Peru! Rainbow Mountain

The tour group had a bit of a mutiny after Humantay lake. Pretty much everyone in the other tour van decided that they didn't want to do the planned day trip to Rainbow Mountain the following day. Some people had been hit hard by altitude/car sickness, and another day starting at 5am with a 3 hour van ride up a really high mountain was less appealing. Most people in that van had done a tour of the jungle before meeting up for the Cuzco tour and some were scheduled to go to Lake Titicaca afterwards, and they hadn't had a day to catch up and rest yet. They stayed behind to go to church, and one of the tour guides stayed with them to show them some closer places afterwards. 

Those of us that stuck with the original itinerary were dubbed by the tour guide to be the "Chosen Inca Warriors" and felt entitled to making gentle jabs about how the other group was too tired after being carried on horses to the top of Humantay while we had hiked it. 

Rainbow Mountain, aka 7-Color Mountain, aka Vinicunca, was significantly higher elevation that anywhere I have ever been before. It's as high in elevation as Mt Everest Base Camp! 

 

There wasn't much vegetation this high up- just lots of grass being happily munched on by herd after herd of alpacas. Keep in mind that it is the end of winter for them- I'm guessing it gets greener at other times of the year. The roads were a lot better than the ones to Humantay. We were told that is because the roads to Humantay are government owned, while Vinicunca is private property. 

The base camp was small, but had shockingly good Wi-Fi thanks to Starlink! 

Our guides were worried that if we did the hike on foot, it would take too long because some of us had flights to catch later that night. The solution: Mountain Motorcycles! One of our friends, Amber, had gotten pretty carsick on the drive up. Probably because she was turned around backwards talking to me in the car. Sorry! Apparently she has a history of fainting when she's feeling nauseous, which is quite a concern while riding on a motorcycle. We took some time to settle her with coca tea and solid ground, then had a chat with her driver about driving slowly and stopping right away if she tapped him. Luckily the ride up was fainting free. I thought it was fun tearing it up on these mountain trails. 

It was COLD up there. Around 30 degrees. 

The Chosen Inca Warriors!

The rainbow mountain definitely stole the show, but I thought the sweeping views of the whole mountain range were simply stunning. We were up so high at a summit, but there were even taller summits all around us. 

Aaron is wearing a hat, his hood, then another hat on top, and I had my hat tassels tied under my chin. Fashion is quickly compromised when desert dwellers are whisked to the top of a frigid mountain.

We decided it was worth it to pay for a photoshoot with the adorable alpacas. They are SO FLUFFY. 

After the motorcycle back to basecamp followed by a van ride back to a lunch buffet followed by more driving back to Cuzco, we had enough time to savor a light dinner (with more ice cream, we were warm enough for it then) before heading to the Cuzco airport. Our flight to Lima was uneventful... but then our Lima to Houston flight was cancelled due to a maintenance issue. By then it was past midnight and we had been up since before 5am. We scrambled desperately to try and switch to a flight on another airline that some of our group was taking later that night, but were unsuccessful. We slept in this place called "Sleepover" in the Lima Airport that is essentially tiny bed lockers for about 6 hours. Our friend Kelsy was on the same cancelled flight. The next morning, we managed to cobble together an itinerary home using multiple airlines. It was stressful because the first leg left really soon, and we weren't sure if the second leg was going to be full or not. Long story short, we managed to get home only 12 hours later than our original plan. 

This trip was unlike anything I've ever experienced before. It really felt like the trip of a lifetime. I loved the history, the food, and the wide scope of things we were able to see and do. It was also fun being with a big group of people and getting to know some of the people better. I'm really grateful that Aaron and I managed to dodge all the altitude and carsickness. This trip was an absolute blast!