There's a moment when you decide: go or don't go.

In 2005, I decided to go. Like many other dreams, it's mix of luck and perserverance. Owing to both, I boarded in Albuquerque, New Mexico with a one-way ticket to Rio and not much else.

I tell myself two years or so for the big wide world, but you can't see it all, and certainly not well. Roughly, I'm traveling through South America, SE Asia and New Zealand or Africa or Eastern Europe.

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February 2006 Departure from the US, arrival in Brazil: Recent haircut, nascent tan. I am eager, optimistic and have no idea I will still be in South America next February.
March 2006 Argentina: I cross on March 12, one week after my birthday. I am enchanted by the country, and fall in love with Iguazu Falls, despite being a tourist trap. Note that I can still pass in civilized society.
April 2006 Patagonia: between Argentina and Chile. Visting Tierra del Fuego and the wonders of this strange land, I resolve to grow my beard out.
May 2006 Argentina: Bariloche and Buenos Aires. Sick of being cold, and wet, I return to civilization, which means free chocolate, great wine and tender steaks with my buddy Baker in Bariloche.
June 2006 Argentina: Salta and the month of the Bike. For a brief time, I am a cyclist. There are many photos of the bike here. Beard creativity: high.
July 2006 Big Bad Bolivia: I enter the country described as "colder than Russia in winter". This snap is on the 4th of July. I had food poisoning, or else I would have run across the salar in red and blue bodypaint. (White obviously not necessary)
August 2006 Bolivia continues: I am very happy on this morning, August 1st, as I am at the top of my first 6000m+ mountain (approx 20000ft). I also want to die from exhaustion. Note the cool prescription shades I would later lose in Venezuela.
September 2006 Peru: After booking it, I arrive in the Cordillera Huayhuash, with 9 Israelis Not showering for several days can help you look "frumpy". Interestingly somehow, with all the 5000m (16500ft) passes and sun, I picked up a weird lip infection. During another hike, I almost died of food poisoning at a similar altitude.
October 2006 Peru: Crossing from the coast of Peru over the Andes with my friends Rebecca and Pedro and down into the Amazon, I burn myself, require stitches, and tend my injuries on jungle riverboats.
November 2006 Bolivia and the USA: I return to La Paz, where I manage to look photogenic for about 0.3 seconds. Pilu, my photographic muse (and a better portraitist) snaps this of my now long hair. Surprising my parents for Thanksgiving, I also brave a blizzard to reach Texas,
December 2006 Goofing off in Ecuador: On a Christmas Day hike with my bud Jacek where there were no paths and no rangers. Much more rain than Christmas Eve.
January 2007 Ecuador & the Galapagos: I think I've generally reached the stage of "unkempt", no? The tortoises don't seem to mind.
February 2007 Colombia: Better not to be reconognizable by dowsing oneself in mud. I will spare you the photo where I sport mud on my teeth.
March 2007 Venezuela and adventures on the top of Roraima: See how little someone values their life after they've been traveling for over a year?