Where Does The Rainbow End, In Your Soul Or On The Horizon?

When I first came to Peru in January 2020, I had already started hearing about Vinicunca, the rainbow mountain hike 2 days and its sides with seven distinct colors. At that time it could only be reached thanks to a long trek with passages at over 5000 meters above sea level.

 

Without considering that I was in Peru during its rainy season so it would have been a problem even to the top because I could not have distinguished any color since I would have found it in all probability whitewashed.

 

Just that year, a few months later, the mountain began to be visited in one day, with excursions of a few tens of Euros. Instagram then did the rest making it today the second most visited site in the entire nation after, of course, Machu Picchu.

 

The Climb to the Mountain

 

The day is actually exhausting with the alarm clock in the middle of the night to leave and reach the first light of dawn at the base of the mountain at about 4700 meters. The breath is already heavy and we are all excited but also worried about the great climb of over 500 meters and the five kilometers of walking. This time I raise the white flag and, thanks to an ankle sprain remedied a few days earlier in Machu Picchu, I choose the option of climbing on the back of a mule. However, it is not to be taken lightly even in this mode since the steepest points must still be covered on foot as well as the last 200 meters, but it is a good option for those who are not particularly fit or have physical problems.

 

The Arrival at the Top

 

The walk lasts between one and two hours and, of course, those who arrive first, first enjoy an extraordinary view, not only on the mountain: in fact, all around is a wonderful landscape between plateaus, snow-capped peaks, glaciers and .those seven distinct colors born from different oxidations of minerals. The breath is short but the joy is irrepressible once on top. It's crazy how much this life gives me the extraordinary opportunity to live these moments, to find myself in the most beautiful places in the world, to be able to still be amazed as a child and, above all, to still have shiny eyes, not because of the wind, the cold or the altitude. No, because of the emotion of a moment, of that moment in which nature manifests itself in all its ingenious beauty.

 

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