Hiking Guide: Ausangate Trek Day 2 + 3

Day 3:

Our alarms went off at 4:15am, and after a few minutes of lying there battling in our minds weather we REALLY needed to get to Rainbow Mountain before the crowds of day-trippers, we bit the bullet and got out of our warm cozy clothes and into our hiking gear.

It was still pitch black when we left the tent at 4:30am, with just our daypacks in tow and our headlights guiding out way. We weren’t the only ones with this idea, the tour group who we had met the day before also set out at this time. Tim decided he wanted to take a “shortcut” so we would be the first up the mountain - terrible idea, in my opinion.

We went off-track and climbed up the side of a very steep mountain, climbing 300m across 700m, instead of the alternative route of 700m across 1.5km. It was soooo cold, my hands and feet were numb, I was crying, I was panic-attacking again - all in all it was not a pleasant start to the morning.

Things started to turn around when we got to the top of the pass, at 4970m above sea level, and watched the sky turn purple then pink with the rays of the new day. It was such a beautiful sunrise, I almost forgot I couldn’t feel half of my limbs.

Day 2:

I didn’t have the best night's sleep, seeing as just as we were packing up our dinner dishes I spotted a mouse running past our tent - and I absolutely HATE mice.

We walked up the hill to watch the sunrise with protein shakes in hand, then came back down to hang with our tent neighbours who had set up camp a few hundred metres away (the only other campers!). Turns out, our neighbours were from Wellington as well, so we had some good chats about home and about our travels in South America!

We set off for our second day of hiking at about 10am. I was feeling a lot better compared to the day prior, my energy was almost completely back and I was in a better headspace. The first half of day two was relatively easy, walking around lakes and through valleys and past fields of Alpacas.

It didn’t get hard until after our lunch break, where we had a climb of 350m to reach 4910m above sea level. It was short but steep, and of course made harder with our bags on which still were holding a lot of food!

Then we had to go down the other side of the mountain. It was steep but not as bad as the way up, the worst part was just knowing that in half a day, I would have to be walking back up it again!

We somehow managed to go a bit off track for the next part of the hike to Rainbow Mountain, walking across meadows instead of on the track, which this time wasn’t really a bad thing - it was, for the most part, flat and luscious.

We reached the final stretch at about 7:00am. We could see Rainbow mountain, and we weren’t far from reaching back to the main track, but that final part was killer! I was so tired, my body was moving so slow, that it took all of my willpower to walk the final kilometre.

At 7:30am, we finally made it to Rainbow Mountain, and beat most of the tourists. Rainbow Mountain is a hugely popular day trip from Cusco, so tour buses start filling up the nearby car parks at around 7:00am, with tourists walking the steep trail up to Rainbow Mountain reaching the look-out point around 8:30am.

There was a tour group ascending this pass at the same time as us, with horses carrying their bags - and a few of the group were on horses themselves. Somehow, we made it to the top of the pass before them - it was mostly because they were stopping for lots of photo breaks, but given how weak I was feeling the day prior, this gave me a much needed confidence boost! They were also commenting on how well we were doing and how fit we must be, so I soaked that all in and relished in the compliments!

It was a long journey down to the next campsite, and we were stopped by another villager to pay the next campsite fee of PEN40 We didn’t reach the campsite until close to sunset again, so we set up tent in the midst of a field of alpacas, got changed into our warm nighttime clothes, and ended up cooking our dinner inside our tent as it was so cold. We needed a good nights sleep, because the next day would be our hardest yet…

DAY TWO FAST FACTS:

Time it took us: 6 hours
Distance: 16km

Campsite Fee: PEN40/AUD$16.10/USD$10.60

I was so fatigued I did not have the energy to take many photos, so after a couple of forced poses trying to hide my puffy face I decided to take a little nap whilst Tim explored the nearby Red Valley. By the time Tim came back, it was about 10:00am and the place was packed.

A long line had appeared with a few hundred people standing waiting to take photos, dressed up Llamas were being paraded by locals trying to make a few soles off tourists wanting selfies, and the place was buzzing. Deciding my body really could do with some iron after feeling so weak on the first day, I tried some Alpaca meat - surprisingly tasty, kind of a mix of beef and lamb!

We started the journey back to our campsite at 11am, and took our time back with Tim stopping to drone, and myself stopping to take yet another nap next to a lake. The mountain climb back up wasn’t as bad as I had feared that morning, and we made it back to camp by about 2:30pm, with a couple of hours to spare until sunset. I had grand plans to lay out in the sun, but the wind had really picked up and had a chilly breeze, so it was in the tent I went and relaxed after a full on day.

DAY THREE FAST FACTS:

Time it took us: 10.5 hours, including 2 hours enjoying Rainbow Mountain and breaks.
Distance: 17km

Rainbow Mountain Entry Fee: PEN30/AUD$12.10/USD$7.95