Hot off the press news

Police in Peru say they have airlifted the last of the travellers stuck near the Inca ruins of Machu Picchu after floods wiped out road and rail links. Almost 1,300 visitors were flown out by copters on Fri. , a local officer said to the Associated Press. A total of virtually four thousand visitors and local residents have now left the area following last Sun.’s heavy flooding.

The Machu Picchu site, which draws more than four hundred thousand visitors a year, will be closed for one or two weeks. Officers say it will take lots of time to correct the train line that leads to the World Heritage Site high in the mountains. Holiday makers were marooned in the city of Aguas Calientes, at the foot of the ruins, after the torrential rain detached road and rail links. On Fri. , 7 helicopters - working in revolution - were ferrying out the visitors to the nearby town of Cuzco.

“Not a single visitor remains in Machu Picchu or in the city of Aguas Calientes”, Tourism Minister Martin Perez. The evacuation, which lasted for nearly a week, was organised by age, with the aged and kids taken first. Younger visitors - typically in their 20s and 30’s - were the last ones to leave the area. Some visitors had to depend on locals for food after money machines dried up and costs for some goods surged. A number of hostels were reported to have risen costs significantly. The train to the town of Cuzco is the sole method of transport on the last leg of the trip to the Machu Picchu ruins, and has been postponed since last weekend when it was blocked by one of forty landslides in the area. 5 folks are reported to have died, including 2 residents finished when their home was devastated, and a trekker crushed while sleeping in a tent.

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