Calama, Chile (08.12.2008 ) — Well, we´ve been to hell and back and lived to tell the tale. Driving seven hundred miles through the endless Bolivian desert, enduring two nights of minus five degrees farenheit (as in thirty-seven below freezing), sleeping in two unheated mud huts, witnessing eighteen thousand-foot volcanic peaks, bathing in one thermal hotspring, and bracing against a constant, howling wind that would strip a penny from a miser.

Consider this brief transmission confirmation that we made it through Bolivia in one piece. Now we´ve gotta run to catch an overnight bus to Iquique. Our full report is forthcoming!