I've already gotten a few silly Chile jokes from people, and I've only been here 1 day! So far, Chile has no chili, nor is it chilly. I'm in San Pedro de Atacama, a hippie-ish oasis town in the middle of the Atacama Desert, the driest in the world. It's pretty hot here, a mostly welcome change from the freezing temperatures I suffered through my last night in Bolivia.

Today I'm taking the bus to Antofogasta, the largest town in northern Chile. It's on the coast--I'm ready to get away from all this dust! Then I'll be heading south through a few beach towns on my way to Santiago.

I'll post lots of detailed stuff soon, and I also have about 400 pix to upload, so stay tuned! Internet here is a little slow, and I'm muddling through on a dusty, stiff keyboard, so I'm going to wait to put in serious computer time until I'm in a bigger city with better facilities.