Rainbow Mountain, also known as Vinicunca Mountain is one of the earth’s most amazing natural wonders. Until recently it was concealed under ice and snow until global warming unfortunately caused the glaciers to melt, unveiling this natural marvel. Its possible to hike the mountain, one of the most popular excursions from Cusco but bear in mind the unfortunate reason why we are able to do so now. When you’re in Cusco you will see tour operators lining every street and almost all of them will have the photo of the imfamous Rainbow Mountain outside advertising tours to it. Most of the tours cost between 60-100 PEN (€ 16-27) . The cheapest I saw advertised was 55 PEN (€ 15) and that includes transport, breakfast and lunch and entrance to Rainbow Mountain. All of the tours seem to leave at a ridiculous hour in the morning, actually the middle of the night. Some leaving as early at 2 am, others giving you a lie on until 4 am. Rainbow Mountain has exploded in popularity in recent years and we’d heard about the hoards of people hoping off the buses to tackle the mountain and jostle for space…
Huayna Potosi is a popular climb from La Paz and supposedly an “easy” 6000m climb. At 6088 m, it is higher than bucket list regulars Everest Base Camp and Mt Kilimanjaro, higher than any peak on the European continent and almost 6 times higher than the highest peak in Ireland; Carrauntoohil (1038 m). At the summit, the standard barometric pressure is 46kPa. In English this means that there is 46% of the oxygen that is available at sea level. This was a challenge I wanted to undertake and see what limits I could push my body to. Quick facts: Summit: 6088 m Base camp: 4400 m High camp: 5130 m Ascent time: 5-6 hours Decent time: 2 hours Time required: 2 days, leave La Paz 9 am and return 2pm following day. Cost: 650 Bolivians (€83) Included: gear, sleeping bag, guide, transport, lunch, snack, dinner, breakfast and soup after climb. Not included: breakfast day 1 and 20 Bolivians entrance fee. Difficulty level: hard Technically: easy, no mountaineer or climbing experience required. I had my eye on HP, literally, since getting to Bolivia. It can be seen high in the distance from Isla Del Sol and towering over…
Cerro Tunari is the highest peak in central Bolivia standing at 5035m. It’s situated in the Bolivian Andes in the Cochabamba department. The hike starts at 4500 m, passing through glacier lakes and giving majestic views of the Cordillera Tunari mountain range. It’s possible to hike on your own but tricky to get to and in the middle of nowhere so for safety sake, I would make sure you go with someone. When I was visiting Cochabamba, I googled ‘things to do in Cochabamba’ as you do and Tunari National Park and Cerro Tunari came up. If I’m in an area with a mountain within driving distance, I’m gona climb it. I think it’s the best way to see the area, you get a full view of the surrounding place from 5000 plus meters high. However my Google search wasn’t coming up with too much apart from some vague TripAdvisor reviews saying it could be done yourself by getting buses, but it wasn’t advisable. Other things coming up on my search were tour companies charging $100 for the day with a group. I wasn…