New Hamburg woman is on her way home from Peru
Ashley Brunette is on her way home after being stranded in Peru.
“Thank you Peruvian military and Canadian Embassy for getting us to Lima, one step closer to home,” she wrote on Twitter.
Brunette, 41, who is from New Hamburg, and her British friend, Sharon Freeman, had earlier been stuck in the Peruvian city of Iquitos, which is ravaged with COVID-19.
“I was just so happy” to hear the news that she had been able to leave Iquitos, said Ashley’s father, Rick Brunette, who also lives in New Hamburg.
He said he has been worried about his daughter and hopes that the Canadian government and other advocates can arrange a flight to Canada from Lima, Peru’s capital city.
“We should sleep a little bit better tonight,” he said.
Ashley left Canada March 13 to attend a retreat in the Amazon jungle to learn about healing treatments that use plants and animals of the area. Her trip was only meant to be three weeks long.
On May 8, long after she was supposed to have returned home, she got to Iquitos, a city of about 500,000 on the Amazon River but without road access.
In part because it is so isolated, the city has suffered from a shortage of oxygen tanks and other medical equipment. This has contributed to its high death rate from the virus. Iquitos is one of the hardest-hit places in Latin America.
Brunette and Freeman had tried unsuccessfully to get to Lima as soon as they arrived in Iquitos.
Brunette’s flight out of Iquitos on Monday was arranged by a combination of the Canadian Embassy in Peru, the Peruvian government and a Guelph man who has lived and worked in Peru, Jeff Geauvreau. Using his Peruvian contacts, Geauvreau helped assure her flight to Lima on a government plane. Geauvreau, who runs the Facebook group Canadians Living in Peru, said Monday that the next step is to fly her home to Toronto directly.
The last repatriation flight for Canadians leaving Peru departed in mid-April. But Geauvreau said there are many more Canadians in that country who are trying to come home.
“I would like the co-operation of the Canadian government to organize another repatriation flight,” he said.
Brunette’s MP, Tim Louis, said in a statement that his office has been working with Global Affairs Canada to bring Brunette home safely.
“I am proud to say our government has already brought home over 2,600 Canadians from Peru,” Louis added.
Brunette said Freeman, her friend, is also headed home after getting to Lima on Friday. She was on a flight to Amsterdam Monday and then has a flight to Liverpool Tuesday.