Rainbow Mountain

Thursday

All the staff go to Ocongate on Thursdays which is about an hour away up the mountain. We had to be in the square for 8 o’clock and we waited with the psychologist who told us that every Thursday they are late. About half an hour later the boss finally came to pick us up and I had to sit next to two men who were taking advantage of the spare seats to go to Ocongate. Probably was one of the worst car journeys, bends the whole time and the guy sitting next to me refused to hold on so every time we turned right I got completely squashed. Also, because of the altitude it can make you feel quite sick. Another problem is on these bends as nobody has any patience they just take over the car in front with no visibility, so that was a fun experience. The views were pretty awesome though, you can see Ausangate on the way up which is a huge snowy mountain.

The lawyer who usually deals with the legal cases in Ocongate wasn’t there so we tried our best to help those who came. Also, we had a lot of work that day due to one of bosses who is entering a competition to win money to carry out workshops for the kids that come to the association. We spent the afternoon creating a budget, so basically what we would spend the money on and how much we’d need. The problem was they have never done a project like that before so we had to make very wide estimates. During this creative session of budget estimation, the psychologist brought us provisions in the form of chocolate, carrot cake and coffee. Very yummy.

We ended up heading back to Urcos at around 6:30, so pitch black on that crazy road. It was fun though and we drove back listening to a mix of traditional music and reggaeton.

Friday

The day of the Fight Against Human Trafficking event that we had organised on Monday at the network meeting. However, none of us went as the budget from the day before had to be given in, so we were working against the clock. I had kind of disconnected from it the day before as they had carried on working through the night but in the morning I was called in to help by typing out what was dictated to me as on Monday while writing a document the boss had discovered that I type fast.

Around lunchtime there was supposed to be a march around the square in support of the human trafficking fight. The teachers at the organisation had made very elaborate banners but when they finally decided to take them down to the square for the march the boss received a call that it was too late, it had already taken place.

Later on we went out for a meal in Cusco with other volunteers and discovered that some of the business students from our university were working in the town next to ours. After we went out for drinks in a bar that looks over Cusco, it had amazing views. We went to another bar and tried “macho tea”, hot tea with alcohol, it tasted very strange. Then we met up with people from the organisation and had an amazing  and fun night.

Weekend

On Saturday we went up to Cusco to buy a tour to the RAINBOW MOUNTAIN!! Which as you may be able to tell I was really excited about. Downside is that the bus comes to pick us up at half 3 in the morning, this wouldn’t be so bad but it is winter here and the temperature isn’t too bad during the day but once the sun goes down it is freezing.

So, we went to the square at 3:30 am and waited for the bus which arrived an hour late, also we had booked the tour with another girl who wasn’t on the bus when we got on which we thought was strange. We later found out that they had put her in a different group and we only saw her at the end of the day.

We stopped off for breakfast in a small town in the mountains and after, we carried on our journey to the beginning of the trail to rainbow mountain. It is long 3 hour walk uphill to the top, I am definitely not in shape and found it extremely difficult so half way up I decided to get a horse to take me up the rest of the way. (I was tired but mostly I just wanted a ride on the horse).

Where we stopped for breakfast they had left the sprinklers on all night which froze the grass

We made it to the top and it was beautiful, very cold, but still beautiful. At the top, you are about 5000 m above sea level, so the altitude affects your stamina a lot also. It was just amazing and well worth the hike up the mountain. We had been told that down the right side of the mountain is a little trail and that the mountain on that side is red and makes you feel like you are on mars. It was definitely worth the extra walk down the side. However now we had to walk all the way back and there was the slight issue is that we hadn’t seen anybody from our group for a while. We walked all the way back down without stopping once but we learned that they had already left without us. Great.

A policeman was helping us try to find a way home when finally our guide appeared without the van saying that they had miscounted. I don’t know how you can miscount when the bus was full and you must notice that there are two empty seats but anyway she had come back on her own so now we had to try and hitch a ride with another company. The woman was nice about it though and kept apologizing, we had lunch and headed back to Urcos.

After an eventful trip and a bit of stress it was still worth it all and an amazing experience that I won’t be forgetting any time soon xx