Río Chillcamayo

We booked an over night, supported trek to the Rainbow Mountains with Rony. The rainbow mountains are a small range where certain minerals eroded in such a way that the mountains look like they are painted with all the colors of the rainbow. We had heard about this place and were very excited to see it.

Around 7 am we were picked up by Rony and crew in a small, old Toyota wagon. There were six of us total and 5 seats. It was tight. We were in for a cramped 3 hour drive.

The old Toyota rattled like a can full of bolts. The steering wheel was eerily vague, moving too many degrees either way before any actual steering input was registered. The suspension was over loaded as we bottomed out many times over even small bumps. The driver had a need for speed. He would go full throttle into corners marked "curva perligrosa" and then as though he had watched too many "Too fast, too furious" movies he would rest his hand on the E-brake lever. Luckily for us he never pulled it and luckily he always slammed on the brakes going into the corners before it was too late. As if that weren't enough to make one's stomach knot up there were plenty of unmarked speed bumps which he often saw in time, often. The road turned to dirt and 200-500 foot drop offs into a river were around just about every corner.

The pavement ended and a pothole filled dirt road ensued. The road now lead us into the mountains. The little car climbed up and up as we passed small communities that seemed to be lost in time; no electricity, no plumbing, only the land, their farms and their alpacas.

We got to start of the hike and it was beautiful. Maybe the feeling of being alive and out of that death trap of a car made everything seem a little brighter but it the mountains and the scenery were amazing.

The wind was blowing cold and a storm was rolling in. It started to rain as we geared up and set out. We hiked through an awesome valley for about 2 hours and then began to head up, over a small pass in the mountains where we would set up camp. We were soaked at this point but having a blast. As we climbed higher the vegetation grew more sparse until it all but disappeared at 16,500 ft. The air felt thin and the rain turned to snow. We caught glimpses of massive, glacier covered peaks as the clouds blew through.

Around 6 pm we arrived at a small lake tucked away in the mountains; our campsite. The snow kept falling and accented the cloud covered mountains. We dried off, warmed up, and had dinner before crashing out. Tomorrow would be an early day if we wanted to get to the rainbow mountains before the hordes of other tourists arrived.

6 am, our alarm was going off. We got up and had breakfast. We were still in the clouds and more snow had accumulated over night. The hike today was to be a 2 hour journey through the highlands to the rainbow mountains.

Along the way we saw plenty of lamas and alpacas. The people who live in these areas use alpaca for their wool and meat and trade it for fruit, veggies, or money. The lamas are primarily used as pack animals.

Two hours later we arrived at the rainbow mountains. We were really excited to bask in the wild mineral colors for a while but the clouds were still thick and snow was blowing in again. Our view of the vibrant colors obstructed we decided to make the best of it. Rony's son, Fabian, was with us and it was his first time being in the snow so we made a snowman and I taught him about not eating yellow snow.

We decided to wait for a bit to see if the clouds would break. They did ever so slightly and we caught a little glimpse of the mountain and it's colors. As anti climactic as it was the trek to get there more than made up for the lacklustre weather.

The rainbow mountains were great and would be worth another visit in better weather.Read more