A little background

I know you’re like – NOOO tell me about Peru. But just a little. We decided we should check out both the capital city Lima (Barranco and Miraflores districts) and Cusco prior to deciding where we would settle. Both cities are very different from what we’ve been told. The city of Lima – is very metropolitan, Spanish speaking, is under a constant fog/smog in the winter (which it currently is), has an international airport, and is on average 68 degrees Fahrenheit. The city of Cusco – is known as a the magic city, is very warm in the day but very cold at night, is the longest inhabited city in South America, has access to one of the 7 wonders of the world Manchu Pichu, you can only fly to Lima from there, and is a party town because of all of the tourist. Easy choice – NO. Thus we needed to visit both live and in living color. In order to actually get to know these towns as a local, we decided it would best to stay with a host family rather than at a hotel. Matthew began the research and found a family for us to stay with in Cusco on http://www.homestaybooking.com . I found us a family to stay with in Lima on http://www.airbnb.com . How did we choose a family you ask? With a small list of criteria:
• Do you have pets? (Matt’s allergic to cats)
• How large is the family? How many people will be staying there? (we don’t want to live with 20 people).
• Did they have any reviews from other people that stayed there?
• Do they have pictures of the home?

We chose Carla’s and her family’s home in Barranco – Lima. She was really helpful even prior to us getting there – answering multiple questions, finding out if they carried Cetaphil in the store, and arranging a driver to pick us up from the airport. We chose Edith’s family’s home in Cusco. Edith’s family will pick us up from the airport, actually provides breakfast and lunch included in the cost, and dinner for only an extra $3 per meal (can’t beat that).

FYI We’re in Cusco now.. sipping on coca tea =)