From Alaska to Ushuaia on Biodiesel in 15 Days
by Paula Alvarado, Buenos Aires 
on 05.25.06
A group of German, Belgian and North American adventurers completed the 25 thousand kilometres that separate Alaska from Ushuaia (capital of the most southern of Argentinean states) driving biodiesel fuelled pickups. In 15 days. The goal of the Panamerican Pro Biodiesel 2006 adventure was to prove that this vegetable oil based fuel is as effective and powerful as the regular fossil ones, only –of course- incredibly less contaminant. The trip also got the travellers a place in the Guiness book of records.
Through La Nación newspaper
The race was coordinated by Matthias Jeschke, who also drove one of the vans. The drivers had to keep the journey day and night in five hours shifts to make the deadline. The trip began on may 5th at 11AM from Dead Horse –Alaska- and through Prudhoe Bay, North America’s most northern route. Then through Canada, The United States, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama, where the only interruption of the journey took place, as the pickups couldn’t penetrate the jungle that separates that country and Colombia. An air bridge took them to Ecuador, and then they continued through Perú, Chile, the Andes, and through Argentina till the end of the Patagonia. It ended in Ushuaia, the most southern of the American cities.
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Wow it seems Argentina is getting a lot of eco-attention lately. Sounds good to me.
They could have chosen somewhere a bit warmer to end up at though....
Those aren't pickups, they're Volkswagen Touregs.
Expedition English website:
http://panamericana2006.com/de/cms/front_content.php?changelang=4
As Any A. Mouse pointed out, the vehicles that they used where VW Touregs which are SUVs not Pick Ups.
Also, The only area that was not covered (on the ground) was an area in Columbia called "The Gap" b/c it is a 90 mile stretch that is a jungle so dense, that the last vehicles group that successfully traversed this area were a group of Jeeps in the 1970s, and it took them something like 110 days to go that 90 miles!