Most interns placed in Cusco projects stay at our home base – a permanent home set aside for international interns and manned with a local staff. Our home base provides a same-gender shared room and shared bathroom with running hot water and a “western” style toilet. Interns will have the ability to do laundry at the home base. Interns receive three prepared meals per day. If interns will be out of the house during lunch hour, interns can request a lunch "to go" that interns can take with interns or eat out. Meals are cuisine, which is traditional to Peru .

Our Cusco home base is located in the center of beautiful Cusco city. Most of our interns' projects are located within 2-5 miles of the home base. Therefore, interns can simply walk to their projects or take a local taxi. Most necessary services for travelers are located within 2 km of the homebase: internet cafés, restaurants and grocery stores.

Occasionally, depending on intern traffic, available projects or distance to an intern's assigned project, we may also place our interns with carefully pre-screened host families. Our host families are socially respected and experienced hosts of international interns. They have strong interest in our interns' safety and well-being and demonstrate this with caution and care. In most host family situations, interns will share a room with another intern of the same gender. Interns receive three meals a day. Our host families do not offer laundry services, but some will happily take up the task for a small fee. This is up to interns to negotiate upon arrival. If interns choose to do their own laundry, most families are happy to let interns use their washbasins where interns wash by hand then line-dry their clothes.

Throughout the internship project, our local staff stays in contact with interns either with face-to-face visits or via email/telephone. Interns are always welcome at the local office in Cusco . If project placement is local, we request that interns stop by the office once a week to keep us posted on how they are doing with their home stay and project. If project placement is very far, then our local staff members maintain communication by either email and/or phone and try to visit every 2-4 weeks if possible.

Always keep in mind that IFRE can help launch an amazing Machu Picchu quest from Cuzco ! In the meantime, there are amazing activities in and around Cuzco . Check out the Plaza de Armas . This beautiful square (lit up at night) is lined by churches, shops, restaurants and bars. It is a great place to spend an afternoon. The historical center of Cusco is a beautiful, but hectic experience with all the street vendors. Coffee shops are abundant in the Plaza de San Francisco area. There are options for whitewater rafting nearby to Cusco . Upstream are the Chuqicahuana or Cusipata sections of the Rio Urubamba/Vilcanota where the water is clean and the rapids are excellent fun, up to class five depending on what time of year it is. Alternatively, try inflatable canoeing on the Piñi Pampa section of the Rio Urubamba where slow and relaxed self-paddling is not as crazy as class 1 and 2 rapids. Also nearby is the 3 or 4-day Rio Apurimac raft trip. Rio Apurimac is called the true Source of the Amazon and one of the Top 10 rafting rivers in the World. Non-wet mobile adventure options include renting motorcycles or downhill mountain bike tours. On the other hand, simply opt to tour the countryside on a rented mountain bike, set a leisurely pace and pack a picnic.