A walk up the wild side in Chilean Patagonia

Hikers in Torres del Paine National Park discover diverse flora and fauna living in a range of microclimates. Photo: The New York Times Ondine Cohane After four hours of strenuous hiking, we had only just reached the bottom of the Torres del Paine. You can see the three granite monoliths seemingly from 150 kilometres away (and on just about every postcard of Patagonia), but the full magnitude of their facades was revealed only after the last turn on the mountainous trail.