A long flight, four airports, three planes, fifteen hours and thirty minutes from first take-off to landing in Cusco. Depart Austin at 7:30 pm, Leave Houston at 12:15 am, arrive Bogota Columbia at 5:00 am, a three hour lay-over before my final flight to Cusco, Peru arriving at 11:00 am. One hour through Customs and Immigration and then a short wait for Maximo Nivel's driver to collect me. We then stop by the Maximo office to check in and get my housing assignment. Once I arrive and settle in it is recommended to just take it easy for the first day. The home is a four-bedroom apartment on the sixth floor - no elevator. The hostess, Nora lives on the fourth floor. It is clean, has an amazing view but no heat or a/c. It can house up to 12 guests. I am currently number 9. The other eight are all in their twenties. The number of guest changed during my two-week stay, dropping to as few a four for a few days. At the end of my first week after having the room to myself for four nights, Mai (Chinese/Canadian) was assigned to room with me. She was in her early 30's, a data analyst currently working in San Diego. We hit it off really well and I enjoyed bunking with her for the second week.
Nora our hostess is a really good cook. She teaches a bi-weekly cooking class at Maximo. She cooks mostly meat-free meals but does do some meat 2-3 times a week for the meat-eaters. I think there was only one night where she cooked something special just for me. I really enjoyed all the meals except for one. There was one dish I really did not care for and was unable to finish. Breakfast most days was bread, avocado and a fried egg - egg and avocado sandwich - right up my alley!
My only complaint really was the lack of heat/heaters in the apartment. It was cold getting up and dressed each morning. I slept with 3-4 blankets on the bed to stay warm at night. I slept in my sweats and wool socks most nights.
On the flight in to Cusco
View from Home-stay in Cusco
My second day in Cusco came with an early start. Orientation at Maximo at 7:00 am. I booked an Uber the night before and arrived right on time. My program manager was Nico, a South African native that as been working in Latin America for Maximo for six years. First up, my assignment. I was expecting a dog rescue organization. They also had a Llama/Alpaca farm or a Wildlife rescue zoo. I was so surprised when I was assigned to the zoo. The zoo was located out on the Southeastern edge of Cusco. a 40+ minute ride on the bus from Downtown. I would be taking an Uber in every morning to avoid leaving at 6:30 am and taking several buses. I would take the bus back after work as I planned on exploring the city each afternoon and having lunch there.
After orientation we were on our way. On arrival a quick tour and then get to work. Meal prep was a big part of the job. Cutting, chopping, peeling fruits and veggies. We then would deliver these to the non-aggressive animals and then clean up the kitchen. Once that was complete we would be assigned to maintenance tasks. This could be anything from cleaning water pools to planting trees or doing laundry. Most days we were finished by 11:30 am. After the first day when I was there by 8:00 am, the day started with cleaning the cages and collecting the food trays from the day before.
I really enjoyed the work here. I did discover though that the knives they had for us to use to do the prep were all very dull and just made the task longer, more difficult and tiring. So the first thing on my list was to go shopping and buy four new large knives and a small paring knife. These helped so much! I inquired if there was anything else they needed that I could get and was asked for rope and cutting boards. I located those and brought them in a few days later.
Final good-bye.
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