Day 3 - Palcoyo Rainbow Mt.
Wednesday, September 24
Today we drove 3 ½ hours south out of Cusco to hike Polcoyo Rainbow. Along the way we stopped in a small-town market to get some fresh fruit and smoothies.
Palcoyo Mountain
The trail began at 15,500’ and we hiked to 16,200’.
Our guide had us chew a wad of coca leaves for the duration of the ascent to mitigate the effects of the altitude. We have no baseline to compare it to so I’ll choose to believe it was helpful despite the weird feeling of having a wad of tea leaves pressed between my cheek and gum while hiking!
The colors of the mountains were formed millions of years ago from sedimentary minerals and volcanic eruptions. Red is iron, green and blue are copper, purple and black are magnesium, yellow is sulfur. We hiked up to the “rock forest,” which gave stunning views of the snow-capped Andes in all directions, including Ausengate (20, 945 ft.), the highest peak in the region and the 4th highest in Peru.
The drive up and back was through a mountain valley dotted with tiny villages and a stream running through it and alpaca herds roaming freely through the countryside. This was truly one of the most memorable days of the entire trip.
We said good-bye to Ruben, who’d been our guide for our three days in and around Cusco. We highly recommend Cusco Local Friend should you need guides there!
Later in the evening we met with Vlad, our Wildland Trekking guide, who briefed us on the next part of our adventure. Then we repacked our gear into duffels and backpacks for the trek and attempted a few hours of sleep before our 4:30am pick up!