This week, three cyclists arrived in Bolivia after spending three years riding their bikes from South America to the north of North America and back to South America.

According to EFE, Gustavo Nemitz, a 32-year-old from Brazil, and Santiago Sarmiento, a 37-year-old from Argentina, began their journey in October 2011. They started their trip in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and traveled north alongside the Atlantic Coast.

In Mexico, Nemitz and Sarmiento met Marco Berumen, a 32-year-old Mexican tourist guide working on the Riviera Maya. He joined the biking adventure.

Next, the cyclists biked across North America and reached Alaska. Afterwards, they traveled south alongside the Pacific coast, eventually making it to Bolivia.

According to the riders, they were able to support themselves because of friendly people and businesses they encountered while biking, as well as help from their embassies.

"We have spent nights resting in sanctuaries of different religions and strange places such as a bullfighting ring in Panama and a funeral home in Uruguay," Berumen said.

For example, when the cyclists made it to Bolivia from Peru, they asked Andean peasants for food and shelter on their way to La Paz, Bolivia. The cyclists are now staying at a Boy Scouts lodge in La Paz.

"We have only one life and one has to live it fully, trying to realize his dreams," Nemitz said. "Even without money, great things can be achieved with planning, effort and foresight but, above all, believing that it is possible to do it."

According to Sarmiento, he went on the trip in order to "detach from things that were useless in life."

"Maybe we are not educated for freedom but rather under rules, fear, or feeling we are part of this or that group," Sarmiento said. "A trip like this [gets] you loose of social standards, it teaches you to connect with people in many different ways."

The bikers will next make their way back to Argentina by traveling through Oruro and the Uyuni Salt Flats.

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Follow Scharon Harding on Twitter: @ScharHar.

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