¡El final del camino! Final del carretera Panamericano, Parque nacional Tierra del Fuego, Ushuaia, 2022.
I was disappointed to find that the fine little pastry shop once located near this sign marking the southern terminus of the Pan American highway has been demolished. No chance for an alfajor and café to celebrate reaching the end of the road.
The distance to Alaska is conjectural. The Panamericana has a major break at the Darien Gap in Panamá, and thus it is impossible to drive from the southern part of that country into Colombia or to drive the entire distance from Arctic Alaska to southern Patagonia. Through travelers must put vehicles on a ferry. Indeed, there is no agreed upon route, or for the most part any signs posted marking the routing, through Canada south of Dawson Creek in BC and in the US outside of Alaska. Once in México there are frequent signs in the countries through which the route passes, and that route is usually called the Panamericana by those using it.
Finally, there is a dispute between Chile and Argentina (yet another dispute between the fractious neighboring countries) about the southern terminus. The Chileans insist the route ends at Fuerte Bulnes south of Punta Arenas and thus no need for a ferry crossing to the island of Tierra del Fuego in order to reach the end of the road on Argentinian RN 3. Both posited termini have an appropriate end of the world feeling comparable to that at Deadhorse in Arctic Alaska.