Rainbow Mountain

We were up at 3:30 for our 4:10 pickup, sleepy and our legs still aching from Machu Picchu the day before. We stumbled out into our van where a perky lady named Jarry welcomed us and gave us blankies. After an hour and a half of driving we fell out at a breakfast spot before continuing another hour and a half on unfinished switchback roads. Fortunately, I still had a scopolamine patch on so I made it without an upchuck stop.

Our destination was a freezing cold parking lot on the side of a mountain. As soon as G & I took our first steps we could feel the increase in altitude. It made walking laborious, like wading through waist high water. The first hour was supposed to be “Peruvian flat” and the last half hour steep as fuck. We were just starting the trail when I saw horses and Jarry asked if anyone would like to ride the flat part on horseback. I had been a bit jealous that some of our buddies were spending the day horseback riding so I decided then and there to combine activities. I rode a Peruvian pony past glacial mountain tops and ended up at the steep stage long before my group. It was a bitch to climb the last ascent but I went slowly and I had opportunity to take photos with few humans in the way. The mountain itself was gorgeous. A brilliant chevron of bands of red from iron, green and turquoise from copper and glowing gold from sulphur. If you climbed up the neighbouring mountain you had a spectacular view not only of Rainbow Mountain but the valley behind with snow capped glaciers. It was very moving, or maybe it was just altitude sickness.

Since I had beaten the rest of the crew I hung out on the steep part taking photos of the mountains, getting my passport stamped, taking photos with alpacas and taking photos of couples or groups against the Rainbow background so they could all be in. It was pretty cold up there, too. The temperature was definitely in the minuses with the windchill but I’m a hardy Canadian lass, well kitted out. When Jarry finally arrived with the rest of my group she was shocked that I was still up there. It’s too cold and the altitude is very high (5,029m). She was surprised that I wasn’t suffering from an altitude headache. Cold aside, I was pretty comfy up there handing out coca candies to people who looked like they wanted to die.

After taking photos of me that included my Rainbow Mountain painted hair, Jarry insisted I go down and start back because she felt I had already risked altitude sickness being up there so long. The people I passed struggling to get up appeared miserable and drunken. Some were leaning over their walking sticks with their heads hanging down and others could not put one foot in front of the other. They were just weaving side to side wishing for it to be over.

Coming down from altitude makes everything feel easier so even though the flat-ish 14km trip back was still at a high altitude it seemed effortless. I stopped to photograph glacial peaks and lots of llamas and alpacas. Such a lovely day.

We were lucky enough to arrive at the hotel in time to see off our newly engaged couple and to see B & G before they got their taxi to the airport. We lose one more person tomorrow from our little group and then we head off to Puno and Lake Titicaca.