
Epic ride: Liam Garner, from Long Beach, California, was 17 when he set off on his bike from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, on August 1, 2021.

Viral sensation: The teenager, who had already amassed a large number of followers from a TikTok video series following his previous trip to San Francisco, decided to document the journey online.

Small budget: Garner left California with very little money, and says he's survived on around $430 a month.

Mexico highlights: He spent around four and a half months riding across Mexico and says the experience was life changing for him.
![<strong>Significant experience:</strong> "My whole family is from Mexico," Garner explains. "I grew up going [to Mexico] but I never learned the language. So it's one thing to visit every year, and it's one thing to live there."](https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/230320121645-05-teen-cycled-alaska-to-argentina-mexico.jpg?c=original&q=h_778,c_fill)
Significant experience: "My whole family is from Mexico," Garner explains. "I grew up going [to Mexico] but I never learned the language. So it's one thing to visit every year, and it's one thing to live there."

Difficult setbacks: Although the journey was full of significant highs, Garner also experienced various lows, including spending a month in hospital due to a cycling accident, throughout the journey.

Risk factor: "The idea that you might get hurt, and something really awful might happen is in your mind traveling so much," says Garner, seen here with a friend in Antioquia, Colombia. "But it wasn't really a reality until I got hurt in Colombia."

Incredible journey: Garner cycled through 14 countries, including Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Colombia, Ecuador and Argentina.
![<strong>Going south:</strong> "There's an official route, and then there's unofficial routes," he explains. "I basically made my own [route] as I went along. As long as I was going south every day, I knew I was going in the right direction."](https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/230320121627-09-teen-cycled-alaska-to-argentina-peru.jpg?c=original&q=h_778,c_fill)
Going south: "There's an official route, and then there's unofficial routes," he explains. "I basically made my own [route] as I went along. As long as I was going south every day, I knew I was going in the right direction."

Motivating others: Garner often receives messages from people who've come across his story on Instagram or TikTok and have felt compelled to do something similar.

Inspirational trip: "It's an amazing feeling to know that I'm getting more people into it, because there were people that were responsible for getting me into it," Garner says. "And it makes me feel great to do the same."

Edging closer: In the final weeks of his journey to Argentina, Garner constantly thought of his "wheel crossing the last inch of pavement".

Mission accomplished: Garner, now 19, arrived in Ushuaia on January 10, after cycling 32,000 kilometers over 527 days.