The next trip should bring us all the way up to the highest altitude we have been so far: Palcoyo Mountain. It is known as the “Alternative Rainbow Mountain”.
The famous Vinicuna Rainbow Mountain is one of the biggest attractions around Cusco (of course after Machu Piccu!). Therefore it became an Instagrammers paradise. The number of visitors skyrocketed! What used to be picturesque and off the beaten track now attracts multiple busloads of people every day!
Since we didn’t want to be part of that mass tourism, yes we already kind of were since we were in the South of Peru, planning to go to Machu Picchu, too. But the thought counts and so we decided to visit the “Alternative Rainbow Mountain”.
Higher and higher…
Our trip started quite early, like the day before on our tour to Maras and Moray. A minivan brought us in a small group all the way to the village of Palcoyo. The ride in the minivan was quite okay until we headed along the windy roads up to the mountains. We headed on and headed on…as we were sitting in the back of the minivan we experienced every curve and bump of the road heavily. You can expect that we didn’t really feel great when we finally (and it really felt like an eternity) reached the parking lot at an altitude of about 5,000 meters!
The hike at Palcoyo thankfully proved to be relatively short and easy but the altitude required a lot of breaks. Almost every 5 minutes we had to stop for drinking water or for Christian chewing coca leafs. The walk at Palcoyo offered various viewpoints, including the three rainbow-colored mountains and panoramic views of the Red Valley. The view was amazing and we were really impressed by the bright colors!
After about an hour we were heading back to our minivan when it suddenly started hailing! Really fast everything was covered in hail and snow! It was a weird feeling seeing all the mountains and fields covered under a white blanket…even the Lamas and Alpacas around there!
Having to get down the windy unpaved road, now covered in snow, made us a little bit nervous. Especially when we had to stop because another car ahead of us slipped of the road a little. Thankfully our driver was very careful and slowly drove us all the way down and after a lunch break back to Cusco.
