a brief stop to restock in santiago, and it's on to the final leg of my southern cone trip. after a 24-hour busride, i've arrived in san pedro de atacama, a town situated in the driest desert in the world (fifty times drier than death valley!) fortunately, san pedro is built on an oasis, surrounded by the mars-like landscape of the valle de luna, boiling geyser fields, and pristine altiplano lakes where, somewhat absurdly, flamingo colonies thrive. from san pedro, i will cross the bolivian border to take a multi-day 4x4 excursion across the immense salar de uyuni (the planet's highest and largest salt flats). i am catching it at the end of the rainy season, during which the ground lies under a few inches of water. this converts the salar into the largest mirror on earth, perfectly reflecting the skies and erasing any trace of a horizon. even if i miss the rains, the white infinity of the flats should still be quite a sight to see.