We saw very little of Chile. We flew into the Santiago airport, flew out again to La Serena up the coast a bit, and then took a tour bus from Arrica at the northwestern corner of Chile across the Peruvian border to catch a plane to Lima as part of our Machu Picchu excursion.

	Santiago, the capital, is located in a valley ringed with mountains. The vegetation reminded us of Southern California.
	We didn't realise how much it reminded us of Southern California until we took off and saw the extent of the city and the fact that it seemed to have an inversion layer holding the smog in. In the distance the Andes peeped out at us.
	Chile has a fertile central valley, like California, but the non-irrigated portions along the coast were arid. The whole country is a narrow strip of land between the Andes and The Pacific Ocean. It is over 2,600 miles long but only 277 miles across at the widest point.
	Chile has the longest seacoast of any country in the world. In the north, the portion that we saw, is the Atacama desert. Total rainfall: zero. And that's not average annual rainfall, it's total rainfall for all of recorded history: zero.
	On our way out of Chile we spent a couple of hours getting paperwork straightened out at the border. I wandered to the edge of the station to see what the black dots were along the dune. As I got closer the flock of vultures took flight and started circling me with a distinctive "fresh meat!" look in their eyes. I wandered back to the station.