"Why?"

I started a small consulting firm in 1999, and through hard work, good timing, and most of all luck, I had the fiscal means and the time to take a few months off.

"Why travel by bicycle?"

I first traveled by bicycle through Australian Tazmania in 1992, and have been daydreaming about other bicycle adventures ever since (in 1995 the daydreams materialized into a solo bicycle trip through Europe, although the bicycling was cut short when my bike was stolen in front of the train station in Straussburg-- while I was inside trying to determine if I could get the bike on a train!). I am convinced that riding a bicycle is the best way to see a foreign country because it really fuses the "getting there" and the "being there" into one seamless experience, and it provides endless opportunities to meet locals and see the country up-close.

Regardless of the language barrier, the sight of a person on a bicycle garners instant respect from the locals, providing a great foundation for getting to know people.

"Why South America?"

This one is kind of easy to answer-- I had been accumulating miles on a Citibank AAdvantage card for years, working toward the miles for a trip to South America, which I had never been to before. Within South America, I wanted to go somewhere where I would feel relatively safe, with routes suitable for bicycling and great scenery. I searched the internet and, the internet and, after corresponding with some other bike touring geeks, I was ultimately convinced that Argentina and Chile would be the best bet. I then began to plan a potential route using the Footprint and Lonely Planet guidebooks.