Rare Adventures

Tag: Peru

Conquering Rainbow Mountain: high altitude trekking, rolling rocks, courage and condors

The last adventure was the amazing Rainbow Mountain, or Montane Vinikunka. We had first seen the natural spectacle on an episode of BBC Race Round the World; it is a phenomenon that only became visible as a result of global warming around 2012 with the retreat of the ice layer on top of the mountain.

The retreat exposed a multi colour landscape that is one of the wonders of the world, however you define them. There are only two known examples, the Peruvian mountain and one in China.

We didn’t commit to this trip until we had completed the Inca Trail. We didn’t know what the outcome of that adventure was going to be, especially Wooksie and her ability to cope with the altitude. As you will have read from other blogs, our trip to Machu Picchu took a different route to avoid a fire in Dead Woman’s Pass, so we avoided the high altitude element of that trek.

As a result, this adventure took on more significance because we needed to prove to ourselves that we could cope with a big high altitude trek (though I had done the climb on one of the Lake Titicaca Islands), which would make up for missing Dead Woman’s Pass.

As always, we were picked up before daybreak by the bus for our long haul to the mountain. We stopped off at the next hotel for more adventurers to board, most were dressed as you would expect for a long climb up a mountain, with one exception, a lady who came dressed in trainers, a fluffy jacket and muti coloured leggings and looked like she had just arrived from a disco, it was Minni.

We cleared the traffic of Cusco headed in a new direction, with different villages and landscapes and after an eternity we stopped for breakfast. The normal people seemed to group themselves together and we ended up sat beside Minni and her friend and got the chance to know each other. It’s strange how we always end up befriending the less orthodox people in a group.

After an unpleasant altercation with a male Alpaca we got back in the bus and started following the offroad trail, to climb up to the drop off point. Cusco is at about 2500m altitude, high but manageable, by the time the minibus had completed the climb up the mountain tracks we were at 4100m.

When we got off the bus the altitude hit us immediately, it felt like a huge pressure on my chest and it took time to get oxygen into the lungs, but it was a real sudden shock, but the body adjusts.

Basically, we were being dropped off at roughly the same altitude as Dead Woman’s Pass, I looked at Wooksie and could see the lack of oxygen was having an immediate effect. We were all issued with walking poles to help with the climb.

I was amazed to see that most of our fellow adventurers chose to take the easy way up on the back of mountain ponies, the ponies carried customers up to the final station, which meant they only had to do the last climb, cheating or what!

We set off to walk the 5km walk to the summit, roughly 1000m higher in altitude. Progress was painfully slow from the get-go. I could see Wooksie was really struggling and suggested that maybe she should get on one of the ponies. To be fair she has had bad experiences with ponies in the past, and she wasn’t going to make an exception.

She then came out with the bravest of words, “I’m going to climb this f@cking mountain if it kills me”. In the light of what had happened in Puno with altitude sickness, it did occur to me that there was a possibility of that happening. On that cheerful note, we headed off.

The tour guide was carrying oxygen for emergencies and it turned out only 3 of passengers on the bus were walking up, Wooksie, me and of course, Minni in her totally inappropriate outfit. An unexpected consequence of trekking at this altitude is the impact on our bowels, there were 3 rest stations on the climb and the toilets were very busy places.

I was carrying a stock of caffeine energy gels and bars. We hadn’t needed them on the other treks but they came in very handy on this one. Each stage of the trek got tougher, I looked into the distance and saw the peak and couldn’t see anyway that Wooksie was going to make it, however, my girl is from Northern England and made of tough stuff, and she climbed that mountain one step at a time.

Eventually we reached a point where we could see the multi coloured, stripped slopes and I was relieved that Wooksie had made it that far, even if she had to go down, she had seen it, but she wasn’t giving up. At the final rest station, we downed the remaining energy bars and gels and made the push for the summit, Wooksie travelling one step at a time, but now I was full of caffeine and bouncing up the mountain like a gazelle then coming back to chat with Wooksie.

Then a moment of drama, the rocks on the mountain are very loose, and the mountain is very steep. The reason Dead Woman’s Pass was abandoned was because of the loose rocks and we had a demonstration of the dangers.

One of the climbers ahead of us dislodged a small rock, that started to roll very slowly initially, it rapidly picked up speed and headed towards the next batch of trekkers, nobody was looking up for danger and the rock hit a group of walkers like a bowling ball, none of them saw it coming and fortunately it was just a glancing blow before it continued it’s journey down through a gully and to safety. It was a great illustration of the dangers and why the Incas spent all their time terracing the mountains to keep them stable.

Soon after this we reached the ridge and had a full view of the coloured slopes and the valleys, as we sat and looked down the valley we saw a mighty condor fly out from a perch below and glide down the valley, if there was ever a message from the gods that was it. I asked Wooksie if she wanted to go to the summit and you can guess the answer.

We climbed up the last couple of hundred metres to the summit at 5100m and the Instagram shot place where there was a long queue. Then another wonderful thing happened, we spotted Bettina, last seen at 3am in a Huacachina night club two weeks before hanging out with Wooksie.

Big embraces, hugs and photos followed, we had made to the summit and banished the little doubts about whether we would have made it over Dead Woman’s Pass on the Inca Trail, this was much higher and much tougher.

Within minutes of saying arrivederci to Bettina we bumped into Minni, and we wandered back down the mountain triumphantly together. Back at the bus, we discovered that we were the only people on the bus to reach the summit. One of the problems with the pony trek approach is that the lungs don’t adjust and suddenly you are on path to the peak at 4700m with no aclimatisation, so they had all given up.

The trip back to Cusco went really quickly, learned a lot about Minni, who was an architect from Toronto and pursuing a part time career as a fashion influencer (hence the strange get up).

After a stop of for a drink, another confrontation with the angry Alpaca, and once the elation had passed we dozed all the way back to Cusco.

On arrival in Cusco, we headed for the Irish Pub only to find another pal from Huacachina, Cockney John.

12/02/2026
Inca Trail Day 4, the Monkey Steps, Sungate and Machu Picchu

After the drama of Day 3 dinner with the guides and the tip issue the night before, we were in bed very early, with only the very brave (or foolhardy) venturing out into the night for the makeshift toilet. The heavy rain on the tent overnight didn’t lift our spirits for the long trek in the dark.

Day 4 started early, the pots were clanking for breakfast at 2.30am and we were all woken up at 3am for breakfast, which I must admit was pretty hard going but we needed to stock up for a very long day ahead.

The porters were all over the gear like a rash, packing tents and equipment for their early departure. It later transpired that the porters had to lump everything, including waste of all kinds, back down the mountain to the catch the 6.30am train home. A more motivated bunch I have rarely seen.

By 4am we were packed up and ready for the trek from Winay Wayna gate to the Inti Punka or the Inca Sungate, or at least to the gate to the national park to start the trek. We loaded up and started down the trail in the dark and the wet, and to my surprise, within 3 minutes we had arrived at the gatehouse. The Winay Wayna camp was right on the boundary to the national park, so we now joined a queue to enter the park, which opened at 530am, talk about anticlimax.

Luckily, we were one of the first groups to mobilise and were inside the waiting shelter. As the rest of the campsite decamped the queue grew over the next hours to several dozen people, most of whom were stood out in the rain. We were then horrified to discover the gate doesn’t open until 6am, so all this early start was for the convenience of the porters, who had just had a huge tip!

One of the American lads had picked up a particularly bad stomach bug overnight. We had heard his mate complaining about the noise he was making throwing up, and now in the queue he was laid out on the floor but fortunately improved as time went on.

It was at this point that we realised how big the risk of a stomach bug is on a trek, because if we had all picked up this bug we wouldn’t have been going anywhere.

At 6am, the gate to the park opened and after sorting out the tickets we were on our way. The young people seemed to be in a race and hurtled off, but with Wooksie still adjusting to altitude we trundled along at the rear with Todd, who’s knee was reminding him of all the years of basketball abuse it had enduring.

After 3 days of trekking, the 4^th day was tough. It was 2 hours of climbing and staying mentally focused on the prize ahead. Wooksie was starting to struggle with the stomach bug by now, one could only imagine how tough it would be if the bug had developed 2 nights earlier on the trek.

Dawn bought daylight and more stunning views through the gorges and valleys through which the river flowed. Eventually we arrived at the legendary and dreaded monkey steps, the toughest climb of the trek and the last tough push, the each step was 2 or 3 foot high, and each required a big effort to get up, there were over 100 of the monster steps built by the ancient civilisation, yet another example of their incredible engineering skills.

If you are young and fit then you can bounce up them but if you were old and suffering with body pains, they are hell. It is a task that requires arms, legs, knees and the occasional helping hand from friends, I scrambled up them OK, Wooksie followed but Todd dropped behind and made it in his own good time.

Eventually, we came over the ridge to look down on Machu Picchu from the Sungate. There was a feeling of elation, I had expected some mythical sunrise but it was past 8am by the time we got there, so we hadn’t made it for dawn, but we had made it and the view was magnificent.

The next hour was spent getting the Instagram shots done, shaking hands with others and generally enjoying the incredible view from hundreds of feet above Machu Picchu. We then started the much more enjoyable trek down into town, stopping to look at the wild Alpacas but not getting too close, they are cuddly but evil.

The walk up to the Sungate from Machu Picchu is 3 hours alone, so we were glad to be walking down. As we approached the town the views got better as was the feeling of relief at seeing the end of the adventure.

On arrival we saw crowds of people queuing for access from for day tickets and many climbing the up the mountain to get a better view of the town. To be honest the day was a bit of a blur, we did a 2 or 3 hours tour of the buildings and infrastructure, but after 4 days of trekking and being up for 8 hours, our energy was lagging.

The history and splendour of Machu Pichu is like nothing else on earth and you cannot fail to be amazed when you are there. But there is only so many buildings, channels, drains, and terraces that you can take in one lifetime, and by lunch I had reached my fill. The guide who took us around was full of energy, and we tried to be enthusiastic but I’m sure our eyes gave it away.

I was also very glad we had not taken the additional package to climb little Machu Picchu, peak that is part of the park, the climb up another peak would have been too much, it looked incredible but by now I just wanted to sit down and have a decent meal.

We were shipped back to Aguas Caliente. Most of our fellow trekkers gathered in the same restaurant and we had a last meal together, chatted about our experiences, how much we needed a comfy bed and it was time to find our train, the one of those that had passed so close by us on the second day and enjoy the trip back to Ollyemptambo and the bus back to Cusco.

One last thing do not underestimate how much fun the train trip back is. Not only does it have a fantastic glass roof, comfortable seats and people coming around selling coffee and refreshments, you even get a Spanish style guitar band with a trumpet, so there is no chance of sleep until you get on the bus.

09/02/2026
Puno, Lake Titicaca and Altitude Sickness

Our altitude strategy was to prepare for the Inca Trail trek was to spend 4 days at high altitude on Lake Titicaca, at 3800m to adjust, and then travel down to Cusco at 2500m and we should have been ready to go.

Unfortunately Wooksie had picked up a tummy bug on the way back from Nazca so wasn’t on top form. We flew from Lima to Juliaco, all the guidebooks said avoid Juliaco unless you want to be mugged, which we didn’t so we got a taxi direct to Puno.

The lack of oxygen at high altitude hits you really fast, when I got out at Juliaco it was like having a weight on my chest. During the taxi ride Wooksie said she was feeling really sleepy, I felt drowsy as well as my body adjusted to the lack of oxygen. I was particularly concerned because I suffer from asthma, so expected a tricky transition.

We booked a lovely hotel on the banks of Lake Titicaca, on the basis we could sit around, enjoy the view, not do much and adapt. We pottered around for a bit and Wooksie decided she wanted a nap, this was exactly what every guide to high altitude said would happen, so I wasn’t particularly concerned and went for a walk to push my lungs and push my transition.

That night we had dinner in the hotel and an early night, next day we went for a walk around Puno, which I have to say isn’t a very exciting place.

Unexciting unless you are in the fruit market when the train comes through, at that point all the stalls are dragged off the tracks until it has gone.

We strolled around the port, bought some medicine for the stomach bug, but Wooksie was tired again and went back to bed in the afternoon, while I got in a 10km walk without much trouble so I was doing fine.

We then did a 2 day tour of the islands on Lake Titicaca and I became increasingly concerned about Wooksie as she was deteriorating rather than improving. She made the climb from the dock to the square, a climb of about 100m un altitude over maybe a kilometre, so steep but nothing terrible.

It was obvious something was wrong, she gritted her teeth and climbed up, literally 1 step at a time. After a rest at the top, she perked up and made it back to the boat, but within minutes she was fast asleep again for the trip back.

The walk from the cab to the hotel was painful, she was hardly moving and it suddenly hit me that we were supposed to be doing the Inca Trek in 4 days’ time. Surely this couldn’t just be just altitude sickness, so I got the hotel to call out the doctor to check her out.

In simple terms, we normally have an oxygen level of about 95 in our blood. During Covid, if your oxygen level dropped below 80 you were admitted to hospital, and the human brain shuts down when oxygen level drops below 70.

Wooksie had an oxygen rating of 72, she was on the verge of being critically ill, the sleeping was her body shutting down. Her body had been busy fighting the stomach bug she picked up in Nazca, it couldn’t cope with the shock of the altitude and her body was losing the fight.

The doctor rushed her to the emergency clinic, wired her up to drip, oxygen, antibiotics, hydration and anything else they could think of to help her survive and get her back up to speed. The solution was quite simple, we had to get down to lower altitude to help her recover.

So, a mad panic to put our transport plans back 24 hours so she could have time in the clinic on oxygen and then it was on to a bus downhill to Cusco.

I was fully expecting her to come out of hospital the next day full of beans and jumping around but it was nothing like that, her oxygen count was still only about 84 after 24 hours, so she still had no energy – this wasn’t the fix we were hoping for but it was the best we could do, and Wooksie took it easy as the bus wasn’t until the next morning.

Meanwhile, not to waste and opportunity, I went out in search of a pizza to bring back to the hotel and found myself in this amazing little bar, luckily it did takeaway pizzas too. I took the opportunity to test their beer while I was waiting for the pizza. As the bar was empty, I couldn’t resist the temptation to fiddle with the music playlist and before i knew it I was on my second beer whilst choosing the music and listening to Blue Monday. If only Wooksie could enjoy this too, and they did a great pizza.

I had been carrying a couple of spare Argyle scarves to donate to a bar somewhere, that was hosting the travelling football fan tradition of dropping your scarf off in a foreign country. I wasn’t going to get much further from Plymouth than Puno, so I donated my first scarf to their very small collection and I hopefully it is still there, the Green Army now owns Puno.

18/01/2026
Adventures in Huacachina: Sand Dunes and Thrills

Our first sight of Huacachina came soon after we arrived in Ica, we turned up a back road that wound up the sand dunes, then we came over the hill in the coach and there it was, the most stunning and unbelievable view of a beautiful oasis surrounded by the sand dunes the size of real mountains, it was like an image of heaven in a desolate, hell like landscape.

We made our way to our hotel, which was like any seaside hotel on the Med, so a swim was in order. As we got over our trip, we started to notice lines of ants crawling along the ridges of the distant and dunes, more investigation led to the discovery that these were some form of monster trucks.

This part of our South of Lima adventure was called something vague like “Fun in the sand dunes”, as we watched the little dots moving around the full potential of the fun started to take shape.

We met up with our fellow adventures and walked up the dunes to find our truck. Our new companions were Dawn and Reg from Scotland, a couple of doctors on a 6 month world tour with lots of great stories to share along with Bettina, an amazing young lady who worked for the United Nations refugee council.

As we walked up the path we started to hear the roar of the trucks in the boarding zone. We also watched the convoys of trucks coming back down the sand dunes over gravity defying drops and almost vertical climbs back up the dunes.

The afternoon promised a lot of fun, as we also had sand boarding included in the itinerary, hardly ideal for a bloke with a trapped nerve in his back!

Monster dune trucks

The first sight of the truck was amazing, in truth it wasn’t a truck, it was a giant V8 engine attached to a tube framework with seats. It was an incredibly powerful beast and the absence of any real exhaust system meant the noise was more akin to that of an aircraft.

Once we were all aboard, the engine fired up and off we went with engine roaring and sand being sprayed off the wheels as we followed a convoy of similar mechanical beasts up the dunes.

For the next hour we were on a roller coaster through the dunes, as we headed for the peaks. The climbs got steeper, the drops got bigger and the screaming in the truck got louder as our madman driver launched us off the tops of ridges.

The best way to describe the experience is that it was like being live in a Mad Max movie. It was one of the most exciting things I’ve ever done, my adrenalin was in overdrive willing the truck to go faster and fly higher!

Hope you enjoy the video of the sand buggy rides and it brings it to life for you.

Sand boarding for beginners

Eventually we pulled up to stretch our legs, and then discovered this wasn’t a break, it was the start of the sand boarding as we were stood on the top of a ridge. Boards were unloaded from the truck and we stood there looking at the drop, this meant decision time.

My trapped nerve was still an issue, but was definitely on the mend, but the Inca Trail trek was only a week away, so a wise person would have chosen not to go headfirst down a sand mountain, like Dawn and Reg. Not being a wise person, I grabbed the board, carefully knelt down gently, laid on the board and flew down the hill and gingerly stood up at the bottom, no damage done.

Back into the truck and off we went to our next stop with lots more roaring engines, flying off ridges and to avoid trucks coming from other angles. Eventually it took us to the high point of the tour, with an outstanding vista from one of the high points of the region. It was then that we realised there was another reason for reaching this high point of the region, it was the next sandboard opportunity.

Sand boarding for the deranged

After a climb along a ridge, we were faced with a downhill run that was at least 2 km long. There was no reason in the world for a sensible person with a trapped nerve in their back to go headfirst down this hill. However, the constant excitement of the racing trucks had my adrenaline pumping and the next thing I was looking down the mountain, in the company of my young companions. Before I knew it, I was having one of the most exciting runs of my life, going over 50mph headfirst down a sand mountain.

I hope you enjoy the video of our sand boarding and it brings it to life for you.

The truck collected us in the valley below and took us off to another remote part of the sand dunes to watch the incredible sunset over the dunes. At this remote location we all found places on the dunes to settle and just watch the vastness and desolated scene across the desert, providing a fabulous counterbalance to the adrenaline junkie events of the afternoon.

After we had climbed all over the trcucks for photos, and climbed up the sand dunes, we headed back to the truck park and the end of the adrenaline experience, but it wasn’t the end of the day.

We walked back down to the town for the evening BBQ and a few beers with our fellow adventurers but we had no idea how much mayhem was about to follow us as we headed for the bar to celebrate our adventures.

07/01/2026
A crazy night in Huacachina

Some memorable nights come about after a well laid plan, and others come about spontaneously, and after 4 hours overdosing on adrenaline I was ready for a beer or two and whatever would follow.

The scene was set when we settled in the bar overlooking the oasis, with our Scottish chums Dawn and Reg from the dune buggy. The first beer arrived and was gone in a flash, on to the next one and Dawn started to tell us about an obnoxious, misogynous chap called Dave who was from London, he had clearly got up her nose but apart from that we were getting along just fine with tales of mountain biking and then time for another beer.

Suddenly, the atmosphere changed, Dawn started hissing and then said, “there he Is, Dave from London”, as a chap walked along the balcony and took up a seat near us. To our disbelief, it was “John from Raynes Park”, or Dogbite John as we were calling him. Admittedly he seemed to have his faults but there were daggers looks flying between Dawn and John. This which was a bit awkward as he moved over to talk to us, I decided it was time to have another beer and focus on mountain biking with Reg.

Wooksie pointed out there must be a mistake, as he was called John not Dave, but Dawn had made her mind up and put up the barriers. So, we drank up and headed on to the next big event, the BBQ, which involved lots of lovely foot and lots of Pisco Sours, this evening was really beginning to escalate.

Then our Scouser chums Helen and Glenn appeared and joined in the evolving party spirit that was driven by adrenaline overdoses, free beer and now a bottomless jug of Pisco Sours, along with some young people who thought we were younger than we were.

Poor old John was excluded from the fun, so my wife Wooksie, being a truly lovely person went over and kept John company, Dawn continued her hate session and I got to know the young people as we;; as Glenn and Helen.

When the free beer and Pisco Sours ran out, most people of a certain age retire to bed. So we bid farewell to Dawn and Reg from Scotland along with Dog bite John and I decided to test the water with our new Scouser chums about going on to a later bar.

To be fair, they took no persuading at all so we headed to the infamous “Wild Rover” bar. our coach was due to leave at 6am, but 1 more drink wasn’t going to hurt us, what was the worst thing that could happen anyway (there was the problem right there, that is my out of control mantra).

Wild Rover bar

When we entered the bar there was some strange formalities, like I had to prove my age and my identify, which took at bit of time but it was immediately obvious that this place was built for fun and young party people, and luckily for them we had arrived!

Things started quite slowly with a bit too much Abba for my liking but the young people seemed to be enjoying themselves so I put up with the music and joined in. The more we talked (or by now shouted) at Glenn and Helen the more we realised we had loads in common and the night accelerated even further when we discovered that a jug of Pisco Sour was an amazingly good investment, so we bought two jugs just in case they ran out of jugs.

Wooksie was now picking up a head of steam as well, normally she is quite reserved but clearly the company of Helen was encouraging her, then Bettina from the dune buggy arrived and things seemed to take off even further.

An unfortunate incident was thankfully avoided. Wooksie, who was happily dancing to the music and singing along when she headed to what she thought was the dance floor. Thankfully someone noticed that the aforesaid dancefloor was actually a swimming pool and disaster was avoided when she was ushered in another direction.

Meanwhile, the DJ had now decided to insert some karaoke into the evening mix and there were now young people on stage singing along to the tracks. Glenn and I were moving closer and closer to the stage as we were singing along with increasing enthusiasm and picking up momentum, After “Blue Monday”, Joy Division was just too much for us to take, we couldn’t control ourselves any longer, grabbed the mikes and gave the young people a great version of “Love will tear us apart”, to be honest we didn’t need the microphones.

At this point, we noticed a disturbance at the bar, to our amazement one of the bar staff was now walking along the bar pouring free tequila down punters throats. It was just like the scene from Coyote Ugly, amazingly I’d always wanted to do that. The young people were a bit tentative in their indulgence so Glenn and I hustled our way to the front to have copious amounts of tequila poured down our throats whilst Wooksie looked upon with horror.

By 3am, the best of the evening had been had, then we remembered that we had a bus to catch in 3 hours, it had completely slipped our memory, Wooksie was having a lovely time with the cool people near the bar, Glenn and I were still telling stories and becoming friends for life.

Turning the music off didn’t quell our enthusiasm and eventually we were politely ushered from the establishment and sent on our way home. We wandered the streets wondering where we lived and eventually, we found our hotel and got our heads down by 4am.

Breakfast started at 530am and unfortunately it turned out the kitchen was right beside our bedroom, and the preparation started at 5am. So our was curtailed after about an hour by the sound of clanking pans.

It’s always amazed me how much damage one hour’s sleep can be to your physical state, I went to bed at 4am very happy and when I was awoken at 5am to the sound of banging pots, I felt like a dead rat had crawled into my head, farted a lot, had thrown up before dying on my tongue.

At 5.45 we gathered all our gear together, grabbed a drink and some fruit and headed for the rendezvous for the coach to see the Nazca lines, which was only 4 hours away in a minibus.

Dawn and Reg were waiting for us, with big smiles on their faces and were happy to share what a great nights sleep they had enjoyed and asked us how our night had gone.

I think our eyes told the story, but it was time to head on to one of our big events of the holiday, the Nazca lines.

06/01/2026