South America: Mountains, rivers, jungles and ancient cultures, 1971-1974.

In 1971, I left San Francisco with a backpack full of camping gear and the goal of eventually hitch-hiking to Tierra del Fuego, the southern tip of Chile. I ended up spending several years in South America, well before civil wars, guerilla wars, drug wars and the accompanying illicit logging and mining took their toll on what was then, in large measure, a wild and still unspoiled continent. I became immersed in the indigenous cultures and languages (especially Quechua) of the Andes and Amazon and in exploring the multitude of still-unexcavated Incan and pre-Incan ruins and the remote rivers of the upper Amazon.