Snowfall on Rainbow Mountain

Michael has been our lead investigator for the Rainbow Mountain trek, and was really looking forward to it. The trip involved a 2:50 am hotel pickup, 2-hour van ride to breakfast. Another 1.5 hour ride to the start of the trek. About 2 hours trekking to get to see the mountain at 17,000 feet of elevation. A beautiful “rainbow” mountain made of different minerals, then you make your way back arriving at your hotel at 3 pm. Phew!

So no surprise that Michael bounded out of bed after 4 hours of sleep and was ready to go!

But we’d had heavy rain in Cusco the night before (that we trudged through heading to the hotel from the train station) so when the sun came up on our journey to rainbow mountain we were suddenly aware that there was only going to be white mountains to see—no rainbows.

An unexpected snowstorm made the roads slippery in rear wheel drive vans, so we were encouraged to get out and “enjoy hiking a while”’up the road (Melissa suspects they needed to lighten the vans to get them up the hill!).

After a lot of trying to figure out what to do with disappointed tourists our guides finally asked whether we wanted to hike around some more in the snow/mud or head back to Cusco. It was James’ birthday we let him decide for our group and we headed back to Cusco for naps and a late birthday dinner.Read more