyclist to succeed with a journey by bicycle from Alaska to Argentina in 1972, one of whom we had the pleasure of meeting at Adventure Cycles offices in Missoula.

We chose a somewhat different route taking us through the Rocky Mountains crossing from Canada into Montana then on through Idaho and further south into Nevada before heading more west into California from where we picked up the coastal route down into Baja California.  The decision to head through the Rocky Mountains was based on a number of considerations not least because of the beauty of this range of mountains.  But in addition Beth's cousin, who she has not visited for over 10 years lives in Calgary which is more accessible via this route.  Other considerations included our desire to escape the seemingly continual rains of the Canadian coast and the fires which at the time were raging in the Okanogan Valley.  The route through the Rockies to some extent dictated our passage into the States but we were keen to explore Idaho which in our opinion was the most beautiful state we cycled through. 

Many Americans recommended we head west from Montana to the coast avoiding the deserts of Nevada, however, it seemed that with the ever more frequent negative comments our curiosity grew.  Whilst it is a barren part of the States it has a beauty we had not seen elsewhere and the notion that we would be stretched to our limits with provisions and water turned out not to be entirely true with provisions available at one place or other virtually every day.  Indeed, the abandoned settlements and areas within east California proved more demanding in this respect.  Clearly in the deserts of Nevada, particularly during hotter months, there is a need to carry an extra weight of water but this by no means need influence the decision to cycle here.

From the USA we had originally thought that we would continue on an almost directly south route into Mexico via the Nogales border crossing.  However, along our way we met many people whose raves about the Baja peninsula convinced us to incorporate it into our route.

On the Mexico mainland we again left the Pacific coast to climb up into the cooler Central Highlands and the cities of Guadalajara and Mexico, a route decision based both on the desire to see both the ancient and modern cities of the highlands but also to escape the heat of the coastal plains.  Whilst we crossed from Mexico to Guatemala via the Pacific coast we again headed for the cooler climate of the Guatemalan highlands and on to the Atlantic side from where we passed south into Honduras.  In Costa Rica we decided to follow a more coastal route to Panama City. 

Our plans at present for South America are to head further east before heading south through Venezuela and into the Amazonian region of Brazil and on to our final destination of Argentina and the City of Buenos Aires.  Our aim to travel the less cycled route through the tropical rain forests of the Amazon region and on through the Pantanal, the high plains of Brazil and Argentina comes from a interest in this vast expanse of rivers and plateaus and the culture surrounding life in these areas which neither of us have previously visited.  Whilst the Andean route through South America offers great variety of scenery, culture and cool mountain climate it is a route well trodden by backpackers and cyclists alike as well as an area within which Beth has travelled previously.  Travel through Brazil is likely to present many challenges with many of the very limited number of roads possibly suffering from flooding.  We recognise that we are attempting to cycle through an area where travel overland is the secondary form of transport to that by waterways.

More detail on our route can be seen on the individual country maps.