Hiking is really a personal affair. At least for me it is all about enjoying the nature but also about getting away from the crowds. So hopping on a packed bus to Torres del Paine was not very promising... Getting squeezed in the national park ticket office did not help either, and then once at the mountain refuge it seemed more like a franco-german bingo place :-) I guess the European retirees need to spend their savings while it lasts...
But once on the trail it is all how it should be. And Torres del Paine are really unique. Even though you start almost from a sea level, once you walk up the mountain valleys it really feels like high in the Alps or the High Tatras. Only the valleys feel more like canyons with summits around reaching over 3.000m. Snow covered peaks, waterfalls, glaciers - nothing more to wish for. And hiking is great! Finally on your own losing breath, cursing too much pisco sour the day before, but gradually moving up. The valleys climb slowly and the landscape becomes bare and dry with lonely mountains all around. Another jump over a stream, last climb and you are there... Some people say it is all about the climb itself - for me it was the view made it really worthwhile. Suddenly you forget the crowds squatting at the viewpoint - mirador. Here it is just about you and the mountains seemingly within your grasp...
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