Rainbow Mountain At over 17,000 ft

The minerals & metals in the soil along with clay and sand have created a fascinating rainbow effect on this very high mountain called Vinicunca.

For some, the elevation was not an issue.

After several hours in a shuttle from Cusco (starting at 3:30am) we made it to this small village (after breakfast) where we rode ATVs up to the base camp.

Given the elevation and our lack of acclimatizing we decided to ride on the back of dirt bikes ridden by local riders up to near the top. The "road" was all mud so it was an exciting pair of rides up the mountain.

We climbed the last bit up the snow covered summit facing la montaña de colores.

Amy made some friends

We later saw this other path up the back which was steeper but didn't have much snow. That might have been better than what we did.

The clouds started pouring in

We walked down to base camp as the clouds came in which totally obscured the mountain. If we hadn't taken the motorcycles we would have been too late on that morning to see anything.

Back near base camp

And rode the ATVs back to the village where we caught the shuttle to lunch and then back to Cusco.

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