June 17, 2018
Got up around 3:30 AM this day to hop on a bus to Rainbow Mountain. Rumors going around said that the mountain was covered in snow. I had even heard of people's tours getting cancelled, but my friends and I stuck it out. We rode the bus 2 hours to a small town where we ate breakfast, then another hour to the mountain.
This hike was by far the hardest one I did. It was way more difficult for me than Lake Humantay even though the weather was perfect. The problem was with the altitude. Rainbow Mountain is at 17,000 ft, which makes it super hard to catch your breath. I had to stop every 5 minutes or so just to breathe. At the bottom and all along the trail, locals were walking around offering horse rides. I must have been offered a ride at least 50 times, but I stuck out the nausea and head-spinning and eventually made it to the top. I don't think I've ever felt more accomplished about anything.
The difficult hike was definitely worth it. The view from up there was incredible. No one really mentions how beautiful the view behind the camera is when you see pictures of Rainbow Mountain. Sure, the colors are really neat to look at, but the snow-capped mountains on the other side were incredible as well. I was able to spend about 30 minutes up there before I had to head back down to get back on the bus. At least the descent was easy-going.
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| Entrance to Rainbow Mountain trail |
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| On the way up |
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| Human trail to the left, horse trail to the right. |
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| On the way up. |
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| Woohoo! At the top! |
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| Pretty colors ft. lots of people. Side note: all pics found online are super edited and make the colors look a lot brighter (I don't see why because it's quite pretty as is) |
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| Whoa whoa whoa whoa. This is what you see if you turn around from facing the "rainbow". |
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| Grant, me, Tyler, John, and Jack |
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| Shout out to John for the coca candy. Saved my stomach. |
Once we got back to Cusco, I tried tequeños for the first time at Nuevo Mundo. Best thing ever. When I got back to my homestay, we celebrated father's day with Sandro.
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| View of the Plaza from Nuevo Mundo. |
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