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Ben Jacob: Student Report from 2015 Alternative Winter Break in Peru

My first real international experience was the trip to Peru. I say “real” because, technically, I’ve been to England and Canada, but I was younger than three years old for each. So I don’t think that really counts. Anyways, twenty-one other people and I went to Peru, so let’s get into that.

Plaza de Armas
View of the Plaza de Armas in the heart of Cuzco, Peru.

Let’s start with a little bit of culture shock. When we landed in Lima, it was immediately evident that a few things were going to change. For example, you know how when there’s a sign in two languages in America, there’s a nice big English phrase right above the smaller Spanish one? Okay, well in Peru, it’s the opposite. You might not think that’s that big of an issue, but it threw me off at first (especially when my Spanish vocabulary is limited to what I learned in the first month of high school Spanish). In addition to that, talking in Spanish becomes really slow when you have to think a second about everything you say.

The Peruvian currency is the Sol. One Sol is worth about thirty cents (definitely an approximation, don’t test me on that). That means you have to get used to going to McDonald’s and not seeing a dollar menu, or even a Sol menu. Also, yes, I went to McDonald’s in Cusco, because I thought it would be interesting. It’s pretty much the same as America, but with smaller portions and actual space to sit down and eat your food beyond the space adjacent to the door. So McDonald’s isn’t good in Peru, either.

Ben Jacob with Llamas
Ben Jacob visits with llamas in the Sacred Valley near Cuzco, Peru

The smallest amount of paper currency in Peru is a ten Sol bill. So any amount of change under ten Soles was given in coins, which, as you can imagine, started to add up. So now I have a pretty sizable amount of coins sitting in my room, and I may or may not have accidentally put a Peruvian coin in my little sister’s gumball machine. Oops.

So let’s talk about the people in Cusco, specifically the people trying to sell everybody their “hand-made items.” As someone who’s been to San Francisco, this was definitely expected, but there are some noticeable differences. The San Francisco vendors will wait for you to approach them, and then they’ll leave you alone if you’re not interested. The Peruvians will approach you and then they’ll follow you for two blocks while you continuously state that you’re not interested.

Iglesia de la Compania de Jesus
Iglesia de la Compania de Jesus, built by the Jesuits in 1571.

I also need to talk about the buildings in Cusco. They’re awesome. The city is largely a combination of beautiful churches, church-like buildings, and buildings with orange tile roofs. So when you look at Cusco from an aerial standpoint, it’s very hard to find what you’re looking for. Once we left Cusco and arrived at the worksite, the aesthetics were much different. The buildings are constructed from mud bricks, which are surprisingly sturdy. The orange roof tiles, however, still stand true there.

I’ve saved the best part for last: the food. Even though it seems like Cusco had only about four options of meals, they were all pretty good. They serve french fries with practically every meal, and as a college student with no concern for my nutritional well-being, I think that’s a great idea. But let’s focus on two specific meals: guinea pig and alpaca. After trying both of these, I reached the conclusion that the cooked guinea pig tasted terrible and the alpaca steak was fantastic. From the prices, it seems this is the opposite of what the Peruvians think.

So if you want to buy a sweater for eight dollars, or you have a secret desire to eat a guinea pig (no judgement here), you should consider traveling to Peru. Or I guess you could go for all the beautiful architectural sites, too.