PALCCOYO RAINBOW MOUNTAIN

We will meet at the hotel lobby at 05:00 hours and will travel for about 4 hours, passing through traditional villages and having amazing views of the Andes with its diverse flora and fauna.

Breakfast will be served on the way, and you will continue enjoying the landscape that will surprise you with an impressive stone forest, with truly enormous rocks with striking shapes. Once we reach the trailhead, we will begin the hike from Palcoyo at 4790 m / 15 710 ft.

Along the way, you will enjoy the natural beauty of the Andes, with its glacial peaks, red mountains and rocky hills. As you head to the summit of the mountain, you may spot some Andean wildlife like llamas and alpacas grazing along the valley.

Rainbow Mountain

After a 45-minute walk and once at the top of Palcoyo Rainbow Mountain, you will have enough time to absorb its majesty.  Like Vinicunca, Palccoyo Rainbow Mountain has such striking colors due to the minerals found here, such as red clay, sandstone or copper oxide. It is believed that millions of years ago, this area was completely covered with water, which brought all these sediments that gave Palccoyo its characteristic colors.

You will also see the snow-capped peaks of Ausangate right in front of you, which is part of the Vilcanota mountain range and is the highest mountain in the Cusco region (just below 6402 m / 21 000 ft).

After taking the best pictures, we will begin our descent. We will have lunch on our way back to Cusco, and will finally return to the hotel in the late afternoon.

Meals included: B L