full day
Daily Tour
12 people
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Famously known as the Rainbow Mountain, this place has become extremely popular and touristy in the past few years. And why not, the place is stunning and one of the most unique landscapes we have ever seen! Especially, if you are lucky with the weather conditions you will be able to witness those incredible rainbow colors making for a super stunning view. To make our trek worthwhile, we decided not to stop just at Rainbow Mountain but also explore the nearby super stunning Red Valley as well.
In many ways, exploring the Red Valley Vinicunca feels like exploring Mars. It seems like a barren wasteland filled with red and orange coloring in every direction. There’s a very contrasting landscape that’s stunning and unique, and you will find the Red Valley to impress you with every step you take. On top of that, the Red Valley trek itself is filled with tons of cool things to see.
Rainbow Mountain and Red Valley Private Tour It is one of the best options to visit this beautiful place.
We start the Rainbow Mountain and Red Valley tour with the pick you up in your Hotel around 3:30 to 4:00 a.m. then we’ll travel 02 hours on a bus to Cusipata where you’ll have a delicious breakfast, then we continue one more hour to Phullawasipata (4626 mts. /15177 fts.) this is the trail head where we will start the hiking, first, we walk 1 and a 1/2 to two hours uphill where you will find a beautiful landscape, big mountain and local people with their typical clothes making their daily life, you will find groups of Alpacas, Llamas and sometimes wild Vicuñas, also small lagoon created by the thaws of the glaciers, once you arrive at the summit (Vinicunca 5036 mts. / 16522 Fts.) you will have a free time to rest and to take your pictures, then, we start to go back by a different way, the “Red Valley”, we call it like that for the red color of the mountain soil, they look pretty nice, and you will find only a few people, this is a totally different experience, this will be other 2 hours hiking downhill to arrive again in Phulawasipata where our transportation will be waiting for us to take us to have a comforting lunch, then we will bring you back to Cusco again around 4:30 or 5:00 p.m. (we drop you off one block from the main square for the traffic).
Rainbow Mountain or Vinicunca is located in Peru, in the Cusco region, province of Canchis in the village of Pitumarca.
This mountain is a natural formation that shows the whim of nature through kilometers of land that are changing their coloring by the richness in minerals and it is from the viewpoint of Vinicunca, from where you will have a spectacular view of the entire Cordillera of the Andes with its whimsical colors that resemble the Rainbow.
The point of maximum height is 5200 meters above sea level; however the tour part of the city of Cusco, passing through towns like Checacupe and Pitumarka until you get to the start point of the walk called Pampachiri to 3800 meters above sea level, from where we will ascend to the observation deck at a height of 5200 meters above sea level.
The Mountain Rainbow is located 138 km from the city of Cusco and takes about 4 hours to get to this place between the trip by car and on foot without counting the stops to feed and rest.
The degree of difficulty of this route is intermediate – easy, so it is recommended for people with an optimal physical state, as the advancement could be a little tiring for people who are not accustomed to these walks in height. However you can rent a horse in the same locality of Pampachiri with the Communards who offer this service just for people who cannot walk or not willing to walk for three hours.
You must bear in mind that the horse is guided by a horseman and will leave about 15 minutes from the viewpoint of Vinicunca so if you or if you will have to walk this stretch.
The tour departs every day of the year, being the dry season the most recommended between the months of April to November however the rest of months even with the presence of rain and hail (sometimes) offers us a view that can only be seen with this climate that you can cope with a rain poncho and good trekking shoes.