Rainbow mountain Peru

I have seen the 7 color mountain in Argentina, a while ago... so I’m also curious about the similar mountain in Peru and also the extreme experience to get there. 7 June 2019 was the day...

I woke up at 3.30 am today to be ready for the pick up at 4.30. I used my thermal legging under my zipper pants, spaghetti t-shirt, another t-shirt, my blue square shirt, my thin grey cardigan, my thick pink cardigan and my down pink jacket. On top of that I had my buff (sort of scarf), colorful chilean woolen hat, thin gloves and some hand and feet warmer… they were too much, I think, only one vest would be sufficient as when you walk up the mountain, you will get warm.

I joined a group Yupay, we’re about 30 people with 3 guides: Vanessa, Melissa and Royan. I paid to the guide that picked me up at the airport, Lus, 95 USD with everything, then on the day I asked the other tourists how much they paid, 50 USD but not including the entrance (10 Sol). So I asked Lus again and finally she returned 30 USD, I was happy. If you try to find on the internet, it should be around 30-45 USD, but it’s not clear what is included, as some people were picked up by the bus station, for example and if the entrance also included or not. The rest of the package should be the same, transportation until the last village, Cupipata, continental breakfast over there, briefing then to the start of the 4 km trail at 4000 m, back to the village for lunch and finally back to Cuzco.

From Cuzco, I was picked up at around 4.40, then we picked up some other tourists on the way and started driving on the national road untill Cusipata and turned left to unpaved road about 15 minutes to our restaurant in the village. The unpaved road is very narrow, sometimes we need to cross a small river. It depends on the tour group, this 15 minutes time can be differed. After breakfast and briefing, we drove another 1 hour, passing the entrance of the mountain trail and the bus parking. This 1 hour was also on unpaved road going up to the mountain, I enjoyed very much the view, of the valleys with some villages and rivers, terraces for farming area and grassing alpacas. After passing the ticket control, we arrived at the parking area and ready to hike!

The beginning was quite easy, although we started at 4000 m altitude. It could be because of the excitement to see the mountain, I was rather fast. Then on half way, I was higher in the altitude too, I started to have difficulties to breath, I could hear my heart beating so fast and I had difficulty to breath, so I stopped. But the moment that I stopped, I could feel my legs got cold and tired like I couldn’t stand anymore. Sometimes every 10 steps, I had to stop. Then I said to myself, I wouldn’t make it to the top. But I kept going by sucking some dextrose sugar. Then I changed my strategy, to walk the hill back so I could enjoy the view of the of glacier Apu Ausangate, the highest mountain in Cuzco, 6400 m and surroundings where alpacas were grassing. It helped very much till the last peak which was stairs. I was rather good with stairs and went up pretty quick. YES, I made it.

I was so happy and I could not take pictures for a while, just looked around and enjoy the view of the magnificent rainbow mountain or Apu Winikunka (apu = mountain, wini = colorful, kunka = snake, all in Quechua language). In order to have a good view of the mountain, I climbed to the small hill in front of it. It was a bit scary though, as the hill is small, full of tourist but also the locals with traditional clothes and alpaca waiting for you to take pictures with them. The people that went down that hill was the most dangerous as sometimes they ran down and couldn’t stop. But I was also looking around for people who can take my picture too… It was rather busy, so I went to the side of the hill where some food sellers (alpaca chicharon/ fired alpaca with potatoes) were. It smelled good and I just wanted to sit and enjoyed the view for a moment.

This mountain has 4 basic colors: red (from iron oxidation), yellow (sulphur), green (copper) and blue (magnesium) but sometimes we can see 12 different color shades which are mixed of those metals oxidation. So it is similar as the colorful mountain in Argentina, the different is that this one was form by the increased of the tectonic plate south american and Nazca plate to form its conical form.

This site just opened since 2 years ago, before that all the people around were working in agriculture and now tourism, I’m not sure if it is good or not. They are food sellers or renting their horse for people who cannot make it by walking. The local people with horse, they are running up and down the mountain, meanwhile I could barely walk… amazing! All in one it was indeed an amazing experience for me that I made it to the top!