Palccoyo Rainbow Mountains
Why settle for one rainbow when you can have many?
Each viewpoint at Palccoyo gives you a different set of colorful mountain landscapes.
Palccoyo went above and beyond my expectations!
For all the hype about the Vinicunca Rainbow Mountain (which I don’t recommend for many reasons) I don’t see why there isn’t more hype about the Palccoyo Rainbow Mountains. That’s not a typo. There are multiple Rainbow Mountains at Palccoyo. Vinicunca has only one, but I’m burying the lede a bit. Read to the end to see all the different rainbow mountains at Palccoyo.
Here’s what I loved most about Palccoyo:
It inevitable in the Cusco region: there will be cute alpacas everywhere you go. The one with long fur is a suri alpaca, which has fur that naturally grows in long strands like Hungarian sheepdogs. One of the rainbows is behind us.
1. Palccoyo has several Rainbow Mountains.
Yes, mountains plural. Along the hike, you pass several viewpoints where you can see hillsides with multicolored sedimentary layers. That’s what all “rainbow” mountains in Peru are: sedimentary layers with different minerals that cause color variations. They’re always at high altitude, above tree line, or on the desert western coast, because low altitude on the east side of the Peruvian Andes is the Amazon Rainforest.
This was the highest point of the hike, up by the standing stones, called “bosque de piedras” in Spanish.
2. The altitude at Palccoyo is high without being dangerous.
The highest point on the trail where you can see the rainbows is 4,880meters/16,010 feet above sea level. For comparison, the only point at Vinicunca where you can see a rainbow is at 5,200m/17,060ft. While 320m/1,050ft might not seem like much, at that altitude the risks of serious altitude sickness symptoms increase exponentially as you ascend. You have a much higher risk at Vinicunca than Palccoyo.
There is an additional, optional hike up through the standing stones that goes up to 4,953m/16,250ft, though the sign says 5,000m.
This was my group - my friend Cass and a friendly couple from Belgium.
3. Palccoyo is not crowded
I didn’t see any big buses or big groups. My group had four people, but most groups were similar. I didn’t see any groups larger than ten people. We arrived at exactly 8am and left just after noon. In those four hours, I only saw a handful of groups, and most were 2-5 people with one guide.
Asking my guide about how many people come to Palccoyo at different times of year, I calculated that it gets about 10% of the visitors that currently go to Vinicunca. On really busy weekends, when Vinicunca gets about 2,000 visitors, Palccoyo could get 200. When bad weather drives the Vinicunca crowds down to 500 people, Palccoyo might get 50.
There weren’t many people hiking alone, but with such nice trails, it’s impossible to get lost.
4. Palccoyo’s trails are well made and well maintained.
I really liked the trails because they were wide, even and clearly purpose built. While that may sound too basic to be so excited about, many touristy trails around the Cusco region are not purpose built. Trails at Vinicunca, Lares and other areas are simply places where people walk, not trails designed for hundreds or thousands of people every day.
The few plants that grow at high altitude cannot withstand thousands of feet tromping on them, especially not every day. These are delicate ecosystems and it’s important for visitors to stay on designated trails – which is why it’s so important to have designated trails.
Of course, historic trails, especially ones built when the Inca controlled South America, are a different story. Peru was the center of a massive trail system developed over thousands of years throughout South America. Caral, built 5,000 years ago, has lots of evidence of long-distance trading routes that could only have been by foot. After the Spanish invasion in the 1530s, that kind of trail building stopped.
The per person entrance cost is 20 soles and it’s an extra 50 soles if you want to fly a drone.
5. It’s possible to fly a drone but you probably won’t hear one.
I have a drone and get the appeal of flying one, especially in such photogenic places. I don’t like hearing drones, so I appreciate that they are restricted at Palccoyo and there’s an extra fee to fly one.
I’d rather have some limited use than for them to be prohibited all together, like at most archeological sites in Peru. Try to fly a drone somewhere like Machu Picchu and it will be confiscated with no financial compensation. Peruvians who work at archeological sites risk jail time and losing their job for not confiscating a drone. Do not fly a drone in Peru at any place where they are prohibited. You will not get it back.
The parking lot has a new building with bathrooms and what will someday be a restaurant.
Here’s what I didn’t love about Palccoyo:
1. It’s a 4-hour drive from Cusco.
There are lots of hikes that tour agencies run as day trips from Cusco that require a 4-hour drive – each way. There are so many great hikes within a 1 to 2-hour drive from Cusco that I honestly don’t understand the popularity of the ones that require you to sit in a car on a winding mountain road for 8 hours in the same day.
There is no decent public transportation in the area. You have to get a vehicle that can handle rough dirt roads, or sign up for a tour. This is the same for all hikes in the area.
2. Palccoyo suffers from false advertising.
Every ad I’ve seen for Vinicunca, Palcoyo and every other “rainbow” mountains has heavily edited and saturated photos. The photos above are what you’ll see on websites and brochures: saturated colors. The photos below are the exact same shots – but unedited.
I think the real thing is beautiful enough. If you want to go to Palccoyo or Vinicunca or anywhere in Peru, go to enjoy the experience. Don’t go just to get photos you can put on social media. This is a beautiful country that deserves to be enjoyed, not edited.
The edited photos are objectively more beautiful and more appropriate for advertising. But I’m not here to sell you a tour. I’m just sharing my experience so people have reasonable expectations during their trip to Peru.
Unedited Vinicunca
As long as we’re talking about false advertising, this is my unedited photo of Vinicunca but it’s not what you’ll see in ads. Those photos are highly edited and saturated.
Questions?
Drop them in the comments below or schedule a travel call with me.
