Chile

Squeezed between the Andes and the Pacific Ocean, and affectionately labelled ‘the thin country’ by the Nobel Prize-winning poet Pablo Neruda, Chile is never more than 110 miles wide but extends some 2,500 miles from north to south. This is a land of fire and ice - within its borders are the driest deserts on earth, lush expanses of alpine forest, a spectacular array of glaciers and isolated coastal fjords, and over 2,000 volcanoes.

Patagonia is the name given to the extreme southern tip of the South American continent (spanning both Argentina and Chile), one of the world’s most magnificent wilderness areas. Here, where the Andes finally end on the Patagonian Ice Cap, great glaciers pour into icy coastal fjords and turquoise lakes, and sculpted pillars of black granite thrust skyward from the windswept pampas. It is a stunning environment of awesome dimensions.

Read our travel blog: Live from Chile