The three students who were stranded in Machu Picchu Peru due to mudslides and flooding arrived safely in Buenos Aires Argentina early Sunday morning.
Mary Clayton Erin Flowers and Damien Dove were stuck in Machu Picchu prolonging their stay four days longer than anticipated.
After hiking down from Machu Picchu on Jan. 23 they learned of the mudslides and were informed that the government would be evacuating people out of the area with helicopters.
The helicopter evacuation process was successful but extremely slow for the students as well as other people stranded in the area.
According to Flowers there were tourists from all over the world trapped in Machu Picchu with them.
“It was interesting to see how all the different groups of people were interacting she said. It was actually the tourists from Argentina that immediately started trying to get people organized.”
The United States sent in four helicopters to assist the two Peruvian helicopters and speed up the evacuation process.
Official procedure initially stuck to a plan that aided women children and sick people first but then began evacuating based on age.
“After two days of sitting around they finally took control and decided everyone needed to get out Dove said.
According to Flowers, rumors circulated that created conflict amongst the confined.
There were rumors going around that Americans were paying their way onto the helicopters and the Japanese government was going to send the six or so Japanese tourists their own helicopters Flowers said. It got kind of scary when all the rumors were flying around because people were really mad at all the Americans.”
And although Flowers admitted the rumors tempted Clayton and her to consider telling people they were from Canada to avoid angry tourists they both said it wasn’t the rumors that made the experience difficult but the lack of organization among members of the Peruvian government.
“The Peruvian government was so disorganized Flowers said. It took them forever to figure out a system and get themselves organized and it made me have so much more appreciation for the American government.”
Equally as frustrating the students said was the fact that the Peruvian government was hesitant to disclose any information to those who were stranded.
“It was so hard to get anyone to talk to us Flowers said. There was one point where we waited for three hours at the place where they said they were going to give us more details but no one from the government ever showed up.”
All three students agreed the entire trip could have been much better and equated it all to sheer bad luck.
“I wish I could have enjoyed Machu Picchu— one of the seven wonders of the world— more than I did.” Flowers said. “I just wanted to get out of there but if you look at the big picture we were in no immediate danger; it was just annoying and inconvenient.”
Although the trip could have been better Flowers Clayton and Dove still said they appreciated the trip and learned a lot from it.
“The ride over Machu Picchu Mountain was sweet and made up for the stranded days Dove said. It was an adventure.”