One of the 'newer' attractions in the Cusco area are the Rainbow Mountains. These mountains have bands of different minerals in them that until recently were covered by glaciers and now can be seen. The mountains, with their colors, was only discovered around five years ago. All the tourist agencies throughout Cusco have incredible pictures of the Rainbow Mountains, but on closer inspection they have all been enhanced and edited. And a few weeks before this article came out in the NY Times (Will Tourism Ruin the Rainbow Mountain of Peru?). So we went into our trip to the Rainbow Mountains with a lot of negativity, saying photos are heavily photoshopped, the hike up is super crowded and badly maintained, the weather can change from sunny to hail/snow instantly, etc.
Luckily, we found out that there are two Rainbow Mountain ranges in Peru, with others in China and other parts of the world. In Peru, most go to the Vinicunca Range, which is what all the negative reviews focuses on. While the other, and slightly smaller, Palccoyo Range is less visited but equally breathtaking. Our guide said Vinicunca receives between 500-750 people per day, while the Palccoyo range receives about 50 people per day. Also Palccoyo is at a lower altitude, nearly 500 meters, which meant a bit warmer temperature and slightly more oxygen for us to breath (yay!). For these reasons, we decided to go to Palccoyo and boy were we glad! The mountains are super impressive and the color bands are really nifty and beautiful and it was nice to be there with only ~15 people! (And, an added bonus was the wake-up call was much later for this tour ;) ). Enjoy some of the stunning photos (not-enhanced):
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