PANAMA: Arriving in Panama City we crossed the entrance of the famous Panama Canal and then passed through one of the most dangerous slums in Central America.
The sole highway from the border of Costa Rica was narrow and busy with murderous truck and bus drivers. Many times we heard the locked wheels screeching and the smell of rubber burning just behind us.

[ Amazon Jungle river crossing]

Between Panama and Colombia is the area Darien, called the "Darien Gap" since there isn't a road yet to link Central and South America. We therefore tried to get a boat to Colombia but after 3 weeks we had to give up. No one would take us. While looking for boats we met an Australian family sailing around the world. They took us on their yacht through the Panama Canal. Another yacht offered us a lift to Australia. It was easier to get to Australia than Colombia!
We had to catch a small plane to a small isolated jungle village on the border of Colombia then take 3 small boats to arrive at a town called Turbo in Colombia where the roads of South America began for us.
COLOMBIA:
Cycling is popular in Colombia but the people couldn't understand why we rode up the hills and carried so many things. The custom for cyclists here is to take a lift up the hills or to use a hook and rope to be towed up.
We met Liliana a television presenter and her husband Freddie the director of a program for young people. We were on their program for a 30-minute interview for the Medellin City audience of around 2 million.

[ Amazon road (lucky it was the dry season)]

On the same road in the same week we also met with a guerrilla group notorious for kidnapping travellers for ransom. They were laying in wait for a gunfight with the government soldiers coming along the same road. We were told to wait by the cardboard and stick house nearby (a common construction of the poor people here), which seemed to me to offer little protection when the bullets started flying and then there were our bikes in the open, to be shot too!
On our last day in Colombia a very poor man dressed in rags, inspired by our travels, tried to give us money for a cup of coffee. For us he was the richest man in Colombia!
BRAZIL (The Amazon Jungle):
At the border of Brazil and Venezuela, with the almost treeless plateau of the Gran Sabana behind us, we descended into the corridor through the vast jungle of the Amazon. Along the southbound "corridor" there were places where the jungle was cut back for farms and grazing cattle. Everyday the flora and fauna provided new sights and sounds. I saw a black jaguar on the road one day; one night Emi heard a jaguar prowling near our tent. Everyday we heard Toucans calling to each other, macaws of blue, yellow, green colours flying overhead. We saw huge anteaters, crocodiles and wild pigs foraging. One night while sleeping in hammocks on a hilltop overlooking the moonlit jungle, we heard the loud cries of primates nearby.

[Amazon Jungle Dentistry No worries!]

In the large city of Manaus, on the Rio Negro, near to the Amazon River we saw that river transport remains an important part of this area. It was like going back 100 years.
ARGENTINA (Patagonia):
100 Kilometres before Ushuaia and the finish of our journey South from Alaska we came to mountains and beautiful golden leafed forests. Snow fell heavily while 3 of us spent the day in an abandoned house with plenty of firewood. The nights were cold as the snow blew through the open walls of the house and onto our tents. 2 days later after cycling on icy roads and over a mountain pass, ahead of us lay the Beagle Channel, more snow-capped mountains and the most southern city in the world Ushuaia. This place was the starting and finishing point for many a journey. For Rob (who we had met a few days before) it was the end of his journey from his home in California; for Emi and I a turning point. From here our aim was for Nord Kapp, Norway, the most northern point of Western Europe.

[ Patagonian Clouds]

From Ushuaia, the 3,000 Kilometre route to Buenos Aires was the hardest cycling we've had yet. The monotony of the long distance of flat treeless open country was mentally exhausting. The cold, constantly 5°C and below, the incredibly strong winds blowing from the west with nothing to stop them, the rain and then snow was physically exhausting. The wind was so strong that we were literally blown from our bikes. Even walking was difficult. On rare days without wind, it was a race to do some distance before it started again. You go crazy for fear of the wind. Camping was a challenge with both sides of the road fenced and of course, the wind. We found warm hospitality from the people of the sheep stations. They live lonely lives far from any human population. The sunrises and sunsets were long and beautiful. Weird and wonderful shaped clouds we often saw. The nights were filled with stars and the Southern Cross was directly above us. The days were 8 hours long with the sun low on the northern horizon.