Loki Cusco

The House

After what seemed like an eternity living in Lima and trying to think of ways to avoid the 9-5 life, the idea of opening the first real backpackers hostel in Cusco became more and more appealing. After a lot of time and several trips to and from Lima, Dror discovered the ‘Casa Ladron de Guevara’. It was love at first sight for him and we could not hear enough about how this place would make the perfect hostel. However, there was a large BUT!!!! Maybe some of you are already aware of what the ‘but' meant if not, well the absolute bomb site the house was in was and the amount of work needed to turn it into a hostel was something that could have been perceived as quite ambitious.

Anyway, with things like this, you have to make the jump and after a couple of structural reports etc. we made that jump.

Finally in December 2004 a small hostel only a couple of blocks away became our home for what was the start of the restoration process until we had some running water. I cant remember exactly how long, but after a few weeks a bathroom with a flushing toilet and the ‘hottest’ water ever was finished and we were ready to move in!!

During the construction we had a lot of decisions to make on things like restoration, the 300 years old mural we found, colors and others, being a group of 4 guys none of this was too easy, but definately fun.

On the 1st of July 2005 we finally opened with about 60 beds, but it took us till February 2006 to finish the construction of both courtyards and get it to its current state. Since then we have made a lot of improvements and changes like moving the bar and common areas, adding more rooms, etc. to get it to the state you will find it when staying with us.

Check here for the house history, the state we found the house, the construction process, the mural restoration, and before and after photos.

Click here to see the most recent shots of the House in 2008