then with a marathoner's single- mindedness, he rows, climbs, skis, and, in the final gasp, sometimes crawls his way there. He travels for fun and he travels for work.

In high school, Peter ran cross-country and track and then got into what he calls "a dead sport"-Olympic race walking. He went to college in Boston on a partial athletic scholarship, then dropped out to join the Peace Corps.

"They said, 'Colombia.' I said, 'Sure, let's get the hell out of here.'

"When I got to South America, everything was stripped away from my act. I came from a materialistic culture. These  people didn't have much. They enjoyed simple things, family things. They were working on difficult problems, trying to colonize the jungle and raise basic foodstuffs. You see suffering. But you see people getting by. The whole spirit of the Peace Corps is to lend a hand."

That experience launched Peter on a lifelong career working with rural people and dealing with the economics of land. It has also taken him around the globe.