Pirwa Hostels Peru Blog

Archive for February 2nd, 2010

Heavy rains trapped more than 2500 people in Aguas Calientes. For a couple of days there was no way in or out. The rail ways were washed away in parts of the leg, which made the operation of the train impossible. Information the tourists received in Aguas Calientes, were not reliable. Helicopter were not able evacuate the people due to the weather conditions.The unexpected number of people being trapped in Aguas Calientes was accompanied with various other problems, there were not enough beds, people were forced to sleep on the floor, the food prices were increased significantly. That this would not help to advance the situation for the tourists is without any question.

Nobody knew how the situation might change or when it would be possible to leave Aguas Calientes a couple of people decided to leave by walking out of town. In total there left around 50 people in small groups. This was not as easy as the people expected. A group of eleven people from Brazil and Germany had to fight for their rights for more than 1 ½ hours to be able to leave. In the end the police did let them leave with the assurance that they did at their own risk. They followed the rail way, which was heavily destroyed in various parts along the way. They also had to walk around the it because huge parts were covered by landslides.

They were walking for more than 8 hours and mostly through the night. They did not only suffer from the exhaust, even more from the cold. It was raining heavily during the night. Luckily they passed a small village, where they were able to rest for a couple of hours. A local family invited the group to their house to take a rest and have something to eat. The next morning they started early to continue their journey until they finally ended up at km 82 in Ollantaytambo. They were relieved and really exhausted.

Why did they do it? Having a little bit of time pressure, due to their flight leaving only a couple days later and wanting to be able to see something during their vacation, apart from waiting for something to happen! Were they lucky? Yes, they did get the chance to visit Machupicchu the last day it was open and they got back to Cusco, without any major trouble. Would they do it again? No! They definitely had their adventure, but parts of it they do not need to experience again.

They were able to take a couple hours of rest at our Pirwa Backpackers before they got ready to continue their journey with a lot of energy through South America.