Machu Picchu Pueblo: Buoyed by the return of good weather, authorities are hoping to evacuate on Friday the last tourists stranded near Machu Picchu, the fabled Inca citadel that is likely to stay closed for weeks even if the region dries out.
Peruvian Tourism Minister Martin Perez said only about 800 tourists — mostly younger travellers — were still in Machu Picchu Pueblo, the closest village to the ruins that stand on an Andean mountain ridge 8,000 feet (2,400 meters) up.
Clear skies on Thursday allowed helicopters to fly 1,402 people out of the town, and Perez said the rest could be evacuated in another day if the weather held.
"Right now it is raining heavily in Cuzco, but we believe the weather will be better tomorrow (Friday) to continue evacuations," Perez told Lima's RPP radio late Thursday.
He said 2,542 tourists in all had been evacuated since Monday, a day after heavy rains caused mudslides that blocked the only land route in and out of the Machu Picchu area.
The hordes of outsiders caught in the town of 4,000 people strained food and water supplies and there weren't enough hotel rooms, testing tourists' patience. Many were left to eat from communal pots and sleep outdoors.
"It's been an adventure, a bit more than we bargained for," Karel Schultz, 46, of Niagara Falls, NY, said as she waited to be flown out Thursday.
Even with the end of the evacuation operation close, authorities said Machu Picchu will remain closed for weeks, until the government can repair highway and railroad tracks washed out by mudslides and the raging Urubamba River. Authorities closed the Inca trail, a popular four-day trek that ends in Machu Picchu, after a mudslide killed two people on Tuesday.
Evacuations were conducted by age — oldest and youngest first. Elderly travellers and children were among the 1,131 tourists who were taken out through Wednesday.
Rain prevented helicopters from landing in the town until after midday both Tuesday and Wednesday, but clear skies allowed Thursday's flights to begin at 8 am.
Dozens of ragged-looking, middle-aged tourists lined up outside the train station, where they waited to walk the few hundred yards to a makeshift helicopter clearing. Younger backpackers played soccer with locals and lent a hand stacking sandbags and clearing train tracks to pass the time.
Bureau Report
First Published: Friday, January 29, 2010, 16:18