Thanks to everyone for their help. And, just to be clear, I'm not trying to prove a point and parse words in order to be right (or wrong for that matter). I'm just trying to figure out what the rules are so I can book my super-duper trip. Actually, I'm thrilled to be wrong about when I can do surface segments since my interpretation would have made it very hard to do the trip I want. So, thank you very much, and I totally apologize for my misreading, and am happy to learn that I can do intra-region surface segments without exception, and can even begin and end in different countries as listed on lines 81N - 88N.

As for the Dakar-Buenos Aires flight, again, I'm just trying to figure out a way to start a Global Explorer trip in Europe, then go to Africa, and then head west. My understanding is that the Global Explorer (as compared to the One World Explorer) doesn't permit me to backtrack through Europe (i.e., LHR) to head west. Maybe I'm wrong about that too? I'm just basing it on my reading of the rules and discussion with the AA RTW desk, but who knows.

As for the flight from Africa to South America, I looked at it again, and here's the details off of One World's website for the SAO version of the flight I mentioned (the One World map lists direct flights from Dakar to both Buenos Aires and Sao Paolo):

Scheduled flights u Return flights
From: Dakar, Senegal (Yoff)
To: Sao Paulo, Brazil (All Airports)
Depart T Arrive T Carrier - Flight number Stops Duration Aircraft
23:55 DKR 04:25 +1 VCP LA 8264 Non-Stop 6 hrs 30 min DC3

That's 3,292 miles in about 6.5 hours. Is that an unreasonable amount of time for a flight like that? Again, I'm just trying to figure out if I can run a Global Explorer west that goes Europe-Africa-S. or N. America. I did call up the AA RTW desk to ask about this flight and the woman I spoke with first said this flight didn't exist, and then said it did. On the other hand, ExpertFlyer, ITA, LAN's own website and everyone else on this board seem to deny the existence of the flight. So, I guess the consensus is that there isn't any such flight??

Thanks again for everyone's help.