Moving to Cusco!

This last week has been a bit crazy: I moved from Lima to Cusco on Monday, found an apartment, and moved in! I had been warned that it is now the rainy season in Cusco, but since my lease was running out in Lima and I needed to go back to the highlands to do field interviews anyways, I decided to go for it! Plus, I really like the laid-back mountain atmosphere of Cusco, and was getting tired of the pollution and traffic in Lima (not to mention the summer humidity!) However, I will miss my Lima friends, the lovely nearby beaches, and coming in to the office at the fantastic Instituto de Estudios Peruanos (IEP):

South coast of Peru outside of Lima, near Asia Beach

Courtyard at IEP

Finding a place to rent was an interesting process....after looking at a few different rooms in peoples' homes, which were often advertised to be much closer to the center of town than they actually were, I was a bit disillusioned -- you could rent a room, but then you'd be sharing a kitchen with some 6 other people, and feeling awkward about using it because it wouldn’t be like a traditional “home stay” where you’d be invited to share meals with the family. As one woman told me about sharing the kitchen with her family and four other boarders-- "My family doesn't use the kitchen all the time, only for breakfast, lunch, and dinner." Hmmm. Maybe I could cook at 10:30 am and 4 pm?

I had heard that there weren’t too many traditional apartments to rent, but I asked around and my friend Gillian (who had previously lived in Cusco for a year) told me to talk to this woman who owns a local café in a cute and central part of town. She advised me as follows: “There are two woman who may be renting – one works at a jungle fabric store up the street, somewhere either before or after the plaza. It may be closed right now. Her apartments are not in a very good part of town. The other is to the right of the plaza down several blocks, past a corner shop, there should be a door-buzzer somewhere that says “Hernandez”…ring that bell and talk to the woman.”

Hmmmm. So, to my surprise, I eventually found the Hernandez buzzer, and a little boy came out to greet me. He got his aunt, who told me that a two-bedroom on the third floor had just opened up. She showed me around and it was surprisingly nice (scenic views of the city, spacious, lots of natural light, nice kitchen) and affordable ($380 a month, same price I paid for a room in Lima, although apparently in Cusco that’s considered expensive). I was so excited to find a good place in a nice part of town, I agreed to take it that evening!

Some photos of the Cusco apartment:

My bedroom

View from the bedrooms

Extra bedroom/office/yoga space/guest room!

Interior Courtyard/Other apartments in building

Living room/kitchen area

Since a few friends are coming to visit in the next two months, I think I’ll keep the apartment for myself, then may get a roommate for my last few months in Cusco. So if you’re thinking about visiting, you have a place to stay! And while it is quite rainy here until about March, at least it rains hard for awhile, stops, and then the sun comes out and it is really beautiful. There are some amazing hikes and ruins I am excited to check out right in and outside of Cusco -- more to come!

Playing a scintillating game of Jenga, or "Magic" in Peru, at a bar in Cusco with some friends who work for Kiva and Innovations for Poverty Action