You will see hundreds of roaming alpaca, and have the chance to truly see how Quechua people live. If you look for the best hike options to arrive to the Rainbow Mountains Cusco. After our arrival to the bus parking place, we take some essential things like a jacket, hat and gloves with us.

Wet season goes from November to April, usually cloudy and rainy days. This site - which is also known as Vinicunca, Winikunka, Montaña de Siete Colores, and Montaña de Colores - has blown up in popularity in the last few years and is arguably now well on its way to becoming the second most visited attraction in the Peru after Machu Picchu. This insurance must cover personal accident, medical expenses, air ambulance, loss of effects, repatriation costs and all other expenses which may arise as a result of loss, damage, injury, delay or inconvenience during your trip. At this height above sea-level, literally everyone will feel a little breathless at the beginning and on the last 10%, but if you have an ok level of fitness and have acclimatised it really shouldn’t be anything you can’t manage at a steady pace. We were blessed with pretty perfect weather for our visit in Peru’s rainy season (which runs from November - April), but speaking to others at our hostel in Cusco and on our route through South America confirmed that it can be a bloody miserable and muddy experience - and almost a complete waste of time - to do this walk in the rain and cloud. We reserve the right to cancel a trip prior to departing Cusco if we feel conditions are unsafe. However, we know a lot of you plan your own South America adventures from our blog posts, so we felt a responsibility to do it so we could let you know the realities of Rainbow. However you book, you have to make sure you’re going with an operator you can trust (check reviews on TripAdvisor or with other guests) and are getting a ‘like-for-like’ package with meals and transport. Previously, the standard tour to reach Rainbow Mountain involved a long early morning bus ride from Cusco and then 15 kms round-trip trek. The good news is that it really isn’t very far and will cause no issues for many. Oops! The mountain had, of course, always existed but its most famous feature was hidden for centuries under thick layers of Andean snow and ice.

Our treks depart everyday with a minimum of 2 guests and a maximum of 8 guests. We’re all for seeing local people participate and benefit directly from tourism, and for the wealth to be spread out into a community, so usually this is something we’d praise to the heavens.

How to get to rainbow mountain from cusco. It’s beautiful and remote, retaining that rugged sense off an off-the-beaten track adventure which will bring you through the Ausangate region and very very close to Rainbow (a short visit to it is actually possible) as well as a whole set of wonderful landscapes and glacier lakes. On our Peru trip, we did about three weeks of hiking so had a lot of the equipment already with us - if you’re already packing the hiking essentials, then it makes sense to wear them.
FlashpackerConnect is not responsible if you get altitude sickness. Unfortunately however, the early morning bus ride remains! Then start this exceptional hike uphill on a beautiful gentle path; we will be able to see Llamas and Alpacas. The area of Rainbow Mountains Cusco is totally isolated cautions should be taken. Learn more about altitude sickness, and how to avoid it, in this short guide. Don't miss your chance to explore the Rainbow Mountain with us and beat the crowds! The bad news is that a lot of people will really struggle, usually as they are unfit, haven’t followed the advice in point #5 above, or a toxic combination of the two.
On our tour, there were five South Korean guys in their 20s who having just arrived in Cusco from Lima the day before, were already suffering from the altitude but decided that going up another +1,000m in elevation would be a sensible idea. © COPYRIGHT ALONG DUSTY ROADS LTD 2014 -2020, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED - PHOTOGRAPHY CANNOT BE USED WITHOUT OUR PERMISSION, 11 Things To Know Before You Visit Rainbow Mountain in Peru, the local Pampachiri indigenous community, 18 Really Useful Things to Know Before You Visit Cusco, What You Need to Know To Visit Machu Picchu in 2020, Everything You Need To Know About Cusco's Boleto Turistico, How To Avoid Altitude Sickness in South America, A Complete Guide to Exploring Cusco's Ruins (Without a Tour). © 2019 FlashpackerConnect. A must visit place for people traveling to Cusco. Our jaws literally dropped when he told us that figure, and our hearts sank a little too. The main reason? Tours leaving at 2.00 - 2.30 a.m. are less common but will provide you with the best opportunity to skip the enormous crowds later in the day. Our guides and staff are paid on a per trip basis based on the number of days they spend on the trail. We booked our tour at our hostel (called Atawkama - we highly recommend it for backpackers) at 5 p.m. the night before we went to Rainbow, and it included all transport in a good minibus and a huge breakfast and lunch which massively exceeded our expectations. The length of this day hike is not very long. The trail is easy to follow and most guides will simply leave their tour members to walk alone at their own pace. Depending on the season you plan to visit the colored mountains. If you do plan on doing a number of hikes in Peru, including the Inca Trail, then we highly recommend reading 12 Essential Tips for Hiking in Peru. A must visit place for people traveling to Cusco.

The relative newness of this enterprise and 2. Trekking in the Andes and in high altitude can be dangerous and because of this our staff always carries a proper first aid kit along with emergency oxygen for our guests to use if they are feeling ill. All accommodation on multi-day treks is tent camping. The micro-economy which has cropped up for the local Pampachiri indigenous community is actually wholly shaped around - and depends - upon this trend for exhausted walkers, as every day dozens in their fanciest vibrant traditional clothing will be waiting at Rainbow Mountain with horses to take people along and up (part) of the trail for a fee. 1 hour 45 mins, and zipped back down to the bus in 45 minutes; another 30 minutes or so for the ascent and descent is probably more realistic if you’re going at a slow pace. If you don’t now feel like Rainbow Mountain is something you want to visit whilst based in Cusco, then consider some of the other best day trips from Cusco. *Horseback is available to hire the morning of the trek from local horsemen.