Coming to Cuzco has been one of the best decisions I’ve made in my college career! My Spanish skills have improved by far more than they have in any of my other Spanish classes and I have been able to easily navigate the city and daily life. While I will always be a gringo, I have become very comfortable here very quickly.
My favorite thing to do in Cuzco is eat. The food here is very good, albeit heavily potato, chicken, and rice based. I haven’t had a single meal here that didn’t have one of these three foods as an ingredient. The pizza here is also very different but very good. All of the pizzeria’s here give you a creamy garlic sauce, hot sauce, and occasionally a black olive sauce to drizzle on your pizza. As odd as these may seem I would highly recommend trying all of them. I have yet to eat pizza in Cuzco that I didn’t like.
Of everything I’ve seen in Peru, my favorite view had to be from the top of the Pachamama mountain in Lake Titicaca. Getting to see everything from the surrounding islands to the distant mountains in Bolivia was amazing. Capping of the experience was getting to watch the sun set from the top of the mountain and looking at the stars and eventually the milky way as the sun receded. Even if the rest of my trip is awful, my visit to Pachamama mountain would have made this all worthwhile.