With latitudinal limits comparable to those between Havana and Hudson’s Bay, and elevations ranging from oceanic to alpine, one would expect a diversity of flora and fauna. While this is true to a degree, it’s also misleading as, for instance, tropical northern Chile is desert rather than rainforest, and the southern rainforests contain large single-species stands. Still, in its biogeographical isolation west of the high Andes and south of the arid Atacama, much of its flora and fauna will be novel to foreign visitors, especially those from the Northern Hemisphere.