I Climbed That Mountain

Hey friends! It’s been a while, well over year, but here I am to give you an update.

Remember when I was gifted that amazing, once in a lifetime, dream vacation to climb Rainbow Mountain? Well I finally did it and I want to share my trip with you.

Prior to Departure:

We took our silly COVID tests. I had felt fine, no cold or flu like symptoms. Tyler felt pretty icky 5-7 days prior to our test.

Day One:

We left knowing that we would test negative and our results were just delayed on being resulted out. Low and behold, we made it to our layover and our results came in…. POSITIVE.

Unsure of what to do, we spent the night in Miami (our second stop) because in order to get into Lima we needed a negative COVID test.

Day Two:

Betsy, our travel agent, told us we should retest… even though we were a little hesitant we did, and guess what, NEGATIVE! (Like I said, silly COVID test– positive one day, negative the very next)

With our negative COVID tests, Betsy got us our flights rescheduled and we were to depart from Miami at 7p.m. for Mexico City and then from Mexico City to Lima and Lima to Cusco.

While we waited for our flights we went to a fun hotel in Miami and had a few cocktails and celebrated how crazy life can be and how things manage to work out as long as we let go and Let GOD. (Sound familiar?)

Day Three:

We finished up our travel and landed in Cusco around 10a.m., where we met our amazing travel guide, Marco and driver, Freddie.

We drove through the Sacred Valley and learned so much of the agriculture on our way to our beautiful lunch location. Even though we missed our original flights, we managed to make it to both our excursions originally scheduled for the day- lunch on the mountain side and horseback riding. We truly enjoyed ourselves- lack of sleep, severe allergies and all.

Our hotel was in Ollatantambo- an old Incan village and it was beautiful!

Day Four:

Tyler’s favorite day- Machu Picchu

What a spectacular day. We rode the train to the small village where we caught a bus and rode up the mountain side (they have no guard rails and extremely narrow, gravel roads)

After touring and learning so much about the Incas and their city we made it back to Ollatantambo and caught a ride to Cusco. Seeing the sunset over the Sacred Valley was truly spectacular.

Day Five:

Cusco City Central, Markets and Cathedral

We got to see original Incan built parts of the city, like 12 angle alley. That’s right, each piece of their walls were made to fit like a puzzle. One block in particular had 12 sides! We got to witness herbal medicine- you tell the medicine lady what your ailment is and she makes a mixture of herbs, spices and plants for you to consume. (My kind of medicine!) We had fresh made smoothies, tried new fruit (the granadilla was truly my favorite!) toured the cathedral and witnessed a parade to celebrate Peruvian heritage.

Day Six:

RAINBOW MOUNTAIN- My FAVORITE!

Start: 13,799 feet

End: 17,060 feet

The 2 hour hike wasn’t so bad, we managed to reach the top with a few stops along the way to suck on our Coca candy and hydrate. The stunning views kept us going- glaciers, snow covered mountain tops, the Red Valley Mountains and blue skies.

Day Seven:

Mount Humantay and Humantay Lake

Start: 12,795 feet

End: 13,780 feet

This hike was brutal. No paved path, and rocky as all get out, which made it easy for us to find a triangle shaped rock to use when we got to the lake. On the bright side, we got there early so we had the whole mountain side to ourselves!

More on the rock we had to carry with us to our destination. When we arrived at the lake, Marco told us to take our our rock, close our eyes, listen to the trickling glacier and put all of our past transgressions, our mistakes, our wrong-doings and anything that brings us detriment in the rock. Once we had done that we asked Mother Earth (Pacha Mama), the God of the Mountain (Apu) and the Sun God (Sol) to grant us a new beginning as we journey the rest of our life on Earth. We then stacked our rocks and grabbed a new rock to bring with us to symbolize our new beginning. It was phenomenal and Marco really made the experience memorable.

What a trip. What an experience. What a place. Peru will always have a piece of my heart. If you don’t have it on your list of places to visit, I highly suggest you do.

You guys, I started this in July of 2022 as soon as we got back. It is now May, 2023! Ooops