This is a wild and beautiful area unlike anywhere else in the world. Torres del Paine lies between the central spine of the Andes, nearly buried under a massive ice cap and the steppes of Southern Patagonia. The mountains that comprise Paine Massif are not high for the Andes, but they are precipitous. What makes individual mountains so dramatic is that from most places in the park entire peaks can be seen-from base to summit-and they appear to leap into the clouds from the floor of the valley. With its 450,000 acres, Torres del Paine truly is a world-class park because of its completeness, having every feature one could hope for in a temperate zone park. It has, like all truly great parks, that indefinable element in its character to which visitors respond.