Blogs from Peru, South America - page 7

Sunday, 11 October, 2020 212 days since Covid arrived in Cusco Today something finally happened for tourism in Peru: a Japanese tourist who waited for seven months in Aguas Calientes got to visit Machu Picchu, which is still closed. Conociendo Perú reported on Facebook that the Peruvian government had relented to pleas to let Jesse Katayama visit Machu Picchu. He was accompanied by two photographers, but otherwise had the place to himself. As you can imagine, this made quite a few of my friends here very jealous. Some of my expat friends moved to Cusco on purpose, well before the pandemic, and intended to live here. Several of them are just stuck here and most of those who are stuck haven’t been to Machu Picchu. My former housemate, and current nextdoor neighbor Kerry, intended to leave ... read more

Sunday, 27 September, 2020 198 days since Covid officially arrived in Cusco People in Cusco are so done with lockdown. Despite it officially being illegal to leave your home on Sundays, except for emergencies, there were a lot of people in the streets today. I stayed home, but out my window watched people strolling down the sidewalks and sitting in the park in the sun. It was definitely fewer people than a normal day, and there were no vendors in the streets, but it didn’t look at all like the past six months of Sundays. I didn’t see any cops drive by until almost 3pm and by then the streets were empty again. We have been in lockdown for so long that people have just had it. In March and April, the cops would roll through ... read more

Sunday, 13 Sept, 2020 I’ve been hearing a lot from my friends and family about the wildfires in Washington, Oregon and California. The red skies, even at 9am, the ash covering their cars parked outside and the choking smoke all make the west coast sound apocalyptic. I sympathize with their predicament and unfortunately I can also empathize a bit too well. The smoke in Cusco isn’t as thick as in Seattle or San Francisco, but it’s also tragic: the url=https://larepublica.pe/sociedad/2020/09/12/machu-picchu-reportan-incendio-forestal-de-gran-magnitud-en-santuario-historico-cusco-mdga/Machu Picchu National Sanctuary is burning. The fire started on Friday, near the train tracks. Though the fires on the west coast of the US were almost all started by the same url=https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-09-09/lightning-california-fire-season-pacific-stormdry ligh... read more

Sunday, 30 August, 2020 170 days since Covid arrived in Cusco It’s also been 170 days since the library in Cusco closed. I never took the time to go before, although I walked by it every day on my way to work. I always thought I’d have time “later.” I suspect that people all around the world now have time to do the things that they put off before, but now can’t do them because of the pandemic. It’s a Catch -22. When the pandemic is over, the places we wanted to visit will open up again but we will all be back at work and too busy. Still, the library on Calle Ruinas in Cusco is high on my list of places to visit as soon as it opens again. In the meantime, I do ... read more

Sunday, 16 August, 2020 Five months ago, on March 16th, Peru entered a serious lockdown quarantine. Since then, a lot has changed in the world and in Peru. Hospitals in Peru have more ICU beds than in March, they have more respirators than in March and they have better personal protective equipment for their employees than in March. Five months ago, trucks full of military, armed to the teeth, patrolled the streets. They picked people up for not having a believable story about going to either buy food or go to the pharmacy. Hundreds of people were arrested every night in Peru for breaking curfew - which was 6pm for the first couple months. One of my housemates was ordered to go home when she legitimately left the house to buy food. Another was threatened with ... read more