Chile

The granite towers of Torres del Paine are reflected at dawn in a turquoise lake, and guanacos graze on their slopes. Chilean Patagonia has glaciers, lakes and steppe, and the weather changes here within minutes: a gale one moment, sunshine the next.

The country stretches for more than 4,000 kilometres and is narrow, between the Andes and the Pacific. In Santiago, the city spreads out with snow-capped mountains behind it, and in Valparaíso colourful houses climb the hills. In the Atacama Desert, one of the driest places on Earth, the night sky fills with stars, and on Easter Island, far out in the Pacific, the moai gaze at the horizon.

At the table: seafood, empanadas and wines from the valleys of central Chile and, in the south, lamb roasted on a spit beside the fire.