Vinicunca “Rainbow” Mountain?!

Can you trust the internet? A 200% rhetorical question. Those who once did have either died, gone bankrupt, or never developed intellectually since kindergarten. Or could it be otherwise? Unfortunately, even seasoned, life-hardened travelers still fall for internet scams. Here’s a tale about how I recently got fooled by convincingly pretty picturesfound on said internet…

If you search the net for the most fascinating and beautiful scenic spots of Peru, the name Vinicunca is bound to pop up. These are the so-called Rainbow Mountains, which are shown like this (photo from the just-referenced Wikipedia) ->

Of course, seeing that – we all agreed that we just had to go! So off we popped…

Yes, bad weather and lack of sunlight could be blamed, but where were the colors? Here’s what we actually saw! ->

Something doesn’t quite add up between what the internet says and what we observed ourselves. Maybe we just visited at the wrong time? Let’s investigate: can you trust the internet?…

Of course you can! But only with a certain probability of hitting the truth. For example, if you search for this location on Google Images, the top results you get are go like this:

So, what’s real and what’s not? Here’s a hint: the red-framed image isn’t Peru at all but something resembling Zhangye in China (and also heavily digitally-touched up). The green-framed one shows what it actually looks like during the day. Maybe at sunrise or sunset under clear skies the colors are more vibrant – but not that vibrant!

In short, all that bright red and orange is simply Photoshop having run a riot of color. Only one website on the first page of search results showed an accurate photo:

(Source)

Beautiful, interesting, but why deceive trusting tourists? When it comes to the richness of colors and the scale of multicolored mountain landscapes, the Chinese Zhangye Danxia Geopark is the undeniable leader. The hills there are absolutely insane – literally like watercolor paintings (as seen in 2015 and 2024).

Even the Martian Altai would put Peru’s “Rainbow” Mountains to shame:

In short, this place is extremely overhyped. But there we were, so this tale had to be told.

Here’s what it looked like up top that day. Crowds of people – but what were they even looking at?…

At that point, we still didn’t know it was over-egged. So we arrived and started hiking. The parking area sits at about 4800 meters above sea-level, and the climb goes takes you past 5000 meters, so we moved slowly and carefully, breathing deeply:

Up there, tourists line up for their “colorful” photos. Victims of false advertising! And later, many will no doubt Photoshop their pictures too, convincing others of the same illusion they fell for!

Locals transport tourists to the “Rainbow” Mountain either by motorcycle or on horses like these. We, however, proudly walked on foot!

The trek isn’t long – just around 4.5 kilometers – but at nearly 5000 meters up, everything happens slowly and with deep breaths. Plus, we had to remember to take photos of the surrounding scenery…

But then, unexpected unpleasantness…

Suddenly, there was a loud bang in the distance, followed by another, then another. Tourists rushed downhill in a crowd, but for some reason we weren’t too concerned. Then, just as we were approaching our destination, lightning started flashing. Pretty scary! Our guide, Vicente, got seriously worried, telling us stories about how lightning can target… moving tourists! Naturally, we hid wherever we could. Some took cover in a roadside hut:

Others took refuge in public restrooms! ->

But it wasn’t even rain…

Good thing I had my Anti-Rain poncho on from the Machu Picchu trek, for first it started hailing, covering the ground with this white layer:

And then came snow! What? I’d had enough of that back in Moscow! It seemed it had followed us to Bolivia! Never mind; onward!…

We finally made it. Here’s the spectacular view – no sun and no Photoshop, but at least no other folks around! ->

Over 5000 meters up!

Thunderstorm, hail, snow – and not a soul in sight!…

Then a real snowy hurricane hit, and it became downright unpleasant…

But we made it to the top! Hooray!

Here are a few more freezing photos taken by my travel companions:

Summit? => photo!

The sign showed… signs of serious abuse down the years ->

It felt quite uncomfortable up here. Suddenly – kunst! ->

That’s it – we’re heading back down!

What a hike! And a little heart-shaped souvenir to remember it by. By the way, local marketeers do a decent job! This lake is brand new – it’s not even on satellite maps:

Random action-pic:

Since we’d started our climb after the storm, everyone else had already left. We were the last minibus in the parking lot:

But Vinicunca wasn’t all just hail, snow, and disillusionment with internet photos. The road there and back was rather nice:

Narrow roads, hairpin bends: hairy-scary! ->

Due to the precipitation some stretches of road were flooded in places, but our driver handled them all like a champ:

Mesmerized by the landscapes, we stopped for a short photoshoot and a close encounter with the wildlife (but I slept through this part) ->

Vinicunca – visited and… mildly criticized :)

Next stop – Lake Titicaca!…

The best photos from LatAm-2025 are here.