DESCRIPTION
The Rainbow Cordillera of Palccoyo is the sister range of the famous Mountain of the Seven Colors, “Vinicunca” but with a much better accesibility. Its more than nine thousand hectares of nature have a color similar to the rainbow what makes it a merry-go-happy ambiance and at the same time mystic. Moreover, in this tour in addition to admire the geologic beauty we will visit another site which will make of this tour an unforgettable experience.
Tour to the Rainbow Cordillera of Palccoyo: One more time the magnetism of the city of Cusco shows us another impressive natural attraction “The Rainbow Range of Palccoyo” where we will enjoy of the beauty and colorful of the region, inasmuch we can also see the variety of flora and fauna that this wonderful place is showing us.
This attraction is relatively brand new and a lot of local people didn’t know about this Palccoyo Rainbow Cordillera, because before its discovery it was completely covered by snow, which did not let to see its color la cual; whatsoever, due to the global warming, snow has disappeared la nieve and now with our new excursion it is possible to visit the ‘Cordillera Arco Iris’ of Palccoyo (Combapata).
ITINERARY:
Cusco – Checacupe – Raqchi – Palccoyo Rainbow Range – Four Lakes – Cusco
Our agency PUMA EXPEDITION will pick you all up at your respective hotels from about 06:30 to 07:00am, to then drive you for a couple of hours to the south from Cusco to the village of Checacupe reaching to this place at about 09:00am approximately.
When reaching to Checacupe we will see the evolution process of the roadway system in time through three colonial bridges situated in the same town of Checacupe: the Inka Bridge, the Colonial Bridge and the Republican Bridge, you could also see a colonial bridge with fine wooden carvings work, Gold plate and which houses some paintings of the time old Cusco School (Diego Quispe Tito).
Once we finish visiting this archaeological center, we will depart for the Palccoyo Rainbow Cordillera, situated at 4,900 meters above sea level.
Once we reach this point, we will start with our trek for about 45 minutes approximately, where we will see the glacier valleys eroding the contours and the Permic formations with brilliant colors that stands out among the rest and that is dwelled by herds of llamas and alpacas.
We can also see some villages and farmers who live in the lower zones of the Palccoyo Rainbow Range. We also can see the Stone Forest called Ccacca Loma and the Red Mountain.
After visiting the Palccoyo Rainbow Cordillera, we will continue with our circuit and we will ride to the town of Raqchi (Palace of the god Wiracocha), in this place we will appreciate more than 151 Colcas (QULLKAS) o storing Silos that were used to store grain like maize (corn), quinua, potatoes, chuño (cold-dried potato), fresh fish brought from the coast, alpaca dried meat brought from the Collao plateau, that were used in their ceremonies and rites.
The more important structure in Raqchi is the Temple of Man god (Wiracocha), an enormous rectangular building two stories high which measures 92 meters long by 25.5 wide. The structure is composed by an adobe central wall between 18 and 20 meters high, with an Andesita stone base. It has doors and windows, is flanked on both sides by a row of 11 circular columns with the lower part in stone and the upper part in mud.
Continuing with our tour of the Palccoyo Rainbow Range, we will be heading to San Pedro to enjoy a delicious, and hearty Buffet lunch.
After we enjoy of our lunch we will head for the Four Lagoons Circuit tour, where we will see the diferent lakes as: Acopia, Pomacanchis, Posposqo Cocha, Miskicocha), here we will have enough time to observe the great variety of birds and the nice landscape surrounding us.
After all this beautiful tour and after having visited the Palccoyo Rainbow Range, we will return back to the city of Cusco, arriving at about 18:30pm.
IMPORTANT: Our tours to the Palccoyo Rainbow Range is designed for the travelers to enjoy of these panoramas because all operators arrive early until 11:00am; while we will be after them and with ideal daylight to take very good photographies.
