Day 10 – Rainbow Moutain

When starting this trip especially for Peru I had 3 big fears

1. Altitude – if I’d feel sick

2. Sharing a room – I paid for a private room on all my tours but there are certain parts of the trip where that is not an option, including Cusco.

3. Rainbow Moutain– if I would even be able to do it depending on how I feel from altitude and being able to breathe!

Thankfully for me they have all been fine! I have been fine in the altitude with only a couple of headaches if that. The group I am with are great and the girls I have had to share with have been supportive and caring and I have managed to sleep and lastly I did manage to do Rainbow Moutain.

Where we walked around Cusco the day before we walked up alot of stairs, my breathing is not the greatest back at home in terms of using my lung capacity. So here it is even worse. Our guide had mentioned they have horses are rainbow mountain. Of course my first thought is I am too heavy and do not want to hurt the horse, but I was assured that there would be a horse that could carry me fine. Our 3.30am bus arrived to start out your tour (early!)

When we got to Rainbow Moutain there was a steep start, then a long slight incline, followed by a steep summit.

I struggled on the first bit so with the guides help we did find horse to take me though the middle section. I probably could have walked it but being part of a group it would have taken me twice as long as them so this did feel the better option. Also the horse was fine, the man with the horse was more tired!

I then had a time advantage on the rest of the group and used it to walk 10 steps and rest. Rainbow Moutain is 5,200ft so the highest altitude we will do in Peru. I finally made it to the top, there was an even higher part but i decided I had done enough lol

The rest of the group arrived shortly afterwards and we queued for the iconic photos. Lucy was having issues with her wrist and hands due to a circulation issue, so Ameera, Lucy and myself started walking back at a nice pace. Clearly down is alot easier than up!

We had breakfast and lunch as part of the tour (nothing fancy) but in the evening had pizza at the hostel and it was yummy. Was an early night after the early start.

The rest of the group had an extra stress that I did not, as everyone else is doing the inka trail they had to pack their packs, which could only be 2.5kg for the porters, they then add in the sleeping bags and air mattresses after this. That is not alot I can tell you after watching 5 girls go back and forth to the scales! Anything else they take is in their day pack and will be on their backs the whole hike!