Seen in the pages of an atlas, Chile's outline seems aberrant, even fantastical: almost 4000km in length and with an average width of just 180km, the very idea of it seems absurd. Once on Chilean soil, however, you'll be impressed by the country as a physical geographic entity. While the formidable barrier of rock and ice formed by the Andes cuts the country off from Argentina and Bolivia, the Atacama Desert, a thousand-kilometre stretch of parched wasteland, separates it from Peru to the north. And to the west, only a few islands dotted in the Pacific Ocean break the waves that roll onto Chile's coast from Australia.