After a day of rest from finishing the Inca Trail (strictly speaking it was the day after a day of rest, but some confusion on dates led to us thinking we needed an extra rest day, but we didn’t, and anyway Cusco is a brilliant city for resting in) we tackled Rainbow Mountain. Rainbow Mountain, whose official name is Vinikunka, is a mountain where recent snow melt has revealed multicoloured soil/bedrock below. In a short space of time has become one of Peru’s biggest tourist attractions, however it is still a real challenge with the summit being over 5,000m above sea level.

There are lots of tours possible from Cusco, but with some local knowledge, we travelled independently. The main purpose of this was to avoid the crowds and hopefully arrive after the busiest time. The tour groups seemed to leave Cusco before 6am, so we aimed to leave at 8:30 am by taxi. It was a long 3 hour taxi ride, the three of us had booked a taxi for the whole day for around 250 sols. There is a good road most of the way, but we suddenly turned off onto dirt roads as we climbed up the hills. Water trucks were damping the dusty roads. When we saw the number of mini coaches at the top, the dust problem must be horrendous for the smaller communities as the convoy of tourists goes each way, everyday.

At least one community was benefiting when we came to a rope across the road and a charge of 5 sols per visitor. The ticket mentioned upkeep of the sanitary system, amongst other things. Just before arriving, there was another rope across with a charge of 15 Sol. This led to the car park, which was full of dozens of mini-coaches. We thought the cab driver was asking us to photograph his taxi company screen sign so we could find him, but it turned out he wanted to photograph us with it, as a promotional piece (I’m pretty sure he just wanted me but Cathy and Kimrey photo bombed the publicity shoot ;)) . I’ve had a look on Instagram and can’t see it, so maybe we didn’t make the cut. Despite that, I’m happy to say “Taxi Cusco Vip” was very good, although a bigger car wouldn’t have hurt. Another observation on the road coming up was a small group of people filling in potholes in the road. The men were digging material from the side of the road, while two women were using a large cloth to carry and move the gravel and pour it into the holes. What was surprising was that they were wearing the traditional brightly coloured dress, which I had presumed was reserved for the tourists. This, together with using the cloth (I’m not sure whether it is a shawl or a cloak), which we saw all through Cusco. I had seen women carrying children and any variety of goods on their backs. It’s a most versatile piece of clothing/equipment. We even saw a baby alpaca being stuffed into one when it wouldn’t walk.

I digress, after the carpark and toilets, there is a small shanty town of souviner seller’s before the climb starts, although there are steps up to the stalls, you can really feel your breath. There are two tracks to the top, the pedestrian path, and the horse track. Because of the lateness in the day, the horse people were very keenly canvassing for passengers to avoid a non-paying uphill trip. Most were running up the hill next to their horses to catch another tourist who wanted to come down. We, slowly, walked up chewing coco leaves and stopping frequently. There was a steady stream of people coming down, but only one or two groups going up. The whole distance is about 3 km, and the first 2.5km is on a gently rising track, with a couple of groups of buildings, including toilets.

Eventually, we reached the steepest section up to the saddle of the mountain. It was easy to forget to look around, but the most amazing view was developing behind us as the colours of the mountain emerged. The view in front was pretty good too, with snowy peaks and glaciers. On this section, two birds came gliding overhead, a Peruvian lady who was also climbing (and had just taken our photo for us) said they were Condors and we were guaranteed future prosperity. I think the bird was actually a Mountain Caracara, but everything else she said was completely true. We eventually reached the saddle, I was determined to stop here. I’d found it the last bit very hard, and I didn’t think it possible/wise to continue to the summit.

There were a couple of stalls selling drinks and snacks, which must have been an ardous task carrying up each day. However, the main focus at this point was getting the perfect photo with the multicoloured ridge rising behind you. There was lots of queuing, pushing in, taking an inordinately long time for a shot, and seeing who could devise the most unnatural pose. We had come at a quiet time, and I can only imagine the chaos at peak time. It was great watching the Mountain Caracara birds swooping around and riding the air currents whilst waiting for the photography to finish.

By the time we were finished, I felt OK to carry on to the peak and was the first to arrive with very slow steps. Almost immediately, my hat blew off, and I sprinted across the summit, jumped down two levels, and caught it – perhaps I wasn’t as tired as I thought! At the summit another long photo session ensued, made longer by discovering a budding David Bailey (for younger readers a photographer from a long time ago) when we asked for another shot of all three of us. He was snapping away, camera upside down, nearly splitting his trousers trying to get low enough and generally freezing, as he was only wearing a tee shirt (and had taken his gloves off to operate the camera).

While this was going on, Bernard (my erstwhile travelling companion) was having his picture taken on the summit signboard, and a Mountain Caracara swooped down and tried to snatch him! I make that sound more dramatic than it was, but it was clearly the intent!

By this time, the mountain was beginning to clear, and we could see the security people beginning to leave from the last buildings below, so we headed down. The steep bit down to the buildings was the trickiest, but we were soon down. The first toilet block had been locked but was reopened when asked. The rest of the way down was a long trudge, but as the air got thicker, we made a really good time. There were only a very few cars in the car park so it was easy to find our driver. It was a long drive back, I was trying to stay awake in the front but dozed off a few times. The driver woke me to show a particularly gruesome crash, which must have occurred only minutes beforehand, which helped keep me awake a bit longer. We got back into Cusco about 6pm, the three of us very hungry, and we hit the Inkagrill for dinner. It was a good, exhausting day out.