What do we know about the morality of out adventurers? They've conquered and plundered the Incas, which tells us that they see nothing wrong with murdering and stealing. How do they justify this evil? Later, we learn that they are Christians, traveling with a priest. This tells us that through their personal interpretation of the Bible, their actions are justified; that stealing, murdering, and enslaving (we learn later that they are traveling with slaves in tow) is justified as long as they are the ones doing it. They believe they are superior, because they have interpreted the bible to say they are.
Herzog does not want us to know this about them yet, though. He could've explained it in his written introduction, or possibly shown them coming down the mountain in garish clothing, standing out from the mountain background, in order to convey how superior they feel to the world around them. Instead, he chose to dress them in colors that appear naturally on the mountain:
Until we see them at the lowest point of their trek, they look less like people and more like part of the mountain shifting. This conveys the objectivity of the situation-- that our adventurers are objectively no different than the natural world around them, other than that they are heading downward in an organized fashion. The adventurers represent mankind, and this shot conveys that what sends us downward is delusion, greed, and the perpetration of evil.
This concludes my analysis of this portion of the scene.
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