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ABOUT

The www.perkowitz.com site is the collection of photo journals of the distance bike adventure touring exploits of Robert M. Perkowitz. The RASAM2004 portion of the site covers a seven-week tour across South America from Sao Paul, Brazil to Lima, Peru.

Contents of the Ride Across South AMerica (RASAM 2004) portion of the site include Bob, Cause, Contact Bob, Credits, Gear, Guestbook, Home, Register, RASAM2004, and Rides (RAAM2001, RAAUST2002, EUROPE2003, Blue Ridge Parkway 2003 and Other Rides).

BOB

Robert M. Perkowitz is an avid entrepreneur, environmentalist and cyclist living in Charlotte, NC and San Francisco, CA with Lisa Renstrom (wife) and Betty Anderson (mother-in-law). Daughter Alex Mangimelli is a freshman at Tulane, and son Tom is completing his M.B.A. at the Drucker School at Claremont. The photo is me, inspecting the road from Salta to San Salvador de Jujuy in northern Argentina. I'll be back here on a bike about November 10, 2004.

CAUSE

Our environment and our natural heritage (rivers, forests, wilderness and the things that live in them) are under unprecedented attack. Greedy interests seek to take our common resources for their private gain, leaving behind waste and pollution they expect taxpayers to clean up. Do the right thing and support the Sierra Club and Environmental Defense today!

CONTACT

Contact Bob by clicking here or at rperks282@aol.com. Its always comforting and energizing to get email from friends when I am cycling alone in the middle of nowhere.

CREDITS

Tom Perkowitz: Webmaster & Son

Lisa Renstrom: Wife and Supporter

Alex Mangimelli: The Daughter

Eduardo Erler: SAG Support for RASAM

Dalton Cox: RASAM Part I rider

Steve DelVecchio: RASAM Part II rider

Melissa Mahoney: Bravo Graphics, our web designer

Bicycle Sport: The best bike shop in Charlotte

Pedal Power: The best bike shop in Sao Paulo

Nelson Davis: South American logistics coordinator and new friend

Marcos Croce: Infectious passion for life and the environment

GEAR

This will be my 4th continental ride on a Trek 520 touring bike with Profile Airstryke aerobars. My riding clothes come from Adventure Cycling. The panniers and the camping gear all come from REI. My phones are always Nokia GSM. My computer this time is an Apple Powerbook instead of my usual Sony Vaio and my camera is a Sony DSC-P100. The support vehicle is a Fiat Doblo Adventure. Each of these have been chosen with intense care for quality, dependability and performance. If you want more information, click the links above or contact Bob.

GUESTBOOK

The RASAM guestbook is a blog where you enter comments about the trip that are shared with anyone who cares to see them. These also provide great encouragement and sometimes perspective when I am on the road. If you see anything on the site that interests you, or want to cheer me on, note it here for everyone. Come back often.

HOME

The new www.perkowitz.com home page features the past and present tours. The continents still in grey are future challenges. Bookmark it!

REFERENCE

The best tour guides, printed or online, are Rough and Lonely Planet. Sites I use for bicycling include http://www.ibike.org/ (everything you could ever want to know & more), http://www.adventurecycling.org/ (the bible for American touring cyclists).

http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Island/6810/ is the best site, by far for South America bike touring information. Check out the maps and you'll see that no one rides across this continent for good reason. This site has a previw of my tour. Lastly, for the ultimate in bicycle touring go to. http://www.bikechina.com/heinzstucke1z.html.

REGISTER

Join, as of August 3, 2004, 149 of my closest friends. When you register, you'll get email notices and links when I update the site. This happens almost exclusively when I am riding. I do not share your information with anyone. The more, for me, the merrier.

RASAM 2004

That's this Ride Across South AMerica from Sao Paulo, Brazil to Lima, Peru. It is 5,410 kilometers or 3,360 miles, which I will ride in two segments. Part I goes from September 26 to October 17, 2004 and is from Sao Paulo, Brazil to Salta, Argentina: 2,595 kilometers / 1,612 miles. Part II dates are November 7 to December 5 and is from Salta to Lima: 2,816 kilometers or 1,749 miles.

Many people ride the coast of South America, especially along the Pan American highway. Few, if any, ride across the continent. There is a dearth of support Ð hundreds of miles without accommodations or good supplies. The only reason I can do it is that I will go Ôsafari-style'. A support and gear (SAG) wagon will carry my supplies.