Travel + Leisure - India & South Asia
MAKING THE CUT
Just before India sealed its borders, a veteran traveller had flown from Mumbai to Chile. And she made her way back home just in time. KUMAR SHREE talks to Vasundhara Devi Gohil about her inadvertent adventure through five continents.
How did you get stranded?
Before COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, I had left India for Chile, where I was supposed to lead a group of travellers. I run a travel company called Girl With The Backpack (girlwiththebackpack.com). There wasn’t a single case in South America at the time.
To get to Chile, I flew Mumbai – Dubai – Paris – Atlanta – Santiago, while the route back was Santiago – Sao Paulo – Addis Ababa – Mumbai. Literally around the world in 10 days!
What was the situation along the way and in Chile?
None of the countries on the route, except Chile, were performing any kind of checks on arrivals when I went. The Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport was business as usual. Three days later, the news of France being badly hit was all over the news.
I was in Chile for about a week, and I would wake up to a new horror of the virus’s spread every morning. I felt disconnected mostly because in Chile, everything was as usual. It is only when they started shutting down national parks, restaurants, and other establishments that I decided to head back home. However, by the time
Chile decided to shut down, I had left for the Atacama Desert. My flight back to Santiago had already been cancelled, so I had no choice but to take a 22-hour-long bus journey back to the capital, to barely make it in time for my flight from Santiago. By this point, the severity of the situation had kicked in. In a matter of three days, Chile had gone from completely functional to totally shut down.
Tell us about the journey back.
I left Chile for India on March 19.
I was worried about getting quarantined in some government facility en route. So I carefully chose a flight route via Brazil and Africa, because there were no red flags in these countries then. I landed in Mumbai at 7 am on March 22.
The airport was almost empty, and I went through all the basic checks quite easily. They enquired about the countries I had been to, and if I had any symptoms. Soon, they let me through the immigration desk. Some people who had been to affected countries were getting a stamp on their hands stating that they were to self-quarantine for 14 days. Although I didn’t get the stamp, I did the same for myself, just in case.