This was another early morning as we had a three-hour drive from Cusco. At 5 am, we were on the bus again after a bit of confusion getting in touch with our guide… slightly stressful. We slept a bit more on the bus and made it to breakfast about 45 minutes from Rainbow Mountain. It was all you can eat – it wasn’t anything spectacular but a great deal when you factor in the tour price.

We arrived at Rainbow Mountain around 9 am and we were at ~5,000 metres above sea level! Machu Picchu is only 2,600 m above sea level and the highest point on our hike was 4,200 metres. From the drop off point at Rainbow Mountain it was a hike of 1.5 hours to the top and with my busted knee, I opted for a horse instead!

They take you up 80% of the way and from there, the hike was manageable. It really was worth it. They say the pictures are edited and amplified to make it seem more colourful but even in real life, you a saw a spectrum of colours on the mountain. You are also facing the red valley and the soil/sand was truly red! At that height though, it gets quite cold. You are at 5,100 metres above sea level so you can’t stay too long. In fact, it was snowing briefly.

We arrived back in Cusco by ~5 pm as we left Rainbow Mountain around 1 pm and stopped for lunch at the same place we had breakfast. We met up with the couple from our hike to Machu Picchu for dinner and a drink as we would be flying out that night. We went to a crepe restaurant that they recommended… really good food!

We ordered a drink while we waited for them and another with dinner, and it really hit us. At 3,400 metres, alcohol affects you much faster than normal. Given that prices are already half of what we pay in Canada, you can have a really good time for cheap. We went through a market on the way back to our AirBnB as we had a late-night flight to Lima. We picked up some scarves and tuques to take back to Canada for our families.

We got to Lima around midnight as our flight was delayed from Cusco. It was very confusing as the airport had no Wi-Fi and nobody seemed to know when the flight was going to take off… the list of departures screen did not list it for quite some time. Eventually, I met an American couple on the same flight who were smart enough to get a data plan that helped us find our gate and board on time.