Grammy Award-Winning Recording Artist Lyle Lovett Leads Motorcycle Trek Through Chile On Mungo Park Adventure Webzine

REDMOND, Wash., Jan. 15, 1998 — Chile is a land of extremes, with terrain that runs the gamut from arid desert to icebergs and glaciers. Like an arrow pointing toward the South Pole, the slim country stretches 2,500 miles along South America’s Pacific coast. This month, the Mungo Park online adventure magazine (http://mungopark.com/) , published by the Microsoft® Expedia
™
.com online travel service, will explore Chile’s geographic wonders through the eyes and experiences of musician Lyle Lovett on motorcycle.

The Grammy award-winning recording artist with a passion for the open road is joined by a group of accomplished off-road bikers to share a Chilean adventure on wheels. Virtual explorers can follow their trek through the country’s dramatically diverse landscapes and climates on the next Mungo Park expedition, now through Jan. 22.

Sponsored by LanChile Airlines and ProChile, the Chilean Export Promotion Bureau, guest correspondent Lovett and the team will ride 650 miles of rugged terrain and open road on KTM motorcycles (Rally Adventure and 620 EGS). The adventure begins in Santiago, the country’s dynamic capital. From there, the explorers will sweep past sparkling lakes, through the Andes mountains, past hot springs, along iceberg-rich fjords, volcanoes and secluded glaciers in a quest to reach the last navigable road in Patagonia.

The lanky Texas native, a musical poet and motorcycle devotee since boyhood, will share his reflections from the road in audio and video dispatches to (http://mungopark.com/) . Joining Lovett is champion desert racer and motocross legend Malcolm Smith, along with Scot Harden, vice president of marketing for KTM USA and an accomplished desert rider himself. Mungo Park correspondent Jason Lathrop is boldly riding along, providing written daily dispatches from the field while a crew from National Geographic Films documents the adventure for the “Explorer” television series.

“Before the ride started, I was thinking how excited I was to get to ride with one of my all-time riding heroes, Malcolm Smith,” Lovett said. “That’s the high point of this ride for me.”

Using text, digital photographs, audio and video clips, Mungo Park brings the exploits of Lovett and his adventurous band of bikers to a global audience via the Internet.

These features will also appear on Mungo Park this month:

  • Media Trip: unsolved mysteries of Easter Island. No one knows who built the massive stone statues called moai on Easter Island or why they were built. “Giants of Easter Island,” a cyber-look at various theories that have developed, includes expert audio commentary on the mysteries of the moai .

  • Land of legendary beauty. Check into wild Patagonia’s Explora Lodge with Tim Cahill, founding editor of Outside magazine and author of four books. Discover the raw beauty of the peaks of Torres del Paine, in Chile’s showcase national park at the end of the continent.

  • Stirring up Chile. Adventure writer and author Jon Bowermaster probes the forested realm of Parque Pumal
    í
    n, Chile’s controversial new national park. Find out how conservation beat economics with the help of North American outsider and millionaire Doug Tomkins, co-founder of the Esprit clothing line.

  • Chilean landscapes. View acclaimed travel photographer Macduff Everton’s breathtaking photographs of Chile’s playful landscapes. Based in California, Everton has traveled the world on assignment for numerous magazines, including Cond
    é
    Nast Traveler, National Geographic, Outside and Life.

  • Get to know a guanaco. Visit the Adventure Arcade and test your knowledge on guanacos 3/4 the wild llama-like natives that roam Chile – in an interactive, multiple-choice quiz.

  • Postcards from Mungo Park. Choose from a stunning selection of photographs of Chile that can be sent electronically to friends around the world.

After Chile – The Last Great Mungo Park Adventure

From the bottom of the deepest gorge in Africa to the orbiting Russian space station Mir, Mungo Park has explored the world, bringing virtual adventure to the Internet. Ever seeking to push the envelope, and in the true spirit of exploration, Mungo Park has accomplished what no other webzine has by proving that video and audio can be broadcast to the Internet live from anywhere on the planet. After bringing a dozen live expeditions to the Internet, Mungo Park will journey to the bottom of the Earth to explore Antarctica with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Dillard on a final expedition. Join us Jan. 28-Feb. 3 for the last great Mungo Park adventure.

Beginning in February, Web surfers can experience all Mungo Park expeditions at (http://mungopark.com/) and in the Resources section of the Microsoft Expedia.com travel planning service at (http://expedia.com/) . Booking one’s own Mungo Park adventure is only a mouse click away on Expedia.com.

Mungo Park is available on the World Wide Web and features an interactive expedition program, live Internet chats, a famous-author series, and regular columns from well-known journalists. Named for the famous 18th-century Scottish explorer who discovered the Niger River and mysteriously disappeared while navigating its waters, Mungo Park is about exploring the world 3/4 firsthand and online.

Mungo Park is accessible free (connect-time charges may apply) on the Internet and on The Microsoft Network. To see Mungo Park, users need World Wide Web access; a 28.8Kbps or faster modem is recommended. Mungo Park is best experienced with Microsoft Internet

Explorer 3.0 or higher, or Netscape Navigator 3.0 or higher. Both the Macintosh platform and the Windows® operating system are supported.

The Microsoft Expedia.com online travel planning service (http://expedia.com/) is part of the Microsoft Expedia family of travel and mapping products and services. These include the Microsoft Expedia Streets 98, Expedia Streets Deluxe 98 and Trip Planner 98 CD-ROMs http://www.microsoft.com/expedia/ and Mungo Park, an online magazine dedicated to the spirit of adventure in travel (http://mungopark.com/) .

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and

personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.

Microsoft, Mungo Park, Expedia and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.

Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft’s corporate information pages.

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