After Being Stranded In Peru For 7 Months, This Tourist Got A Solo Tour Of Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu is a big one on many bucket lists, so just imagine if you got to wander through the ancient Inca citadel without any of the crowds — that’s exactly what happened for one tourist over the weekend.
Jesse Katayama arrived in Peru from his home country of Japan back in March before *everything* went down.
Peru went into one of the strictest lockdowns, with restrictions that included closing international borders and all tourist attractions, as well as implementing a curfew and only allowing people to leave their homes for essential goods — leaving Katayama stranded in Aguas Calientes, about nine kilometers from Machu Picchu.
Speaking at a virtual press conference, Peru’s Minister Of Culture, Alejandro Neyra, said that now some international flights had resumed, they allowed Katayama into the park, despite it remaining closed to tourists.
“He had come to Peru with the dream of being able to enter,” Neyra said. “The Japanese citizen has entered together with our head of the park so that he can do this before returning to his country”.
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“Machu Picchu is so cute!!” said Katayama in his Instragram post. According to the automated Insta translation (because I do not read Japanese), he was pretty damn elated about the whole adventure.
“I thought I couldn’t go anymore, but everyone asked the chief headman [and] the government, and I was able to go… everyone in Peru is too kind…Thank you so much!! … After the closure, I’m the one who went to Machu Picchu first”.
Talk about making lemonade out of lemons. I don’t know about you, but this this is so wholesome and makes me want to go to Peru even more.
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Katayama had been holding onto his entry ticket since March, with an original plan to only spend a few days in Peru. He finally got to use it over the weekend, becoming the first visitor to enter the ancient site in seven months. On an exclusive tour, no less.
Neyra also told journalists that Peru was making plans to re-open Machu Picchu to tourists, operating at 30 percent of its normal capacity of 675 people a day — although no date has been set.
“We are still in the middle of a pandemic,” Neyra said. “It will be done with all the necessary care”.
(Lead Image: Instagram / @jessekatayama)
