In this episode we share our experience hiking Rainbow Mountain Peru and give our best tips for hiking at high elevation. 

This was such a fun interview the Travel Squad did on the Ashley P Travels Podcast. In this fun episode we share stories from hiking at extremely high altitudes in Peru and the adventures that go along with riding rules up a desolate, but absolutely gorgeous mountain in the Andes.

We detail this journey more in our Cusco episode so give that one a listen too!

Hiking Rainbow Mountain Peru at Extremely High Elevation – Episode Transcript

1 (2m 41s):
Welcome to this week’s episode of the Travel Squad podcast. Today, we’re sharing an interview that we did on the Ashley P Travels Podcast. We’re starting to do more interviews on other people’s podcasts. And this is one of the first one that we did. So we wanted you to hear it. You will notice that Zeina is the fourth voice on this podcast. We recorded this when she was still on here. So just take note of that, but it’s a great interview and I hope you enjoy it.

0 (3m 6s):
Yeah, and we had so much fun interviewing with Ashley and it was such an honor to be invited on as a podcast guest. We love having guests on our podcast and it’s really exciting to be on someone else’s. And she had prompted us with wanting to interview us about a crazy travel experience and story. So we really dove into our adventure hiking rainbow mountain in Peru. And it’s such an awesome time. And I know you guys roll, enjoy this interview as well.

2 (3m 31s):
You may remember Ashley from episode 76 when we had her as a guest on our podcast. But before that we were a guest on hers and this episode features that interview. We have an episode all about Cusco, Peru, where we talk about this adventure and many more things that we did while we were in Cusco. But I love this interview so much because it gave us a greater opportunity to talk more in depth about the crazy adventure that ensued at rainbow mountain when we were there.

1 (3m 58s):
Yeah, it was super fun. We had a great time recording it with her. Ashley’s an amazing interviewer. So let’s get right into it.

5 (4m 9s):
Hi, everybody. Welcome back to Ashley P travels today. I am even more excited than usual because this is not only one of my, my first guest podcast spot, but I have four new friends that are here to join me today. And that’s going to be Jamal Kim, Brittany and Zayna. And they run the Travel Squad podcast on their own, which is a extremely successful travel travel podcast, where they give out tips and advice, crazy travel stories to travelers all over the world. And these guys have been everywhere from some, from some of the episodes I’ve listened to.

5 (4m 51s):
I am extremely jealous of and just really excited to have you on the show. So welcome guys. Thank you.

0 (4m 58s):
So,

5 (5m 0s):
No, it’s my pleasure. Really? I think that, or actually, I don’t think I know that my listeners are going to absolutely love hearing your stories. And I would like to, if you don’t mind, I’m going to pass it over to you. So you can kind of give them a little bit more of an in-depth rundown of what your podcast is about overdue

1 (5m 18s):
I’m Kim and we’ve actually been friends for a very, very long time. Some of us, even family members, we grew up in the same hometown. We all now live in San Diego and we started traveling together about four years ago when we took a trip to Cusco, Peru. And then ever since then, we’ve been going on international and domestic trips, hiking trips, weekend trips together, and having a lot of crazy times together. I like to refer to myself as the fun, one of the group, the party, one of the group always finding the Thai food places and the rooftop bars, but everyone kind of brings their own personality and vibe and take on the travels together.

5 (5m 58s):
It is good to have the faces with the name because a few of the episodes that I have listened to from your podcasts, you know, I get to sort of match who, who bickers with who, and who’s the foodie and who’s the one that doesn’t pack. Right. And, you know, so I really kind of get, get to put that, that with it. So it’s a lot of fun.

2 (6m 19s):
Yeah. I feel like we all bring our own vibe. And even though some of the banter that we have in our podcast is picking on each other. It’s all in good fun. I mean, Zane is my sister. Brittany is my wife. Brittany has known Kim since junior high, right? So it’s only natural that we’ve all kind of meshed together in our own way, from the same hometown and beyond just our adventures and stories. What we’d like to do on our podcast is just inspire people to travel. Let them know that it’s not as hard as people think it is in terms of planning trips, making it a priority to do, and really inspiring people. Most importantly, to travel within their own backyard, whether it be someplace close to their hometown or even someplace domestically in the United States to national parks, we love national parks.

2 (7m 8s):
So that’s really what we try to inspire our listeners to do.

5 (7m 12s):
And I couldn’t agree more with that. And I think that that perspective is so different than, than my experience because I was on cruise ships and actually got paid to travel and traveled, you know, sometimes in a 12 hour period that we were at a port. So we’d have to run around and go catch trains and make sure we were back in time. So it was very different than maybe going and getting, getting to spend five days or a week in a certain place and getting to really enjoy nature and do all those things. So I, I love that. I love that. We kind of have a different perspective on that.

6 (7m 49s):
So, you know, I’m jealous of you, Ashley, because I’ve always wanted, well, I didn’t know that you could work on a cruise ship and I found out too late, but if I could go back and do my early twenties again, I would be on a cruise ship instead. I just traveled around the world by myself.

5 (8m 3s):
Well, you know, I, most of my travels, my, my real travel as I call it was done on my vacations from my contracts. So as an American, I was limited in my position to the Caribbean and Alaska. And my contracts were typically between four and six months. So when I had those one and a half or two month vacations in between contracts, that’s when I would make sure to fly to the places in the world that I wanted to go and didn’t on ships. So that is kind of a, it’s, it’s a mixture. But I think what I was fortunate to cruise ships for was being able to work, have no bills, save that money to really go crazy on my vacations.

5 (8m 48s):
So,

1 (8m 49s):
Awesome. I think we share in common packing in as much as you can in 12 hours. Cause we were definitely all about

5 (8m 55s):
That. Yes. And I can tell, I can tell from some of your hopping, your, your, your, your multiple stops. And I love that. So I want to, as many places you guys have been, I feel like it’s going to be kind of hard to narrow it down, but just to get us kicked off and going, I know you have so much travel advice and it doesn’t have to be advice, but I do want to give everybody that’s listening, had chance to hear from real live travelers and world travelers, their favorite place that they’ve been. And it’s as a traveler myself, I know it’s hard to narrow it down, but if you don’t mind, just give us a couple of the high points of your personal favorite place.

0 (9m 39s):
So Ashley I’m Brittany, and I’ll go first. So one of my favorite places in the world is actually Austria. And it really brings me back this time of year because Jamal and I first went to Austria, was on our honeymoon and we took it during the Christmas season. So when we arrived to Austria, they were doing the Christmas markets. We were able to try traditional food, their desserts, walk the town and just go through the Christmas markets and look at their traditional local, creative ornaments and gifts that they sell there. And it was so beautiful.

0 (10m 19s):
It’s everything you imagine with the beautiful mountains in the backdrop and then the Meadows and the green lush grass on the forefront. And so we just had a really great time in Austria and I loved it there

5 (10m 32s):
Specifically, which cities did you visit in Austria?

0 (10m 36s):
We visited Salzburg and Vienna, and we also did two other small stops and like milk and Abby.

5 (10m 44s):
Oh, that’s amazing. I have been to be, I have been to Vienna. It was actually funny enough during Halloween. So we’re, you know, hitting it on the holidays, but yeah, I, I, wasn’t able to go and visit some of the beautiful landscapes and mountain sides and I have to get back to that. Thank you for that.

2 (11m 1s):
For me, I’m going to keep us in Europe, but I’m choosing a different country. My favorite place that I’ve been to is actually Shawmanee and France. It’s in the French Alps. It’s tucked into the corner between Italy and Switzerland, and it’s at the foot of Mount Blanca, which I believe if I’m not mistaken is the highest mountain in the Alps itself. And the town is almost like a quaint they’ll or Aspen type town, if you will, but obviously nestled in the European Alps. And we took the gondola all the way to the top. They actually have something that’s called step into the void, where they’ve built a glass box that you can walk into and you’re looking straight down the edge of the mountain and you just can’t help, but think, oh my gosh, if this glass cracks I’m going to fall, it’s not, but that was one of the most unique experiences.

2 (11m 57s):
When you’re at the top of the mountain, you’re looking into Switzerland, you’re looking into Italy, you’re looking down, back into France and it was such an amazing European experience. And we were there during winter. And so it just had that whole ambiance that I really, really loved.

5 (12m 12s):
Ah, that sounds amazing question for you as, I guess, as a group when, when you were traveling in, and I apologize if you’ve mentioned this in one of your episodes and I missed it, but how do you decide where you’re going? Do you make a road trip burst, or do you make, do you plan it out? Do you just kind of drive and then decide to stop?

0 (12m 33s):
So for road trips specifically, we always plan it out in advance. Usually I’m the planner, but we all start to throw out ideas like, Hey, wouldn’t it be cool to go here? And then we will sit. Then someone will jump in and say, and this isn’t too far from that place. Kind of like when we did our American Southwest road trip, we wanted to go to the grand canyon. And then Kim was like, well, antelope canyon is not that far from the grand canyon. And Zayna is like, well, you know, valley of fire is not that far too. So we just kind of each throughout our own ideas. And then we made it work, but we typically preplan everything in advance.

2 (13m 10s):
Well, preplan the trip. But sometimes the destination is spur of the moment we talk about this all the time, scattered through the episodes really about how Southwest airlines sale fares will dictate where we decide that we’re actually going to go. So we always have like, obviously our favorite places that we do want to go that’s on our bucket list, like even here in the United States, for example, but really if there’s a good sale, we say, why not? And one trip recently that we took was to Boise, Idaho. It wasn’t Southwest. It was on Alaska. They had a good sale going up to Boise. There were some hot Springs up there.

2 (13m 50s):
So we were coming back from another trip. I think it was Chicago. And we just said, why not? And then we booked it while we were sitting on the tarmac waiting to go. And then the planning took place after that. But a lot of them are spur of the moment, but when they’re decided upon the planning really kicks in,

5 (14m 6s):
I love that. I have definitely been in that situation a few times where, you know, you see a good deal and just go, all right, I’m going to do it. But I think one of my strangest was actually in reverse. I was in Asia, in Vietnam and I was supposed to fly to New Zealand to jump on a ship with a friend and decided at the very last minute to fly home and not online and, and book that and, and decided to go home. I, the, the details are a little bit sticky. I won’t get into that reasoning, but it, it definitely kind of is more of a go with the flow thing.

5 (14m 48s):
Once you become a seasoned, seasoned traveler, I would say, yeah,

6 (14m 52s):
Absolutely. I’m a big go with the flow person. Like when I used to travel by myself, I think like I bought a ticket to Dublin Ireland because it was, I think $300 one way. And then from Dublin, Ireland, I just worked my way west to east until I reached Beirut Lebanon where yeah, so Jamal and I are Lebanese. And so I was just moving my way through Europe until I got there. And then I lived there for a little bit and then came back to the states.

5 (15m 20s):
Oh, that sounds amazing. And you said that that’s your favorite place? Or?

6 (15m 24s):
I would, yeah, I would say, yeah, Lebanon, they roots the capital. So just say Beirut Lebanon, but I would say Lebanon. And then I always push on the squad Cyprus, which is a tiny little island to the west of Beirut. And it’s so close. Like, it’s like, it’s less than a 30 minute flight from Beirut and it’s such a fun place. And I keep telling the squad that we got to go to Cyprus. We got to go to Cyprus and they just laugh at me. Cause it’s not high on our list. Although we do want to go, but yeah.

5 (15m 51s):
Oh, go go. I can have been. And it’s amazing. And you should absolutely go. And you can really do almost the whole island in just a few days. So yeah, absolutely. I have not been to Lebanon and I will put that on my bucket list just for you. And then I’ll let you know

6 (16m 11s):
It is a party country. It is so wonderful. You would have like the best time and the people are so hospitable.

5 (16m 17s):
Thank you for that. And

1 (16m 19s):
It says, when Dana says, she always mentioned Cyprus to us, it’s truly every day that we talked, she’s mentioning Cyprus, but my favorite place in the world is co-PI P Thailand. It’s an island in the Southern islands of Thailand. It is such a beautiful place. These gorgeous, super tall cliffs that are covered in greenery, gorgeous turquoise waters with the traditional Thai boats all around. It’s also a big place for backpackers. So you have the whole party scene there. Everything’s neon at night, and there’s great music on the beach. The beaches are beautiful and it’s a really great place to stay and do day trips from, there’s a ton of different other islands around there with monkeys and different snorkeling excursions you can do.

1 (17m 8s):
So it’s a great place, even though it’s a very small island, you can stay for a week and have something else you’re doing every day.

5 (17m 15s):
Ah, I second, everything you just said. I couldn’t agree more. It’s an amazing place. And you’re right. Crabby island. I believe if, I don’t know if I’m saying that right. That was my favorite place. If I had to really narrow it down, but Thailand in itself is just an incredible place. So highly recommended question for you. Are any of your craziest stories in the places, in your favorite places that you’ve been

2 (17m 43s):
Mom? Not because Brittany and I were on our honeymoon, it was kind of more relaxed and nothing too crazy. Usually crazy happens when we’re all as a squad. That one was a solo trip, just Brittany and I. So unfortunately my crazy stories and adventures don’t coincide with my favorite place. I don’t know if that’s a blessing or a curse could be both. So

1 (18m 2s):
I definitely have crazy stories from co-PI P but not as a squad.

6 (18m 8s):
I’m going to have to agree with Kim. I definitely have some crazy, crazy stories, but that’s a, you know, nothing beats the squad stories.

5 (18m 16s):
Okay. Well, I mean, let’s hear it once, wants to start us off.

2 (18m 20s):
I’ll go ahead and start us off. So one of our crazy adventures, cause we really thought about it and we’re like collectively, what’s a really good squad memory that we have that we all absolutely cherish. And it’s, as a matter of fact, our first squad trip in 2016, we all decided that we were going to go hike the Inca trail to Machu Picchu. So we flew into Cusco and we were all geared up for the trail to do that. And the crazy story isn’t even hiking the Inca trail. That’s a crazy one. But when we were there, we discovered that there was a place called rainbow mountain, just outside of Cusco, about two and a half, three hours.

2 (19m 5s):
And I had never even heard of it. But when we got there, every tour company in the city of Cusco was just advertising day trips to rainbow mountain and day trips to rainbow mountain. And so Brittany claims, she knew of it before we went, but I had never heard of it.

1 (19m 21s):
Brittany and I had seen it on Instagram and in blog posts before. And w we definitely knew about it and we wanted to go, but I think it was, it was a little far away from where we were staying, right, Brittany.

0 (19m 32s):
Yeah. It was about three hours from where we were staying. And we’re like, how are we going to get there? Is it actually feasible to do? And one of the problems is the altitude. When you fly into Cusco, you know that you might get altitude sickness just from visiting the city. And they actually recommend you get altitude sickness medication prior to your trip so that you can acclimate if you’re doing any hiking on the Inca trail. And the rainbow mountain is actually a higher elevation than the Inca trail in Machu Picchu and in Cusco. So although it was farther away, we, we just didn’t think that we would be able to get there.

0 (20m 12s):
One, we didn’t know we’d have a way to get there, but we were also really determined because if you see, if you have seen the pictures on Instagram, it’s such a beautiful mountain. It’s so colorful. It has turquoise, lavender’s golds, reds, other colors, and it just shimmers in the sunlight. And Kim and I were like, if we can make this happen, we’re going to go,

6 (20m 36s):
Let’s find a way to make the big desires happen. So of course we ended up going, we figured it out.

2 (20m 42s):
Yeah. And re re ramble mountains, really unique. There’s only another one other place in the world. That’s kind of like it. And it’s in one of China’s national parks. And so those are the only two places where there’s a mountain range that have these types of colors that are literally layered to look like a rainbow as they’re described. And we had gotten to Cusco at least four or five days earlier than our initial hiking start date on the Inca trail so we can get acclimated. And so when we found that the tour companies were doing it, we were like, should we still even do it? This is our second day in Cusco. And then the tour operators were like, oh no, no, no, no, you could rent a horses.

2 (21m 23s):
You don’t even have to do any of the hiking yourself. You can just ride the horses up to the mountain. It’s going to be great. And that was the selling point for us to do it. And also kind of a lie in its own right too. And it leads to a funny situation happening later, too, but that’s what sold it. They said that there’s going to be horses that you can actually ride. So you don’t have to do the hiking and exert yourself. And that was a lie.

0 (21m 47s):
And the thought was, if we can just take the horses and be fine, and we’re not actually hiking and we’re getting acclimated, we’re going to be fine for Machu Picchu. Like there was no doubt in our mind.

1 (21m 60s):
And it was on this trip that we coined the term easy day, because an easy day is without a doubt, not an easy day. And this was just that, that started with the trip. We booked the tour through our hostel company. First time we’ve ever stayed in a hostel as a squad, which was so, so fun, but the pickup time was bright and early 3:00 AM. So we get ourselves situated that night. We go out to dinner, we want to try their famous Peruvian cocktail, which is the Pisco sour. I think it has Brandy in it. I know it has egg whites. It has a couple of other things. It’s actually very delicious drink, but it didn’t sit so well for someone in the squad.

6 (22m 45s):
So I get sick a lot. I’m cool. Yeah. So, and when I, yeah, so anyways, I woke up maybe around like one in the morning and I guess, and I ate the exact same thing that Brittany did, and I drank the exact same thing as Brittany, but I still woke up one in the morning and go to the bathroom. And I just like, I hack my lungs up and just like, I can’t stop throwing up. So Kim hears me because I’m not being very gentle obviously. And she’s like, oh, you should take some Tums. And I’m like, okay. And then I crawl back into bed on the top bunk there in the hospital. And I did fall asleep on the, you know, I was able to wake up and I just remember thinking to myself, oh my gosh, I am not losing out on the money that I paid for this.

6 (23m 28s):
I am not going to sit in the hostel all day while they’re gone. And it’s just going to be so boring. It’s going to be so depressing. I’m just going to trip it out. So that’s the thing about me. I’m a big trooper, no matter how sick I get. So yeah. And I just remember on the van ride there, I was pretty much curled hugging myself and every single windy road. And we can get into like what it was like to actually get there. But I was getting myself praying that I wasn’t going to like puke on the bus and Brittany every now and then would be like, are you okay? And I’m just curled up. And I’m like,

5 (24m 0s):
Oh no.

2 (24m 4s):
And also the night before, minus the Pisco sours, which I think it was the egg whites and the drink that really probably did it for Zaina. But you mentioned this earlier and you were so correct in that one member of the squad is always ill-prepared and that Zayna, we’re going hiking in the Andes mountains to do the Inca trail. You know, rainbow mountain just happened to be a spur of the moment one, but she didn’t even bring a heavy duty jacket. So Zane is sitting here or gloves. So Zane is sitting here feeling sick. But the night before, before she was sick, she was like, oh, I got to get something. So we went to the local market, she bought like a poncho. So she’s just curled up in the bus, wearing this poncho that makes her look like she’s in like an 18 hundreds Western movie, Or just adds to the whole audience of a what’s going on over there.

5 (24m 52s):
And did you learn your lesson Cena?

6 (24m 55s):
I really did watch the entire squad shaking their head. No,

0 (25m 1s):
And this was only going to be our second day. And when we first landed in Cusco, we could feel the altitude. We walked upstairs to go eat lunch at one of the local restaurants. And we all felt lightheaded and dizzy, just walking up one flight of stairs. And this was going to be at like 6,000 feet, less than altitude than what we were going to be at the top of rainbow mountain.

2 (25m 24s):
Yeah. Cause rainbow mountain. And we talked about it being up really high in elevation. It’s a 17,000 feet in elevation. I mean, they say anything over eight can really give you altitude sickness at that level. I don’t really feel it it’s more like 10 and Cusco sits at that. Sorry at 11,000 is where Cusco sets, but w you could feel it there. And rainbow mountain was going to be 6,000 more feet in elevation than that. And so,

0 (25m 53s):
So we took a bus bright and early at 3:00 AM. And with the package that we bought, it included roundtrip transportation to, and from our hostel and breakfast and lunch. And then the option to obviously add on the horse if we wanted to. But the ride to the mountain itself was an excursion in itself. Like it was such a tiny bus, but we’re hugging the side of a cliff. It’s really windy roads. There was a point in time where our back tire went over the edge of the cliff. And we literally thought we were going to fall off the cliff and die. And

1 (26m 32s):
The other people in buses that had to get out on these cliffs and help push the Bush bus.

6 (26m 39s):
Yeah.

5 (26m 40s):
Oh my God.

2 (26m 43s):
So rainbow mountain, it was actually only very recently discovered with some glacial snow melt. And so the roads that they have going out there are very primitive. They may have updated them now, obviously because of the tourism. But again, it’s still very recently discovered. So the only roads up there are primitive because native people that live up in the mountains are the only ones there. So they’re in remote villages, so they don’t have good transportation. So these windy roads going up 17,000 feet high up in the Andes are pretty sketchy. And we almost went over the edge on that one. That’s for sure. And then I guess to make, yeah, go ahead.

2 (27m 24s):
Sorry.

5 (27m 25s):
I’m just surprised that with the tourism there, that they hadn’t made it more accessible.

0 (27m 32s):
Not yet. Maybe now, who knows?

5 (27m 35s):
Oh my gosh. So yeah, please continue. I’m on the edge of my seat, literally.

2 (27m 39s):
And well, when we made it from almost plummeting over the edge of the cliff, we had a little reprieve and a nice little, a collective sigh. And then we got to enjoy a traffic jam about Packers blocking the road. So, I mean, it gave us the whole,

6 (28m 0s):
And there is even an alpaca with cute little pink bows in her, like right there on her ears. I mean, like, they were very colorful and dress.

5 (28m 11s):
Oh my gosh, you just can’t, I’m sorry. You just, you can’t get any more cliche than like, oh, a roadblock of alpacas in Peru. I just love it.

0 (28m 21s):
Finally make it to like the start of the hike. Xena is, you know, a little nauseated still, but she’s hanging in there. We make it. And we finally get to the spot where we’re going to have breakfast and we’re all excited because it was a two, three hour car ride and

5 (28m 36s):
Love free breakfast,

0 (28m 37s):
Free breakfast. And we’re like, this is going to be great. We’re going to eat before the hike. And they literally had us in a barn that probably had no sunlight in it. There was no actual lights in it as well. And so it was literally freezing inside of the barn where we’re going to have breakfast.

2 (28m 59s):
Well, not even just in the barn, we walked off the bus and we were like, oh my God, it is so cold out here. I mean, you know, again, we’re at 16,500 feet. The top of rainbow mountain is about 17,000 and there’s not much hiking cause you’re kind of at a, like a plateau, if you will. So very subtle on the incline. So we’re high up and we’re like, oh my gosh, it’s so cold. We can’t wait to get inside the barn. And then we get in the barn and like Brittany was saying, there is no direct sunlight. So it was colder in the barn than it was outside. So we’re like, can we go back outside, eat breakfast? Cause we’re dying in here. And then Zayna looks at BNC does, oh my God, I’m so cold. I don’t have any gloves.

2 (29m 39s):
And her hands are turning blue. And just to keep her from complaining even more, cause she’s sick. I had to sacrifice my gloves to her. And then I started to get even more cold than I really was. So it was a pretty wild breakfast experience, not even to mention the butter and the rules, which I’ll let somebody take over on that, on what happened with that.

6 (29m 60s):
Wait, I just really want to say when Jamal gave me the gloves, it was like one of those dumb and dumber movie moments, you know, where he’s like, you have had two pairs of gloves. Yeah. You know what I’m talking about? Oh my gosh. He looks at me. I didn’t even ask for his gloves. You know, like I accept the punishment. I’m freezing in a poncho without gloves. And he just like looks at me and he is disgusted with me. You didn’t bring clubs to the Andes. We’re in the Andy Zina. And there’s definitely some colorful language in there too. And then he rips his gloves off. He scoffs, he shakes his head and he just like puts them up against me and he’s like, take my gloves. And I’m like, no, it’s okay.

6 (30m 42s):
And he’s like, take the gloves as data, just take the gloves. And so thanks all for that. Tell me, before we go to the Inca trail, you better buy yourself some gloves. Cause I’m not giving my gloves on the trail.

5 (30m 54s):
W was there no place that you could stop on the way to get gloves? I’m assuming not probably no doors boots on the side of the road.

6 (31m 2s):
Exactly. As soon as we got back to Cusco that night, the first thing we did was go into a store and I bought gloves, but there was definitely nothing out there.

5 (31m 11s):
Oh my God.

0 (31m 12s):
So to tell you again, how cold it was when we had breakfast, one of the items that they gave us was a roll of bread and they had butter on the side and the butter was a frozen log. And you had to use your knife to chip away pieces of butter. And then when you finally got the butter off, it was tearing their bread roll apart because you were just having to use all of your force to try to spread the butter, frozen butter on this role,

5 (31m 41s):
Like butter ice chips. Exactly.

2 (31m 44s):
I mean, that’s how cold it was. I mean, I, it was really below freezing out there. It re it really, really was. Luckily later on, on the hike, the sun did peak out and it was just enough to keep you warm. It was still cold, but the, the Ray of sunlight was quite pleasant. Let’s put it that way. And we were able to breakfast. It was intolerably cold at that point.

0 (32m 8s):
And to top it off right before the hike, the only toilets that were there were squat toilets. So, you know, he had a squat down, it was freezing cold and that was the way we had to do it before the hike.

5 (32m 21s):
Wow. That being one with nature.

6 (32m 25s):
The other thing that you should know is that we are taking our altitude sickness, pills and altitude sickness. Pills makes you, I think one of the side effects is frequent urination

5 (32m 36s):
And really

6 (32m 38s):
You’re out there. Yeah. I remember even when we started the Inca trail, I used the restroom and then five minutes. And that’s the last question that you had. And then five minutes later, I look at Brittany and I’m like, I got a P

0 (32m 48s):
Because the altitude, this medication is the diuretic. So that there’s not a lot of water pressure in you because that’s what makes the altitude sickness worse. So it makes you pee constantly. Oh my God.

2 (33m 1s):
It was easier for me as a guy, but for a girl, you know, having to take everything down in squad, I’m sure it was probably really intolerable. And, and those moments, I just, I’m thankful that I don’t have to do that. But yeah. So then after breakfast, they gave us pretty much a little orientation. Our tour guide did of, you know, what’s going on. And he said at this point, all right, is there anybody who wants to rent a horse and the horses that they have up there, you know, they’re not even provided by the tour company. These are really horses and the cattle, if you will, of the villagers who live up there in the Andes.

2 (33m 41s):
So going there is a good way for them to make money too, because then they rent you the horses. And that’s also the curse because they’re not even really horses. They’re mules. Let me tell you that. So there are a lot smaller and coming in, as you know, larger Americans versus more short Peruvians, it was really uncomfortable to even sit on the horses or mules cause they were small and their saddles were so tiny. So after riding for about like five minutes, your butt is just completely, completely sore and numb and it made it for a chaotic experience.

6 (34m 24s):
Well, I guess one thing you should know is Jamal and I are really tall. And so Jamal is like six foot I’m five, nine and a half. And so for such a small mutual you and a touch, a tall person, you’re bent over really uncomfortable. Whereas Brittany and Kim, they’re a little bit shorter than me. And so I think that they had a little bit more of an easier experience rather than Jamal and I’ve been doing over. But no, I mean like it was when we were starting the hike. I remember our tour guide was basically telling us that, Hey, I’m going to bring a tank of oxygen because it’s going to be so high up there. So if you have trouble breathing, we have oxygen, but don’t ask for it unless you really need it. Otherwise it’s dangerous. And all right, guys, let’s go follow me. I’m going to go slow. So you can keep up with me. And then as soon as he said that he sprints across the mountain to the starting point and he keeps turning around.

6 (35m 11s):
He’s like, come on, guys, keep up, keep up. And what you need to know is that the elevation is so high, that it takes your breath away. So it’s not that we’re not athletic. It’s not that, you know, like we can’t keep up. It’s the feet. Altitude is not allowing you to move as fast as you would like. And he’s, Burundian yelling at us. Come on.

0 (35m 30s):
Yeah. The starting altitude, it’s 14,000 feet in elevation. So we could barely keep up with him and he’s just spreading across the mountain. Like it’s no big thing.

2 (35m 40s):
Well, he’s a local and acclimated to the altitude. So it is no big thing for him. And so we started on and you know, all four of us ended up getting the murals. I refuse to call them horses. You know, they’re, they’re mules.

5 (35m 54s):
It’s about like, probably similar to like the mules in Greece. You, you guys have you guys been decreased?

2 (36m 2s):
It’s

0 (36m 2s):
On our bucket list

5 (36m 3s):
Though. Okay. That’s the only experience that I had writing, what they also called horses, which were mules and they, they take you up the side of the cliff so that you go down to do like sunset boat rides and things like that. But I didn’t even feel comfortable getting on them, just, I mean, I’m not as tall as using it, but I’m five, seven. And even at that high, I did not feel, I felt like I was crushing the damn thing.

2 (36m 32s):
Oh, well we felt the same way. And you know, so we started going on and the majority of the hike, if you will, is relatively flat, but the parts where you do actually have to hike, they tell you, oh, it’s too strenuous on the horse and they’re using the word horse. So you actually have to get off

0 (36m 54s):
And hike next to the horse, going up the mountain when the whole reason was we bought these horses so that we didn’t have to do that hike.

6 (37m 3s):
And then the other thing too, is that it’s not that you like rent the horse or the mule, whatever you want to call it. And then you’re off in the tour group. The owner is right next to you through the entire time. And so I think like that’s another piece that I didn’t realize. So like, they’re just constantly next to you holding the reins of the mule, leading it through the mountains.

2 (37m 25s):
So then they tell you at the hard parts, oh, you need to get off. And so we’re like, then why did we even rent the, a horse? Because I could have walked very easily, you know, in the flat parts. And then on the hard parts is where they make you get off. And, you know, I just can’t stress enough how really strenuous it was. I mean, these are very subtle uphills. Normally, you know, it should be no problem, but with the altitude, I mean just each step you take, you can just feel the exertion and how hard it is to do. And it was pretty intense. I’ve never felt an experience quite like that, honestly.

0 (38m 2s):
And not only that w the squad got there as a squad, but they kind of split us up Kim and I ended up getting on horses first. So our guides had started walking and then by the time they found guides for Zayna and Jamal, they got on later. So there was a portion of time where Kim and I were by ourselves. And then even at some points, even split up from each other. So we’re feeling altitude sickness, we’re feeling nauseated, we’re feeling all of the effects of the altitude. And we have no one to really have a conversation with, because our don’t really speak great English. We don’t speak great Spanish. I mean, Dana does, but the rest of us don’t speak great Spanish.

0 (38m 42s):
And then w we’re kind of by ourselves for a good portion of the hike as well.

5 (38m 49s):
And I’ve just, I’ve just remembered since you said that that Dana was sick as well. So I can’t imagine what this is like for her.

6 (38m 56s):
Well, you know, it’s so funny as like, as Brittany was saying, like, we’re, we’re not the aided or whatever it was that you just said, Brittany, I was thinking to myself, you know, at this point I’m just pretty much in it. So I think that I forgot that I was sick because like there, there comes a point. And by the way, none of this story is us complaining. This is us laughing about it because it was so fun. And there really comes a point where you’re just like, this is so crazy that you’re in kind of survival mode that I don’t even realize that I’m sick anymore. And I’m trying to have a conversation too, with my guide because, you know, I, I, I like to practice my Spanish and that was fun. And I remember that one point I asked her if, and I don’t even know the words in English because I’m not big with horses, but if they can link in this, is it steer up where you can put your Okay, perfect.

6 (39m 44s):
Yeah. So I asked her, can you link than the steer up? And she’s like, oh yeah, absolutely. And so she did it and it did nothing, nothing, because it’s just, it’s equipped for them. It’s not equipped for me. And Jamal was like, oh, ask them to do that for me to ask them to do that for me too. And I did. And it did nothing for Jamal to,

5 (40m 4s):
Oh, no.

0 (40m 5s):
Kim, why don’t you tell us about the bathrooms on the trail?

1 (40m 7s):
So on the Travel Squad Podcast, we always like to inform listeners on what the bathroom situation is like in the places that we go. So bathrooms sitch in the rainbow mountain trail is a dug up hole in the ground. And some of them have like tarps or some kind of linen that they put up to make like a little tent around it, but it’s definitely a hole in the ground. And that hole in the ground is very, very nice when the altitude sickness pills kick in and you have to use the restroom, Anything we’ll do at that point.

5 (40m 41s):
Oh my God. But do you get your own hole or is everybody sharing the same whole,

1 (40m 47s):
It’s one at a time, but it’s definitely a shared hole, But that’s really important to remember actually, because when you get to the end of the trail, it’s very steep to get to the top of rainbow mountain where you get the beautiful view of the top and you see all the colors and the horses obviously are not going to take you up that portion of it. And it’s really hard. It’s not that long, but because of how steep it is, plus the altitude, it takes a long time to get up. So I made the mistake of not using the hole in the ground before going up and then had to come back down very quickly.

1 (41m 28s):
So squad tip for all the listeners out here, use the restroom before going up and then make that Trek up, I think, brilliant for the first ones to get there.

0 (41m 38s):
Yeah. And that’s where the squad reunited. We finally got to where we’re going to go see the beautiful rainbow colors. So Kim and I were like, okay, let’s wait for Jamal and Zayna to catch up so that we can go up as a squad and see the rainbow mountain altogether. And so Kim and I had gotten there first and Kim kind of waited it out and didn’t go pee before we made the Trek up.

2 (42m 0s):
Yeah. And so Kim was right. You know, if my memory serves me correct, and you know, it’s been four or so years back now on it, but that last little portion to get that climactic view of what is rainbow mountain, you get up there, you can see the layers of the colors, and then you could even see down into the valley. It’s just so beautiful. But to get up there it’s 200, I think it was about 200 feet of an incline, which was more steep than pretty much the rest of the incline on the trail, but still in general, not very steep. So I was only able to take about five steps at a time before I had to take a break and then wait another like four or five minutes before I could take like another five steps.

2 (42m 42s):
So that’s the longest 200 feet I’ve ever had to take in my life.

5 (42m 48s):
Not having been someone who’s really hiked at high altitude at all, for the people that are listening, that might be like me, what, what are like the physical attributes? When you get to an altitude like that, what are you feeling?

6 (43m 3s):
You just can’t breathe. Cause I’m right there with Jamal. Cause that was right next to Jamal’s side for that last portion of the track the entire time. And so like you’re literally taken five steps and when you take those five steps, you’re just like gasping for air. Like it’s so thin. It’s so like, obviously you’re in air, but it’s almost like it’s not there. And at one point Jamal’s lips turned blue. And so Brittany is a registered nurse. And so I’m calling out to Brittany Jamal’s lips are blue and she turns around. She’s like, he’s fine. Literally taking the life out of you. And it’s just difficult.

5 (43m 45s):
And about what was the temperature when you guys were hiking?

6 (43m 49s):
Well, now that we’re getting higher, it’s getting a little bit colder at this point because of the elevation,

2 (43m 54s):
But the sun was out at that point, I would say maybe it was about 45 to 50 degrees, but there was a strong, strong wind at the top of rainbow mountain. So you had some serious windshield factor come in. So it felt a lot colder, but I would say it was about 50, 45, 50 degrees. And you don’t know what Zaina was saying is correct. It was just difficult to breathe, but more for me beyond feeling difficult to breathe, it was, but just those few steps almost felt like, okay, I’ve just completed like two hours straight of a real strenuous. Like that’s what each Mount of five steps was.

2 (44m 35s):
It was like, w like I’m physically exerted. Like I’ve never felt before on top of the breathing issue.

0 (44m 41s):
Yeah. So you were asking like what you might feel and you’re going to feel like fatigue, nausea, shortness of breath, your breathing, going to be a lot labored. You might see that your fingertips start to turn blue or your lips start to turn blue. You might actually pass out depending on

5 (45m 0s):
My first attempt at CrossFit. No, honestly.

2 (45m 4s):
Yeah. I mean, I I’ve done, I’ve done CrossFit. Same with you. I’ve done it one time. And just imagine, you know, how you probably felt like five minutes in say you did it for the full hour at that pace. That’s what it really, really felt like on an exertion level. So we finally made it to the top super, super windy. And then we were all enjoying it together for about five seconds before Kim says F this, I can’t take it anymore. I gotta go pee. So she goes down the hill at that point. So we didn’t get to spend a lot of time together at the top.

6 (45m 36s):
I don’t even think we have a picture of all of us together, but they were selling beer at the top, interestingly enough. And so it just crazy to think that someone climbed that mountain every single day to put beer on top for people to enjoy it. Cause that comes like torture. And Jamal was like, man, a beer sounds good. But like, you can’t even imagine drinking a beer. Like that’s going to kill me.

2 (45m 57s):
I mean, the squad never turns down the opportunity to have a beverage or a cocktail. And this was one of those instances. Like I saw it. And you know, when you’re in certain foreign countries, how inexpensive alcohol is. So I feel like, all right, I’m already getting a good deal. Like how can I say no, you know, less than a dollar, but I was just like, I don’t even know what my body will feel like if I have a beer up here at this point in time. So I was like, I can’t even buy it. I can’t even help a local villager make more money. I don’t even want to do it. I couldn’t even fathom.

6 (46m 26s):
You can also continue. Now you reached the top of the mountain, but it also has an offshoot where you can go even higher. And so Kim has already descended at this point. And then Jamal and Brittany go up and they’re asking me, do you want to go up? And I was like, hell no, man, I am so cold in this poncho here. The wind is hitting me so hard. Cause It’s like knives. It’s almost like, cause you’re so high. And it’s so strong that like it’s, you’re, you’re being pelted with knives because it’s hitting you so intensely. And so I’m just like, if it’s this windy here, like I can’t even imagine going higher. So I’ll wait for you here. So I just waited while Jamal and Brittany continued on. I don’t think you guys went very far, but yeah,

0 (47m 7s):
We went like 50 feet farther and we Jamal and I were breaking every two minutes to take a five minute break and we finally get like 50 feet farther up. And I was like, all right, we’re going to head down.

2 (47m 20s):
I think the 50 feets and exaggeration, I feel like it was honest. The quite last, like we, we had a point where we thought we wanted to get for a better of rainbow mountain to have us in it. And then we got to a certain point and we’re just like, no, it’s not even worth it. Like we can’t even do this. So then we made

5 (47m 38s):
Our

0 (47m 40s):
Point.

2 (47m 42s):
I think we got, we got a couple of, but we couldn’t get him to be as pristine as we wanted, but we still got some good ones.

0 (47m 50s):
So then we think, okay, from here, everything’s going to be downhill. How bad can it be? So we get back on our mules. We are heading back to the bus and we finally make it close to the bus and we meet up as a squad again. And then we realize that there was a portion. Now we have to climb uphill to get to the, the last bus. And the four of us are together and we’re collectively taking five steps, taking a break, taking five steps, taking a break. It literally took us. How long would you say it took us to get back to the bus?

6 (48m 25s):
I mean the halfway through, we sat down on the grass for the break. It wasn’t even just like, let’s scan it. Like we sat down and braked it because we’re like, we just like, this is literally 30 feet away, but it’s like, you had to take that break. And also I do want to say, because Brittany was saying like, we’re going downhill. How bad can it be? It was bad. It was like, my butt was so sore that I told her, the lady whose horse I had, I was like, you know what, I’m just going to go ahead and walk this. Like I could not sit down anymore. Jamal and I pretty much walked the entire way back. Not too far from her. Cause I didn’t want to ditch her and you pay at the end, but I just couldn’t. It was too much.

1 (49m 5s):
And not only were we that exhausted, but at this point we met up with the rest of the bus group that we came with. And even they sat down and took a break and we just looked at the van like so close. But so far away,

2 (49m 18s):
Like Zayna said, she wasn’t exaggerating. It was about 30 feet. That’s the point where if you had the mules, they separated from you and then obviously you’re on your own to get to the bus. And that 30 feet maybe took us about like 15 minutes really to, to get to where you were just so beat and burnt out. And like Zana said earlier, you know, we’re not saying this as if it was a complaint. I mean, in the moment it was kind of like, oh my gosh, what are we doing when we look back on it now? I mean, we obviously think this is a fun, crazy story. We love it. It’s a great memory. The view was worth it, but, oh man, like if you’re not willing to just kick yourself at your own assets, if you will, then this, maybe isn’t a hike that you should do, but it’s definitely fun if you know what to expect going into it.

2 (50m 7s):
Let’s put it that way.

5 (50m 9s):
So I feel like this is a strange question, but in this, in this case, maybe not. Would you recommend it?

6 (50m 16s):
Absolutely.

1 (50m 17s):
A hundred percent.

2 (50m 18s):
I think, I think the problem is we did it day two in Cusco and we didn’t even let ourselves get fully, fully acclimated. And I quite honestly think, you know, if you were to hike the Inca trail, which takes four days to do, to go to Machu Picchu, you’re probably not going to want to do much hiking afterwards. But I think if you were there to get acclimated to the altitude, did Machu Picchu came back and only did this one, which is like a day Trek. I think people would be in a lot better situation or again, even if they weren’t doing Machu Picchu, hiking spend more time in Cusco before you do it. It’s definitely doable. We just pushed ourselves too fast

5 (50m 57s):
Or even maybe in a different part of the year when it’s a little warmer or

2 (51m 1s):
We actually went in June, which is their prestige time to go any, Going to be a lot more wet and colder. So we went during the best time.

5 (51m 12s):
Okay. I take it back then. Wow. Do y’all are y’all are true.

6 (51m 18s):
One thing that we didn’t mention was before we went to the bus, we did go back to the very cold barn to eat lunch. And everyone was like, man, I am hungry. This isn’t like a short hiking trip. This is an all day hiking trip. We’d probably been hiking at least this point for like five or six hours. I am famished. They put the food in front of you. What you should know is that altitude kills your appetite. Like you’re so hungry and then you start to eat and you’re just like, I’m good. Like I’m good. Yeah. It really blocks your appetite, which is a shame because it also burns 25% more calories at that level too.

0 (51m 57s):
Yeah. So after we had lunch, we were like, okay, this is gonna be great. We’re just going to get to the bus or, and we’re just going to knock out and like just nap basically all the way home. But before that could happen, we actually got held up because we had to watch another van stop and they got stuck and all of their passengers had to get out and push the bus past the point. And we’re like, oh my God, is our bus going to be able to make it? Or are we going to have to get out and push our, our car? Our van passes point. Luckily we didn’t. But it was just crazy.

2 (52m 37s):
Usually I like to consider myself a good Samaritan, but I was so exhausted. I was even saying to myself, oh my gosh, our tour operators better not even stop to like, be courteous to have us help because I don’t have that in right now. So Yeah. So when we pass stem, it was almost like, oh man, I feel so bad for them. But it was a collective sigh of relief. Like, oh thank God. I don’t have to get out there and help them. Which I, in hindsight now, I mean, I feel bad about, I I’m sure they made it back home just fine. But I was so thankful that we didn’t have to get out and push.

5 (53m 11s):
Yeah, that was my, my first thought was how in the world do you have the energy to push a bus or a van if you don’t have the energy to walk five steps without stopping?

6 (53m 21s):
Yeah. I remember because not that many people rented horses. It was us four and then another couple and one single person. And the couple that rented the horses that were with us while, I mean, obviously we were separated, but like at the same time, like with us, you know, they were a part of the people that were pushing the bus. And I remember passing by and looking at them and just like trying to avoid eye contact. And yet at the same time you can’t look away and you’re just like,

5 (53m 50s):
Like a car accident or

6 (53m 52s):
Yeah. Oh my

5 (53m 54s):
Gosh.

2 (53m 55s):
Oh yeah, no, I mean, that’s the end of rainbow mountain, but you know, the sun did come out, even though it provided minimal warmth. That was enough, but you’re at such a high elevation and I’m notorious for burning real easily. So the next day I was treated to a whole face and neck burn from just being at the high altitude, close to the sun and the amount of time that I spent on the mule and the saddle really kindled my backside. And I just remember having breakfast in the morning at the hostel restaurant and thinking to myself, like, I can’t even sit on this bench.

2 (54m 36s):
It was like, what? And I was like, I am so uncomfortable. My ass really hurts. Like

5 (54m 41s):
This is ride a bicycle for the first time. Yeah.

2 (54m 45s):
Oh yeah. But except on a bike. Yeah. But on a bike it’s centered to one spot. This was literally over my whole backside. And so it, again, we put ourselves through a lot of pain, but we got a great story and memory out of it and I don’t regret any bit of it, but you know, that’s what I had for me the next day was an awesome burn and a sore backside.

1 (55m 5s):
That’s what I was going to say.

5 (55m 6s):
Awesome photo.

1 (55m 8s):
Exactly. It’s worth the photos, the being out of breath, being cold, being sick, it was worth the pictures. It was worth the memories. And it’s some of our most cherished travel memories that we have together. So it was amazing. Great story, great experience.

6 (55m 24s):
And real quickly to kind of wrap it up. You were asking earlier about what it does to your body. Well, nurse, Brittany brought her, what are those called pulse ox,

0 (55m 35s):
Flux, emitters.

6 (55m 36s):
That’s it? Where it like measures your oxygen,

0 (55m 41s):
Oxygen saturation.

6 (55m 43s):
There you go. And why don’t you tell it, Brittany, because we were at 70%, why don’t you let everyone know how significant it is that our oxygen was at 70%.

0 (55m 54s):
So I have my own Polsak Scimitar. And what it does is that you put it on a finger typically, or you can even use it on like the end of your ear lobes. And it measures the blood saturation, the blood oxygen saturation, and like pristine is a hundred percent anything below a 92. If you’re in the hospital setting, they would put oxygen on you. And during parts of the hike, our blood oxygen saturations were dropping into the high seventies. So if we were to see that in a hospital setting, that person would definitely be on several liters of oxygen, continuous flow for probably quite some time.

0 (56m 34s):
And here we are hiking rainbow mountain with our oxygen saturation dropping like crazy.

5 (56m 41s):
I’m a little surprised that the tour guides or the locals didn’t recommend that you have a travel oxygen or a, you know, a supplementary oxygen with you.

6 (56m 52s):
Well, the tour guide did bring like a big tank, but I’m talking like, you know, what makes it like the size of a fire extinguisher? You know, like one of those of things. But he did say like, do not use it unless you absolutely need it because if you, if you don’t absolutely need it, it’s more dangerous for you than to not use it. And so throughout the entire thing, even though it’s like really, really challenging, there was never a point where I felt like, oh my God, I’m, I’m really gonna pass out. I think it’s more of just the physical challenge that you’re experiencing, but I don’t, I don’t know.

6 (57m 32s):
I don’t think I necessarily needed that.

2 (57m 35s):
I could attest to that. It was more so you just needed to recoup before you could go on versus it was, I can’t do this anymore. It was just, you need that time.

5 (57m 44s):
That’s interesting. I don’t know that I really know the difference. I also don’t know that physically, I would ever be able to do this tour, which is really sad to me because I have seen the Instagram pictures of the rainbow mountains and I have CLPD. So I cannot like, I can’t even go diving and they don’t recommend that I go to high altitudes either. So I don’t know that this is something I could ever just physically manage at all. Just I’d take steroids for my lungs every day and have to use rescue inhalers when I work out. So unfortunately I don’t think I’ll ever make it up. I mean, mentally I would, but physically my body could,

0 (58m 25s):
He is like, yeah, this doesn’t sound like the right tour for you.

5 (58m 29s):
Oh, I don’t think so. But I have heard that. Cause you were saying there are rainbow mountains in Peru and one other place, but I’ve seen photos from Arizona. Is that a different type of mountain or rainbow mountain?

2 (58m 45s):
Yeah. You know, I think they say technically that there’s four and you’re right. One of them is in Arizona, but those are like rocks striations. And they’re all pretty much like two or three colors. And they’re all kind of like red rock colors. Whereas the ones that are in China and obviously rainbow mountain outside of Cusco, they’re a whole variety of colors of like 15 different shades that they say. So that’s why, you know, depending on what article you read, they’ll say there’s four, one of them you’re right as an Arizona. But the two ones that have the multi multi-colors of like green reds, purples, golds, you know, everything along the spectrum,

5 (59m 28s):
The ones that looked photo shopped on Instagram, Instagram. I mean, I see those pictures and think, oh my gosh, like, it doesn’t look real. And I imagine it’s not, I imagine I’ve traveled enough to know that any no picture does it justice. I mean, some of the things that you see and, you know, we talked about our favorite places and you know, I, I can attest to pretty much any photo that is on my Instagram. And we could probably agree. There’s not a time that it ever does it justice.

2 (1h 0m 0s):
They never do

5 (1h 0m 4s):
That. So speaking of which I would, if you, if you wouldn’t mind sharing it, love to get some of your pictures from the trip up on my Facebook or Instagram page, just so people can see, you know, what we’re talking about in real life. Would that be okay with you guys?

6 (1h 0m 20s):
I’d love for everyone to see my puncture, so,

5 (1h 0m 23s):
Oh yeah. See that too. Oh. And did you manage to get pictures of the, the horse as well and the vans and everything on the way

2 (1h 0m 33s):
We have several pictures of us on the horses. And I think one of us was fortunate enough to snap the alpaca traffic jam too. So if we can find that one, yeah.

5 (1h 0m 44s):
I would love to have some of those and I’m sure our listeners would too. Now I am absolutely captivated by you guys and that stories. I think that that is one of the craziest travel stories I’ve ever heard. You guys are absolutely troopers and get the, you know, if this was a girl scout badge, you’d get the hiking badge, the, the trooper badge. I love that. And thank you so much for sharing. I cannot wait to get some of those pictures out there. I know that you have a million other stories to tell, but I appreciate you sharing at least one with us. And I hope to have you back maybe another time.

5 (1h 1m 25s):
And don’t forget folks to go on over to their podcast and have a listen. If you’re traveling, if you’re hiking, if you just want to be entertained, they are amazing. They really know what’s going on. When it comes to podcasts, you’ll have, it’s easy listening. It’s a great time. So I will let you guys let everyone know where to listen and how to find you and go from there.

1 (1h 1m 51s):
Great. You can find us on Instagram at Travel Squad Podcast, you tube, same handle, anywhere podcasts are found. You can find us at Travel Squad Podcast. We have a ton more funny stories about hiking from getting lost in the Sequoia national park on a 16 mile hike and on Easter day with no food to scaling the top of a mountain in Washington. Well, Brittany’s hiking it up and we’re all yelling for her to come down because it’s windy and she’s going to die

6 (1h 2m 19s):
Literally anymore. She is literally free. So Chloe in the mountain with ropes. Yeah. Or you know what? You can come along with us to Cuba where Kim and I both got our face licked by the same guy, randomly in a club cave. My club.

5 (1h 2m 37s):
No, you’re going to have to tell me what episode that is so I can catch it.

0 (1h 2m 40s):
It’s either six or seven.

5 (1h 2m 42s):
Perfect. I’ll check it out for sure. Well, I cannot thank you guys enough for joining me today. Thanks for your time and listeners, make sure to go and follow them on their Instagram, on their Facebook. Go and have a listen, subscribe, rate, all the things that as podcasters love for you to do, if you take, if you have time. So I will let you guys get out of here. Thank you so much and hope to have you on here again sometime.

6 (1h 3m 10s):
Thank you so much, Ashley. Yeah, it was great.