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Rolf rides the whitewater along Chile's Maiten River.

Friends and vagabonders,

After four months of living out of a Land Rover, I have completed the San Francisco-to-Tierra del Fuego leg of the Drive Around the World expedition. It was an amazing experience across 13 countries, and I wish my expedition teammates luck as they continue this spring through Australia, Southeast Asia, India, China, and Russia. To keep track of the team (or to read old dispatches from our adventures in the Americas), read their team journals here. Expedition photos from Central America, Peru, Patagonia, and Brazil are linked from my Images page.

Since Drive Around the World is a benefit for Parkinson's Disease research, I encourage everyone to donate a few dollars to this worthy cause via this online form. A donation of as little as $10 will put you in a drawing to win one of the expedition outfitted 2003 Land Rover Discovery II vehicles.

As for me, I am now back in the United States, doing some domestic travel and preparing to finish my second book. I've had stories appearing here and there in print and online, including A Desert By Any Other Name, a Peru story that appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine; Lost in Transition, a humorous look at the language gap that appeared in World Hum; and Native Eye for the Tourist Guy, a Burma-based humor piece that appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle. For those of you with a subscription, my Japan story "Testing the Waters" appeared in Lexus this winter. My Conde Nast Traveler story about the sport of elephant polo (which I mentioned in my last update) is now online here. In book news, I had an essay appear in The Best Travelers' Tales 2004 anthology, that came out in March. For more news on this, go to my Books page.

The Travel Writers portion of my website will feature several new writers this season, including Around the Bloc author Stephanie Elizondo Griest, and Sand in my Bra editor (and travel-writing blogger) Jen Leo.

Stay tuned for my summer update, when I hope to give more news about my upcoming book.

Cheers — and happy vagabonding,

Rolf
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