LOCKED DOWN IN PERU
Montreal couple anxious to get home
It was to be a dream vacation for the young Montreal couple. It is fast turning into the ultimate nightmare, and there’s no sign of it ending any time soon.
Recent Dawson College grads Ilianna Andrada-salvatore, 22, and Nicolas Davis, 20, pooled their funds for a trip to Peru. They arrived March 10, and were scheduled to leave last Friday and return to Montreal the following day. Instead, they’re stranded in the Peruvian city of Cuzco, about 1,100 kilometres from Lima.
The Canadian government has been organizing humanitarian flights from Lima for stranded citizens this week. The problem for the couple and at least 100 other Canadians in Cuzco is that they can’t get to Lima.
The Peruvian government has imposed a nationwide shutdown over COVID -19 fears. There is a curfew, and all domestic and international flights — save humanitarian flights — have been grounded.
Andrada-salvatore, Davis and their families have been trying to reach the Canadian embassy in Lima, Global Affairs Canada and Air Canada, but have had no luck, let alone any kind of direct contact.
Since finishing CEGEP, Andrada-salvatore had been toiling at two jobs, as a waitress at the Casino de Montréal and in the administrative department at Lasalle Hospital, and Davis had been working full time as a chef at an Italian restaurant in the West Island. Now, save perhaps for her hospital job, they will be unemployed whenever they get back.
“What’s really maddening is that when we left, the only suggestion that we got from the government was not to travel to Europe and to take extra hygiene precautions,” Andrada-salvatore said in a Facetime interview from the couple’s Airbnb lodgings in Cuzco. “But they said nothing at all concerning travel to South America. Because if they had, we would have cancelled the trip.”
They are understandably frustrated.
“We’ve been sending out so many emails, asking for help and advice, and all we’ve been getting back are automated emails indicating that they’re trying to help,” Davis said. “We only had about 12 hours’ notice when we learned that the borders had closed and the country was locked down.”
“We wouldn’t have even had the time to make it to Lima then, and we definitely can’t make it there or anywhere else now,” Andrada-salvatore said. “Nothing is moving here … no cars, taxis. I had to call an ambulance to take me to the hospital here for a parasite and bacterial infection.”
She has since recovered, and neither of them are showing
COVID -19 symptoms so far. Regardless, this is not the idyllic sojourn they had contemplated.
“Not at all … a lot of crying, a lot of arguing,” said Andrada-salvatore, who studied environmental science and plans to go into nursing. “We had luckily found tickets that were reasonably priced, certainly in comparison to the $1,400-per-ticket humanitarian flights they’re offering to those in Lima — that we can’t even get ...
“But really, what our government should be doing is first prioritizing travel and assistance for older Canadians all over Peru. They need it most.”
“It’s all so absurd. Together, we paid $1,400 each for this 10-day vacation. Now it will cost us way more, about $2,800 together, just to get to Toronto, if we can, and then more to get to Montreal,” noted Davis, who studied photography at Dawson. “So it has also been very stressful financially as well as mentally. Physically, too. Because we’re at an elevation of 10,000 feet here, each step we take feels like five.”
Andrada-salvatore used to live in Peru, and had long regaled Davis with her impressions of the country.
“The culture here is just so beautiful,” she said. “I told Nicolas it was the perfect place for him to come to take photos. That was our goal: to observe Peru’s great beauty on our limited budget.
“It is such a fabulous country … unless you’re stuck here and can’t get out.”
Without the proper protective gear for a long walk, they are unable to get to a grocery store one kilometre away, and their supplies are fast dwindling. Fresh water is hard to find.
“Still, we are lucky we are young and not among those who are really suffering while being stranded here,” Davis said.
“We’re mostly just scared and worried and really want to come home,” Andrada-salvatore said.
But she does acknowledge a silver lining.
“Nicolas is an excellent cook. I lucked out on that one, anyway.”