The Ultimate Panamerican Highway roadtrip review
The start: On the way to Haines, Alaska. On the picture, me on the left and my two best friends.
Me, two years later, in Ushuaia, Argentina. Same gore-tex jacket, same soul, just a bit older.
Panamerican roadtrip photo-journey-review something something
Places I had a good cup of coffee.
Having some bubbly by the Arctic Ocean in Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest-Territory, Canada. Can’t go further North than that (well, on the Canadian side of things anyway)
Notices the bottle of Prosecco. That’s it. That’s the very end of my journey in the Americas. I reached a point even southerner than Ushuaia. Can’t go further South than that. (other than with an expensive ferry)
Things I carried: two laptops, a Pen-F, a D300, a D300s, a D800E, a 20mm f/1.4 Sigma Art, a 50mm f/1.4 AF-S G, a 50mm f/1.8 AF-D, a 300mm f/2.8 VR, a 600mm f/4 VRII nano-crystal, two manfrotto tripod, a sb-900 and a sb-700 (which I came to hate), a Olympus Pen-F with a 75mm f/1.8 Zuiko and 17mm f/1.8, a 17” Macbook Pro 2011 quad-core, a late 2012 13” Macbook pro retina. The Macbook Air belongs to my sister and is on this picture only because it looked cool at that time haha.
Fuji X-Pro2 got added to my collection for my Brazil/Uruguay road trip in late 2018.
I regret everyday selling my X-Pro1. This camera was with me for three years. It was nagged by a terribly slow autofocus and poor battery life. I sold it for pennies our of frustration, after having missed hundreds of shot. But in hindsight, I should have kept it. It did Alaska to Peru with me.
This is more or less a selection of random pictures taking between 2016 and 2019. I figured that some of my readers would love to see more pictures of the panamerican highway trip. At least, I know that my mom would love to see more pictures, so there it is. Bonjour maman.
At the end, I have a list of recommended gear and tips that I discovered through the trip. I hope to inspire others to go off-the-beaten path of life and live life at the fullest. Overlanding The Americas was the best decision of my life and I cannot recommend it enough to anyone thinking about doing it.
Here’s a few things to know:
- It will cost you way more than you expect. I think that I was going to spend maybe $20k CAD on this trip (without the gear and the Jeep). It went over $40k easily with planes, shipping, paperwork, food, hostel…things added up. Just be ready. Thank God I had the best job in the world to provide me with the financial support.
- Go slow. There is no need to be driving after dark. Driving at night is extremely dangerous and should be done only with great care. Drunk driving is a problem in latin america, but also the wild games randomly popping in and out of the road…I remember driving through El Salvador at night, trying to find a hostel. I was looking at my iPhone to change song…I quickly looked ahead of me and the biggest cow on Earth was in my lane. Good thing I was going slow…otherwise this trip would have been over.
– Eat well. I wish I would have known about the keto diet beforehand.
– Rest well. I should have been less cheap and rent hostel more often. Not only you get wifi and shower, but you also meet other fellow travellers and can socialize.
– This trip will be hard mentally. Dealing with South American bureaucracy is painful. Dealing with Central American bureaucrazy is insane. So be patient and think about the cold beer that you gonna have when all is done and you’re park at your camping spot.
– Use iOverlander and booking.com. Found great informations and deals on both.
– Take pictures. I wished I would have slowdown and take pictures of Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua. I think that I took one picture of a road sign in Nicaragua. I hated that country and just wanted to go through.
– You will meet corrupted cops. That’s just going to happen. Maintain professionalism. Most of these cops are making 1/10 of your salary back home, or even less. I never had to bribe a cop in my whole panamerican trip. Do the same. Refuse to bribe. Smile, politely pretend that you don’t speak english nor spanish (francais est une bonne astuce) and just play dumb.
– With that being said, try to never handout the original documents. Make photocopies. Only at borders use the original documents.
– That might not work and the cops will think that you’re trying to screw them over…so I played a game of reversed psychology many times: handout all of the original copies of all your documents and show them respect. They will feel very valued that a foreigner is giving them a Canadian passport in their hand (most of them never see a foreign passport) and will try to be the most professional ever in their job.
– If something doesn’t feel right, chances are that…they aren’t. So get the fuck out.
Me in Colombia, learning how to code.
Driving on the Ruta 40 in Argentina.
– Use a pre-paid visa that you can reload using your bank account. Don’t get scammed.
– Do not be cheap on tires. See my article below. Sometimes, you will want to go a certain zone of the city very fast…and having a breakdown could compromise your safety greatly. I am thinking about a time where I got lost in a shady part of Lima…I was able to get out and thank God the Jeep didn’t breakdown or had a flat. Same in Cuenca, Ecuador. We needed to get the hell out of a shady situation at a gas station at night. A breakdown would have absolutely screw us over.
– Do not leave your car unattended.
– At the same time, I parked my Jeep with the top down and windows rolled down from Canada to Argentina with zero incidents. Reversed psychology. “No gringo is too stupid as to leave anything valuable inside.”…Well, I had well over $15k worth of photography gear inside. But I twisted the fabric of reality through something called reality transurfing and made a reality where everything was fine. And everything was fine.
– Always carry a spare jerry can of fuel, filled up. It might not be for you, but for locals. You might run into a local car with six kids at the back and desperate parents trying to get a hitch to the next town to get fuel cause they didn’t plan their once-a-year-trip-out-of-the-village properly. Give them fuel. You will 100% be seen as a god and they will forever see Canadian as the greatest people on Earth. For us, it’s cheap. 20l is $20-30 bucks, but for some of them, that’s a week salary.
The Jeep is Peru. Peru is a great country to travel to. Sand dunes and the Andes cover the country. One can start is day by the beach and finish it in the snow at 3000 metres high.
And here I am, wondering what’s next. I have driven over 250 000 kilometres (160 000 miles) in the Americas (Canada, USA, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay) with a Mercedes W140 S320, SE400, S500, S600, Lexus LS460 and Jeep Wrangler Unlimited X. I might have used about 2000 kilometres to get to work, so 248 000 kilometres were spent travelling to new places. I feel that I’ve been everywhere and anywhere. The question I asked myself now is what’s next at 27 years old? Special Forces within the Canadian Forces? Double down and ship the Jeep to Africa or Europe and go to Mongolia? So many questions. Feel free to comment on this post if you have any ideas of life path I could do.
Here are 80 more photos of the trip! Random order, cause that’s how I feel like tonight.
Brazil is one picture. Friendliest people on Earth. I absolutely loved my time there and think about going back any day.
Gramado, Brazil. The little hidden gem of southern Brazil is found not too far away from Montevideo (1.5 days of driving) or Floripa (about 8 hours away).
The Jeep, resting in a field in Uruguay.
Classic salt flat in Uyuni, Bolivia.
MIles and miles and miles we go: This is southern Argentina.
A toucan in Bolivia.
Making friends on a beach in Brazil.
Southern Argentina.
Near Whitepass, Skagway, Alaska, in the winter time.
Between Watson Lake and Whitehorse, on the Alaska HIghway aka Alcan.
Meeting other overlanders in a parking lot in Ecuador in Cuenca.
The Jeep in paradise.
Twisting and swirling road in northern Peru.
How I made coffee, sometimes: Italian stovetop style with propane burner.
Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk road in late September. This highway cost over $300 million dollars for the Canadian tax payers. It connects Tuktuk to Inuvik with a four season “highway”. We will see how long the highway last. After all, it is built on permafrost.
Beagle canal, at the very end of the road in Southern Argentina. About 1.5 hours away south-east of Ushuaia.
Cockpit view of the panamerican highway in Peru.
View of the highway in…I forgot. Argentina maybe?
A super violent accident just happened a few minutes before I drove by. A reminder that life’s short.
Southern Argentina. And miles we go.
Nevada, between Reno and Vegas.
Somewhere in Sucre, Bolivia. My friend and I decided to give the Jeep a good clean-up before heading to Brazil.
Sunset over the pantanal in southern Brazil.
A view of Oro-something in southern Chile. Cow slowing waking up at sunrise.
Southern Brazil, just before crossing the Uruguayese border.
Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada! The falls in the winter time is a sobering view.
Skagway, Alaska. One of my favourite place on Earth.
Filling blue water jug at a creek. Such is the hippie life.
This would have been…Peru. South of Lima. Just before Arequipa
The view of Mt Sima. Taken in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory.
The St-Lawrence river in Quebec, near La Malbaie.
Gaspesie, Quebec, Canada. Just after the New Year 2019, with parents.
North-west New Brunswick, outside of Fredericton, Canada.
Christmas 2016! I decided to put LED christmas light stripes around the roll cage.
A random dirt road in Argentina.
Tombstone National park in the Yukon Territory before sunrise.
Near zorritos, Peru. I stored my Jeep Wrangler at Swiss Wassi in Zorritos for over 8 months and was able to get it back effortlessly just by jumping in a plane from Montreal to Chicago to Houston to Lima to Tumbes then board a small bus to Zorritos then take a taxi to the hotel. I arrived four days later ready for a cold beer.
Uruguay! Love love Uruguay. Kind people. El pais muy tranquilo. A very quiet country.
Atlin, British Columbia. This is the most beautiful place on Earth.
A winery near Kelowna in southern British Columbia, Canada.
My jeep parked on the Atlin beach in northern British Columbia, Canada. I was making tea on the stove.
Will it pass? I did not end up trying…too sketchy. This is in Northern Ecuador. I remember trying to get back to the main highway but Maps.me and Google Maps kept trying to make me pass through small dirt road at high altitude. Good thing I had an extra jerry can of fuel.
Costa Rica! I did not like Costa Rica and have very little pictures of it.
Yet Costa Rica is a beautiful country. A country ruined by…the US dollars and huge influx of american expat: The country is running on a weird hyper-inflation pattern. Most items are too expensive now for locals. The country is now divided in two very distinct classes: The poor and the rich. The rich being the retired gringos from Canada and the USA and the poor being the native Costa Rican.
Gisella and I in a camping ground in Guatemala. We never felt safe there.
We visited Tikal in Northern Guatemala. Worth it.
Visiting Tikal in Guatemala with a 4x4 is the best experience ever to see the fascinating pre-mayan ruins.
Having a nap in Panama.
Panama city in Panama, the country. Cool country, cool city…never felt safe here. Hyper-americanized. A day is enough. But you might get stuck here for a while trying to make the required paperwork to get your 4x4 in a container.
I found a shipping agent on iOverlander based in Colon. The whole process was easy, albeit a bit sketchy…
ECUADOR! The nicest roads of the whole panamerican roadtrip are in Ecuador. The Chinese built it. China is more or less imposing themselves in Ecuador.
Canada! Arriving in Banff at night. Banff is one of my favourite city in Canada.
Sleeping in a truck stop near Tok, Alaska
Southern Chile. One of the prettiest place in the Americas…
Chile was just amazing. I went there four times: Once with a rented car, the other three times with the Jeep (one time North and twice South). Chile has better wine than Argentina (a fact that many overlanders shared with me), the country is very safe (no police corruption) in a way, but watch out: on iOverlander, Chile has one of the highest report of crime (petty theft: slashing tires, canvas to get into RV, etc) of the Americas.
DO NOT LEAVE YOUR VEHICULE UNATTENDED IN CHILE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. Okay, this is different if you decide to sleep in the desert or randomly high on a volcano, but forget about leaving an expensive rig on the street in Santiago de Chile or Arica, Chile.
PERU! SO WINDY! So flat. So long. One can drive through Peru in maybe four days flat? Sounds about right. Not that I recommend going that fast, but one could do it.
BUS142! That’s the bus that Christopher McCandless died into back in 1992. They made a movie on it called Into The Wild. The bus is located at the border with the Denali National Park. On a clear day, you can see Denali peaking through the clouds surrounding its high summit.
New rims and news tires in Alberta.
Quick note: If you are going to travel the Americas overland in a 4x4, make sure to get the best tires available. My first set of tires were KM (first edition) by BFGoodrich. These tires were amazing on dry and muddy roads, but downright dangerous on rainy pavement. I switched for KM2 in Bolivia and could not have been happier. I had zero flats with the BFGoodrich tires: they are legend. I cannot believe how I managed to never have a flat…but I suppose a mix of luck and good tires made it possible. I wrote more on my tire change in Bolivia here.
I had left my roof at a friend’s place, 200 kilometres away. One thing led to the other and I decided to camp with some friends in a remote part of northern Canada. My friend had a weatherproof canvas: we made a makeshift roof for the Jeep and I had a comfortable night at the back of the Jeep.
Peru. Small road in the country side, leading to nowhere.
Waking up at 5000 metres altitude in Ecuador’s highest volcano. I might have managed to sleep a few hours. A lack of oxygen and of warmth led to a very short night. I am sipping some cheap instant coffee, trying to manage the Jeep descent on snowy twisting roads.
One of the nicest road on Earth: This back road between Guaratingueta in the State of Sao Paulo and Paraty, in the state of Rio de Janeiro.
Here. This is the nicest road in the americas. Take the 459 road in a convertible on a blue sky day and you’ll cry at the shear beauty of the Atlantic rainforest. No pictures can represent the awesomeness of this road. There are plenty of craft brewery along the way and fine restaurant. Make sure to spend a day in Paraty Trinidad and pursue your journey up North to Rio de Janeiro de next day.
Paraty Trinidad!
Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. Loved that city, albeit a bit sketchy by part.
Medellin, Colombia. I stayed here three weeks. I found a hostel with a nice pool…and stayed there an extra 20 days.
Atlin beach! Home, in British Columbia.
Mount Robson, in Alberta.
A backroad between El Calafate, Argentina and Torres Del Paine, Chile.
Rocher Perce, in Gaspesie. Quebec province, eastern Canada
My scottish friend and I crashing a mexican party.
Camping in Baja California. The dream.
Ruta 40 in southern Argentina. This is a baddest road.
A small monkey seen in the tree from my hotel room in Bolivia.
A little visited part of Bolivia. This is the road that connect Santa Cruz de la Sierra to Corumba, Brazil
After you crossed the Corumba border (which is confusingly very easy, almost too easy), you’ll get to Campo Grande. It’s the gateway to the pantanal, Brazil’s best secret for wildlife photography.
Paraty Trinidad in Brazil. One of my favourite place on Earth.
Tierra del Fuego! That’s it. That’s the last stretch of road before Ushuaia. Average speed is 130km/h to stay with the traffic speed and wind is blowing hard. I think that I was doing 15 l/100km on the Jeep.
Huge tree near Tikal, Guatemala.
Mobile shower to go.
Road danger in Bolivia.
Brazil! Viva brasil. The country feel SO MODERN and so good after Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. First world awesomeness.
Near Comodoro Rivadavia in Argentina.
Classic Peruvian road in the Andes.
Grizzly in Northern British Columbia. Taken with a 300mm f/2.8 VR on a Nikon D800E
Sunrise in Gaspesie, a hidden gem of Canada.
After almost loosing the Jeep in a river, I decided to pose with a ZERO FUCKS GIVEN t-shirt.
Aerial view from a very random and remote campground in the middle of nowhere in southern Colombia.
Ruta 40 view in Argentina.
Paraty, Brazil.
On my way to Anchorage, Alaska.
View from home, British Columbia.
Utah! On my way out of Salt Lake City, towards Nevada
Eating cheap No-Name sausages on the top of the jeep in the dunes.
Heading down Cotopaxi in Ecuador.
The Brazilian Mounted Cops. Just like Canada.
The Jeep posing around Haines Junction in the Yukon Territory, Canada.
I stayed in a wonderful hostel-in-the-tree in Paraty, Brazil. It’s called the Remo Hostel. Might be my all time favourite hostel on Earth.
Driving through the Andes in Peru…this road was pure suicide…blind corners, in tunnels, with one lane sometimes…absolutely insane.
Mexico!!!
Jasper National park in canada.
Southern Colombia.
Paraty Trinidad bar. Awesome spot in southern Brazil.
The Jeep standing proudly on a beach in Floripa’s beach, Brazil.
Brazilian giving me the thumbs up.
Another day in Rio de Janeiro
I could write in great length on my time in Brazil…It has always been such a blast to be in the country. I never been a fan of their food tho.
Brazil.
Rio de Janeiro!
Back to Canada. Classic banff.
Northern Ontario, Canada. That’s only thing you need to know about overlanding in Canada: Ontario will seem like NEVER ENDING to drive through.
Classic Uruguay.
Home in British Columbia.
Driving between Toad River and Watson Lake, Yukon Territory.
This photo might have been taken right after a trip in the Pantanal, in Brazil.
Climbing a volcano in 4x4 low-range. I went over 4000 metres in Mexico on a volcano.
Enjoying a tea with a friend on top of the Jeep in British Columbia, Canada.
Accident in Peru.
Nevada, USA. Finding a good campground for the night.
Livin’ the dream in Baja! Life does NOT get better than this.
Camping with some other overlander in Baja California.
A found a deserted beach near La Paz in Baja California. Paradise to myself.
I cooked most of the time using a solo stove. I sweat by them. They are just an amazing piece of equipment that I can’t see myself living without.
Spraying the bottom of the Jeep with a rust-proof black paint.
Near Caraz, Peru, Christmas time.
Ushuaia, Argentina.
If you made it this far, you deserve to know where are the best roads in the americas. This is not a buzzfeed article nor a copypasta: This is some real life experience.
Tombstone National Park in the Yukon Territory.
Classic peak in the Tombstone National Park.
Allison and myself in Tuktoyaktuk.
Cooking in the shower in Bolivia. I used a XGK EX stove from MSR for a decade without a single issue: Literally the best prepper/overlander stove on the market. I used all kinds of fuel. Never costed me more than a dollar a week to cook as much as I want. The best $200CAD ever spent.
View of the south end of Florianopolis, Brazil.
The North Warning System is now obsolete, or almost. By 2025, the whole string of white dome in the arctic will have to be removed.
Dempster Highway! One of the craziest stretch of roads in the Americas. It is NOT recommended to do it on summer tires in the Fall, like we did.
Sunset in Argentina.
I hope you enjoyed this selection of random photos…I have about 10 000 more…and I am keeping some exclusive for my book coming this October, Dancing After The Music Stops.
I carried four stoves with me: a Solo Stove, which was absolutely amazing and underrated, a XGK EX by MSR that I swear by, a Primus green-bottle propane stove that I barely used and a smaller propane gas stove. My favourite was by far the Solo Stove Titan: There is just something spiritual about cooking over twigs and coal. Now, when it comes to make coffee using an italian mokapot/stovetop thingy, nothing beats an XGK EX on the market. Throw some jet fuel (white fuel) in the fuel canister of the XGK and you’ll have boiling water in 45 seconds, 0 to 100. It is the most powerful stove on the market and it is made for extreme conditions. Mine never missed a beat in a decade, despite being abused daily and neglected badly.
XGK EX on the left, SoloStove on the right. Taken with a 20mm f/1.4 Sigma Art on Nikon D800E in Argentina.