I arrived to Cusco Monday morning, and met with Jude whom I studied Spanish with, in Sucre. We decided to take another week of Spanish lessons in Cusco since we felt we needed to get some more lessons about the verbs in the past. We left Sucre with the same level of Spanish, so it made perfect sense to find a school together.
We spent the first week doing absolutely nothing, other than finding the school and arranging to start at Monday. I had a really bad week in Cusco – started by having problems with my stomach, and using most of the Monday in bed. Then at Wednesday night we went out drinking, and got the worst hangover in a long time at Thursday – so that day where pretty much just spent by pitying ourselves. Finally we came to the weekend, and I ended up lying in bed most of the weekend with a fever. I’m usually never sick at home, but this is the 2nd time I’ve got a cold in 2 months.
The second week pretty much just went with going to school and relaxing a bit in Cusco. We went to a place called Protectoyu Peru, with an awesome teacher called Yuliana. It doesn’t have a lot of student or big facilities, but it is a very nice small place with cheap prices and great teachers. I can recommend this place if you are a couple of people looking for a place to study, but if you are travelling alone, I’d recommend you to find a bigger school, where you meet some more students. We really learned a lot this week, and I feel it was great for my Spanish with another week of school.
I don’t like Cusco that much as a place to live and study though. It has a big nightlife scene, but most of it is Gringos coming to Cusco for the Machu Picchu and other tourist sites. It is kind of a mix between a big city like La Paz and a small city like Sucre. If studying for longer period of time, I’d rather recommend one of these cities. If your more into the big city life go to La Paz, but if you don’t mind the quit state of mind in Sucre, where the decent clubs only open Thursday to Saturday, go study there instead. Bolivia is both cheaper, and does not have as many gringos as Cusco.
Another thing you should do while in Cusco, is walk up to the Cristo Blanco, the big Jesus-statue on the top of the east-side hill. You can take the stairs up there from the end of Av Tullumayo. Alternatively you can also take a taxi or one of the special “busesâ€, but it is quite expensive, and takes over an hour. The stairs will get you up there in about 20 minutes, in a much less touristic path. It is absolutely a visit worth, as the view of Cusco from up there is absolutely amazing.
You can find more photos from Cusco here.
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