Bright and early at 4:15am Nick and I were picked up for our Rainbow Mountain and Red Valley hiking tour. The rest of our group canceled the day before so we ended up getting a private tour. We laughed about that because we feel like it happens to us all the time for busy activities. We’ll take it! The first stop was breakfast at a restaurant where it seemed like every tour doing the hike stops for meals. It was crowded in there and every tour group had 6-12 people in it by the looks of it. After breakfast it was another 1.5 hour drive to the trailhead, passing small towns and gorgeous valley views.

I was a bit nervous for the hike as we would reach the highest elevation I had ever been to, 5040m. The hike itself ended up being super gradual and easy, which was fantastic. We got to the first stop of Rainbow Mountain in under the time our guide had estimated, 1.5 hours. It was nice knowing we could hike that high up with only a few breaks to catch our breath. We also passed many people going slower. At the top we took some photos of the mountain. Due to the clouds and snow fall, the colors were less vibrant than usual. We also could not see much of the sides. Eventually the snow fall became so dense that the mountain disappeared entirely from sight. There were llamas with sunglasses to pose with, which we opted out of, but they were super funny.

Next we descended a little bit and headed a different direction to do the Red Valley. On the way we saw many adolescent falcons. Once through the Red Valley gate I was excited to see they had ‘toilets’. It was a toilet surrounded by three stone walls, but not connected to any water. The view was of the beautiful valley below. There were still many people in that area, but as we continued along the path it got less busy until eventually it was just us and our guide. Most people do not have time to go much past the gate, but we were moving quickly so we got to do a loop the guide doesn’t get to take people on very often.

The hike continued on red mud/sand which was so soft to walk on. It was like walking on a cloud. The area had sharp red cliffs, neon green moss patches, alpacas, and various purple and blue colored rocks. Whenever the clouds cleared a little we could see how stunning the valley below was. The entire hike was snow and rain so we were a bit chilly. We made it back to the van early at 10:50am and headed back to the restaurant for lunch. It was so yummy and we enjoyed the pre-recorded flute covers. Our tour was scheduled to arrive back in Cusco at 4:30pm, but since we beat the traffic we made it back nice and early at 2:30pm. It was so nice having the afternoon to rest after our first trial hike at high altitude.

The next day was a recovery day after our first hiking experience at high altitude. We spent the day going to the museums in Cusco that were included in our tourism pass. To start, we walked down to the main square in the afternoon and got tamales from Josefina’s cart, they were super delicious. After our tamales our first museum was Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (Museum of Contemporary Art). The museum was very small, just a room with pottery and sculptures. The building itself was more interesting, with an open courtyard and water feature.

Museo Histórico Regional (Museum of Regional History), a short walk away, was next on our list. It had pottery, art, and other artifacts. The museum also laid out different time periods of the region including both pre-Inca, Inca, and post Spanish invasion. There was a lot of information, some only available in Spanish, but we still learned a lot. The building had an upstairs section with more recent art, and an open courtyard similar to the last museum. It was interesting to see how the Spanish influenced the painting.

Our third stop of the day was Museo de Arte Popular (Museum of Popular Art). That was another small museum. It had three rooms. One room was filled with tiny figurines, masks, sculptures, modern art and puppets. The next was filled with photos of Cusco throughout history. Room number three was a screening room with a short documentary in Spanish which we skipped due to not understanding.

Museo de Sitio Qorikancha, (Museum of the Qorikancha Site) was our last museum of the day. There we saw more pottery, some mummies, textiles, skulls, and architecture explanations. There was a section showcasing the skull deformation tactics, which was done previously to have heads of a more desirable shape. There were also examples of both pre-Inca and Inca architecture styles. Outside, the grass area had nice views of an older building and some ruins.

Monumento Inca Pachacutec was the final item on our tourism pass for the day. The pass also includes a Native Performing Arts center, but it was only running shows late in the evening and we had to get up early for our hike the next day so we skipped that one. The monument was a 20 minute walk farther away from the center than the rest of the museums. On our way we saw a nice park with a fountain. The monument itself was a tall tower with a large statue on top. Inside we walked the spiral staircase and explored each level. Each floor had different displays and information to read about important Inca rulers and what happened when they met the Spanish. The view from the top showed the surrounding mountains and streets nearby.

On our way back to town we stopped at a small restaurant. It was such a difference eating at a restaurant far away from the touristy areas, everything was so much cheaper. We shared a sandwich, Nick got a juice, and I got a mango frappe. Later that day Nick got to practice his Spanish while getting his haircut. Compared to other places in the world, the haircut was uneventful. The hairdresser would apologize and laugh when she asked one too many follow up questions and Nick would not understand anymore. He did pretty well, though. We tried looking for alpaca sweaters, unsuccessfully, then headed to dinner. We ate at Qura, where Nick got huevos rancheros, and I got the trout poke bowl. Both were very delicious. Nick did laugh at how fancy his huevos rancheros was, as it was one of his grandfathers favorite breakfasts and it is not traditionally served deconstructed. Before heading to our hiking trip debrief we stopped by our favorite bakery again for their lemon pie and sweat empanadas.