Rainbow Mountain Peru | Maureen and Mark
Our entire South America shoot took 11 days and even more number of flights. We went to two amazing countries and stayed in 7 different hotels. Those numbers sounded tiring but it is nothing compared to 5100 – the number I will never ever forget, the number that almost put us in a coma. 5100 meters is the height, above sea level, of Vinicunca or Peru’s Rainbow Mountain. We were in such high spirits after a successful shoot in Machu Picchu. Little did we know that at this height, altitude sickness will sap all our confidence and energy that will leave us vulnerable throughout the trip. To give one a perspective, 5100m is quite high. It is higher than any of mountain in the rockies of North America and almost as high as the highest peaks in both Europe and Africa. In fact, Mount Fuji in Japan tops up at a mere 3500m. The problem we had was a combination of negligence and over-confidence. Our guide kept on telling us that the height is 5100m, but we didn’t bother to check what that number meant. We did read reviews that many people suffer from altitude sickness in Cusco, but after a spending a symptom-free couple of days in Machu Picchu without having to acclimatize, we thought we were fine. We planned to breeze through the shoot in the Rainbow mountain and still shoot in Cusco in the afternoon. But at 3am, my head was pounding already. The next several hours […]
