1994, while still being a travel novice, I had the life-changing pleasure of watching a more travel-savvy friend’s Super-8-video about his wild one-week hike through the Torres del Paine in the Patagonian Andes.  It opened another world for me since I so far my wildest mountainous excursion just had been a climb to 3260m high Hörnlihütte below the Matterhorn.

A year later my girlfriend and me were on our way to Patagonia. We packed camping gear and food for one full week, and set off for the O circuit: We hiked for more than 100 kilometres, past wildflower meadows and an almost impenetrable forest where the roots of the trees alone where so big that we felt like little hobbits. We camped next to  turquoise lakes where our tent and us were almost blown away in the middle of the night. We crossed mighty waterfalls by daringly jumping from stone to stone, we withstood snow in the middle of summer and we stood in awe in front of bizarre mountains. We hiked to the top of an endless glacier and brushed our teeth at its mouth, with small icebergs just floating in front of us in the morning sun. During one week, we only met two other hikers, but listened to the calls of a puma on the other side of our river campsite.

20 years later we took our car from our then home in Rio and crossed almost the full 4300km length of Chile from the earth’s driest desert in the north back to its icy glaciers in the south. In the meantime the Torres had almost become a „mass destination“ with hikers required to book all campsites along the way months in advance. Despite these odds it still was one of the most spectacular places on earth, but this time with much better food (deliciously barbecued Cordero instead of instant noodle soups) and great Chilean wine (Carménère) chilenischen Weinen sand Pisco Sours as much we could drink.  No matter whether it was hardcore camping like in 1994 or being pampered in 2015 the Torres will always be one of the most precious jewels in my travel crown.