Experiences of studying abroad in Peru - Part One

I always wanted to study abroad somewhere (probably a Spanish-speaking country since I’m working to obtain my Spanish minor here at Penn State), but I never knew exactly where I wanted to go. After researching various places, I settled on Peru. I was already too attached to Penn State, so I decided to study during the summer, and I had an absolute blast. During my time in Peru, we visited many different places across the country. Peru is known for being one of the most bio-diverse countries in the world, in which one can experience deserts, jungles, snow-capped mountain ranges, and highland pastures all within short travels of each other.

My home city was Cusco, Peru, which is situated about 11,000 feet above sea level. Within an hour of arriving to the city, I began to experience altitude sickness. I struggled to catch every breath, and it was a task just to walk up a flight of stairs. My host mother, who did not speak a word of English, gave me herbal tea as soon as I arrived to help reduce the effects of the sickness, which helped a little bit.

While in Peru, I took two classes; Spanish language and the History of the Incan Civilization. Though I did not take any agricultural classes in Peru, I certainly took advantage of looking at the different ways food is produced in the country compared to United States agriculture. Peru is known for their wool and potato production, in which there are over 4,000 different varieties of potatoes in the country.

One of the most interesting areas of agricultural that we were exposed to was an alpaca farm. There, they harvested the wool from alpacas, llamas and vicuñas (wild alpacas). The main focus of the alpaca farm was to keep the Incan heritage within the products they created. The main focus of the farm was sustainability; the farm used all-natural dyes, in which they grew all of the products used in the different dyes. After creating the dye, the farm would hand-spin, and weave the different products for sale.

Feeding an alpaca in the Sacred Valley

Boiling an all-natural dye at the alpaca farm

Hand weaving at alpaca farm in the Sacred Valley

Peruvian woman spinning wool and tending to her flock

Peru is mostly known as being part of the extensive Incan Empire. Cusco was the capital city of the Empire until the Spanish conquered the city in the 1530’s. We spent a lot of time traveling and visiting parts of the Ancient Empire. One of the main highlights of the trip was when we visited Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu is located in the cloud forests of Peru, virtually an unknown area to the Western world until 1916, when it was discovered by Hiram Bingham.

A photo of me standing in front of Machu Picchu

I certainly had a wonderful time during my stay in Cusco, Peru. I gained so much knowledge about the Incan civilization, and it truly fascinates me how advanced the civilization was, in which Machu Picchu was named one of the Seven Modern Wonders of the World.