With another 8 hour bus journey out of the way we arrived in Cusco in the evening with just enough time to be forced into a vegan restaurant by the veggies of the group. It was surprisingly good and turned out to be the rule rather than the exception in Cusco. It was probably the only place in Peru where the food was good and there were options other than avocado and rice with some form of meat.
With a free day the day after the group split in 2. The sensible (or ill) half had a nice lay in, wandered around some markets and came out with ludicrous amounts of souvenirs.
On the other hand 5 of us made the decision to set 3am alarms and take a £20 tour to rainbow mountain after just 24 hours at elevation to prepare us for the 5000m summit – probably not the best idea.
Rainbow mountain is a 4 hour drive from Cusco – dependent on the route you hike up – but our tour included a breakfast stop on the way there and a lunch stop on the way back to break up the journeys. This seemed like great value when we booked the tour but after eating breakfast it was evident why it was so cheap. My breakfast consisted of a couple pieces of fruit and some cocaine leaf tea to fight the altitude.
We then continued on to rainbow mountain with one of the most scenic drives of the trip through some incredible valleys and rural villages. Coincidentally this was also where the quality of road started to decline very quickly. Almost any drive we took from this point onward was on dirt roads so uneven you were thrown into the air by some bumps and rocked side to side continuously.
After getting to Rainbow mountain the hike is pretty simple and if you’re with a tour they will explain where you need to be and when. There are 3 different car parks where you may have been dropped so as long as you remember the name of the one you are in its easy to find your may back. We took about 40 minutes to get to the top with various photo stops, changes in clothes etc. The first half of the hike we found quite warm but as soon as you reach the top it becomes freezing with how high and exposed it is.
From here there is the option to pay a little more and do the red valley hike but we chose not to do this and spend a little more time taking photos and enjoying the views and llamas.
The lunch on the way back was no better than the breakfast and so I didn’t eat much – the veggies however braved a cold lentil soup (which several of us said looked dodgy at the time) which ended up taking all 3 of them down with food poisoning for the next few days.
The next morning we all left to go on our 3 day trip to Machu Picchu and when we returned to Cusco to end the trip many of the group had early flights home and so the last couple of the days there were only a few of us left. After an intense couple of weeks we chose to just recharge around the hostel only really venturing out for food and souvenirs. There are far more activities to do from Cusco if you have a longer time frame and more energy to burn.
There are single day tours to ruins such as Sacsayhuaman and Tambomachay or hikes like humantay lake or walking tours of Cusco. There are also several multi day tours around the Manu national park, sacred valley and of course Machu Picchu.
