It’s a very early start at 4 AM for this tour and the tour minibus picked us up from our hostel at around 4.15 AM. Having returned from Machu Picchu the previous evening, we were exhausted and dozed off for the entire 2-hour drive to the rest stop. The stop was a family home that had been re-purposed to host tours stopping for breakfast and lunch. We had to wait a couple of minutes for our table to be cleaned and prepped from the previous tourists who had just finished. Once seated, we were served a buffet-style breakfast between our group of about 20 people. It’s quite cold in these early hours so make sure you take warm clothing. At this stop, we’re at a similar altitude to Cusco so walking can be a bit tiring. The hike starts at 4850 meters above sea level so you can imagine how tiring walking will be. The stop had coca leaves to make tea which is known to help alleviate the effects of high altitude. I’d advise drinking coca leaf tea and potentially taking some leaves to chew on the hike.
Once the group was done with breakfast, we headed back to the minibus for the next 1-hour 30-minute ride to the starting point for the hike. We reached the parking lot just before 9 AM. The guide then gave a history of the site; he mentioned that it used to be mined for minerals before the government declared it a protected site. It then became popular in around 2015 thanks to social media posts. So it’s a fairly new tourist attraction in the Cusco area. The guide then gave us estimates for reaching the mountain and said we would be heading back at 11.30 AM. It took us 1-hour 15-minutes to complete the hike. Throughout the hike, we saw some wild vicuñas which are similar to llamas/alpacas. The scenery was of snowtopped mountains and there were even snow/ice patches along the trail.
When we reach the summit at around 10.15 AM, there was already quite a large group of tourists there. Since most of the trail is wet from melted snow, we found a dry stone to rest at and have some snacks. We then walked a bit further up to take pictures of the mountain and the surrounding scenery. Now with the sun approaching its noon position, it was slightly warmer but still cold enough to require a sweater. There was quite a lot of snow on one side of the mountain, so the best pictures were taken closer to noon when most of the snow had melted. When 11.30 AM came, we started making our way back down to the parking lot. The walk back took us about an hour and I was starting to feel the effects of the altitude, so the coca leaves I took came in handy.
Once the whole group arrived, it was a 1-hour 30-minute drive back to the rest stop for lunch. Everyone got a 2-course meal of soup and a main. Of all the tourist restaurants I’d been to, this meal was definitely the most homemade style which was great. Once the group was done with lunch, it was back to the minibus to head back to Cusco. We reached the city at around 4.30 PM and the bus dropped us off about 2 blocks from the Plaza de Armas.
