We took a walk through some residential areas of Cusco on Sunday. Wanchaq, our neighborhood, is a fairly nice, middle-class part of Cusco. Some of the nicest residential areas of Cusco are Larapa, Magisterio and Huancaro Residencial. There are also poorer neighborhoods both near downtown as well as on the outskirts of the city. The residential areas of Cusco are growing fast, new buildings are going up everywhere. True to Peruvian form, some unfinished buildings linger around for years.
Cusco is an expensive city by Peruvian standards, thanks to the tourist industry. The cost of real estate is entirely out of line with personal incomes. Asking prices for nice apartments easily exceed $50,000. Consequently, as in all of Peru, it’s not uncommon for 2 or 3 generations of a family to share a home, which is also why you find lots of young couples making out in public places.
These are pictures of middle-class residential areas in Cusco. I’ll try to get some pictures of the other districts later.
-
- New building going up
-
- New office building
-
- Sidewalks in Cusco are terrible
-
- Nice residential street in Cusco
-
- Park in a residencial area of Cusco, Peru
-
- More bad sidewalks
Life in Peru 
The sidewalks don’t look so bad. Here it’s often easier to walk in the street. At least they’re fairly level. The problem is that the homeowner has the sidewalk and can do (or not do) just about anything they want with it.
Larry