Rainbow Mountain Trek

Rainbow Mountain Information

One of Natural tourist attractions in Cusco nowadays is the best option for visited is Rainbow Mountain Trek or Vinicunca Rainbow Mountain, this mountain is a wonderful geological formation, product of water and wind erosion that occurred in this Mountain for thousands of years.

Vinicunca Mountain Trek is located between the districts of Cusipata and Pitumarca that belong to the provinces of Quispicanchis and Canchis respectively in the department of Cusco, at 5,035 meters / 16,519 feet, taking as reference the highest point in the viewpoint of Rainbow Mountain.

The origin of Mountain colors goes back millions of years ago due tectonic movement of plates (Subduction of Nazca plate under Pacific plate) that gave rise to Peruvian Andes.

Through Cusco Department cross several mountain one of them is the Ausangate chain. Ausangate Mountain is the highest mountain of Cusco (6 384 meters / 20 944 feet), it is in this mountain chain that Vinicunca Rainbow Mountain is located.

Ausangate Mountain area is characterized by having many lagoons that originate in the snowy mountains, they take different names such as Yanacocha Lake (Black Lagoon), or Puca Cocha (red Lagoon), each of these lagoons has a special color, for example in the Salkantay mountain range We have the Humantay Lake tour, this lagoon has a very beautiful turquoise color.

Vinicunca mountain Colors are due large amount of minerals that accumulate in this place, the variations of colors are the product of the mixture due to water and wind erosion, colors such as Red, Yellow, Green, Cream, Cherry and its variants can be distinguished.

The high altitude makes that the trek will be difficult for tourists, so we recommend acclimatizing in Cusco for a few days, if you do a light hike like Moray to Maras Hike or others to acclimatize, it would be much better.

This natural tourist attraction is a great option if you have time in your visit to Cusco, this is a unique experience around Peruvian Andes.

Rainbow Mountain Overview

Tour Start: We will pick you up from your hotel in Cusco at 4:50 AM.
Duration of Rainbow Mountain Trek: Full Day Hike.
Hiking distance from Llactoq To Vinicunca: Approximately 3 kilometers.
Maximum Height (Rainbow Mountain): 5 135 m.s.n.m. / 16 847 feet
Minimum Height (Cusipata): 3 310 m.s.n.m. / 10 859 feet
Location: South of Cusco city.
Distance from Cusco to Rainbow Mountain: The distance is approximately 115 kilometers.
Visiting Season: All year, preferably from March to November.
Tour Difficulty Level: Easy to Medium
End of Tour: We will return to Cusco between 4:00 PM and 4:30 PM.

Rainbow Mountain Itinerary

We will pick up you from your hotel in Cusco between 4:00 am to 4:30 am, then we will take Cusco - Puno road until we reach Cusipata (3 339 masl / 10 954 feet) where we will have our breakfast and a brief explanation of Rainbow Mountain Trek.

We will continue the trip on our tourist transport, the route is affirmed for 1 hour and 20 minutes until we reach Phulawasipata (4 626 masl / 15 177 feet) which is the parking place of all the buses that provide the service to Vinicunca Mountain.

From Phulawasipata we start hike to Vinicunca that is relatively flat in almost entire course of the route, it takes us 2 hours on average to reach the Mountain and 1 hour 30 minutes to return to the starting point, and we will have time for the photos and the visit on your own.

After the visit we will board the tourist transport that will take us back to Cusipata where we will have our lunch, after lunch we will start the return to Cusco, the transport will leave you close to the main square of Cusco.