Torres de Paine National Park, a 700-square-mile region of sheer granite spikes and towers that are among the most beautiful peaks on earth. Torres is Spanish for towers, and these ones, lying at the southern end of the great Andes mountain chain, soar abruptly and exuberantly from the terrain, like a sheaf of exclamation points.The park’s other attractions include boreal forests tucked away in protected bays and inlets. Most of land is treeless, though, with grass and sedge-like plants dominating. The chief herbivore is the guanaco, close cousin to the llama. They are often stalked by pumas, and the remains of those encounters are scavenged by the likes of the Andean condor and the gray fox. The park is also a water wonderland. There are lakes everywhere, their basins scooped out by ancient glaciers. The remaining glaciers create fast running wild rivers that slam their way down to the sea through narrow banks and over waterfalls.