Torres del Paine is maybe the mos famous tourist attraction. No other Park in South America can boast the same combination of breathtaking landscapes, abundant wildlife, comfortable accommodation and services, and opportunities for remote backcountry hiking and serious mountaineering ascent.
Part of the 242,242 ha was donated to the Chilean State in 1959, and in 1978 it was designated a Unesco World Biosphere Reserve. Geographically, Torres occupies a unique location just south and east of the Southern Patagonian Ice Fields, in an area of transition between the evergreen and deciduous beech forests of the pampa to the east. The inmense mass of the ice fields creates its own microclame, shrouding the peaks to the west in dense clouds and often obscuring views of the Paine Massif the centerpiece of the park- for weeks on end. Surprisingly, however, precipitation in the park is a mere 700mm/year. Winds pose the park's major climatic challenge, with gusts regular exceedingly 120km/hour during the summer months.
Wildlife in the park includes some 25 species of mammals, most notably guanacos, pumas, and two species of foxes. There are also over 115 species of resident and migratory bird species in the park, including a variety of raptors, flamingos, numerous ducks, coots, greese and other waterfowl, and the ñandú or avestruz (south american ostrich). Most wildlife is concentrated in the more benign, open grasslands and scrub of the park's eastern sectors.
