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The southernmost tip of Chile is home to two of the finest natural wonders in the country, the Paine massif and the endless steppes of the 'Land of Fire'.
Patagonia, the southern tip of South America, has always inspired people's imagination and attracted travellers from all over the world. The Portuguese seafarer Hernando de Magallanes was the first European to experience the roughness of these windswept, inhospitable land strips at the end of the world, when he discovered the passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in 1520, later to be named 'The Strait of Magellan'. Today the majority of Patagonia's seemingly endless and barren planes, the Pampas, belong to Argentina, while on the Chilean side rain laden islands and a spectacular mountain massif, the Torres del Paine, characterise the landscape.
Torres del Paine is considered by many to be Latin America's finest national park and visitors experience an unforgettable feeling of intimacy with nature. Suddenly, in the midst of the greyish-brown Pampa, 2,000 m high granite peaks shoot up and reach towards the sky, crowned by whimsical granite spikes and fingers: the famous and distinguished "torres" (towers). Mighty glaciers push off the continental ice field surrounded by a string of icy-grey, aquamarine, emerald and turquoise lakes. At every step one is bound to come across elegant Guanakos (a type of llama), fast Nandus (ostriches) or see condors circling above, for ever on the alert. Refuge huts and camp sites are available for climbers and for the more discerning visitor there are hostels and even luxury hotels.
There's plenty more on offer in the Surroundings area, too: from the tourist enclave Puerto Natales boat trips take you on excursions to fjords and glaciers; you may discover the cave of the primeval giant sloth's Mylodon or take pleasure in the frolicking of the Magellan penguins. Palaces in the port of Punta Arenas at the blue belt of the Magellan Strait capture the history of the founding days at the end of the 19th century, when European immigrants amassed a fortune with sheep's' wool. Ships start their journeys here through the canals of the Tierra del Fuego and then further into Antarctica.
Tour Offers Torres del Paine & Tierra del Fuego
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