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Machu Picchu tourists ‘stuck without food’
28 Jan 2010Travellers trapped at Machu Picchu complained of a lack of food and shelter today as they spent a fourth day stranded at the site in Peru.
About 1,600 are in villages near the Inca citadel, with more arriving, after mudslides cut off the railway. Rain is hampering helicopter rescues and the railway could take three days to fix.
Officials had hoped to reopen the railway and rescue tourists by Tuesday, but now say they will need two or three more days.
Choppers have flown out more than 1,000 tourists over the last two days, but 250 more arrived yesterday and more were expected today. Authorities closed the Inca trail, the track that finishes at Machu Picchu, on Tuesday after a mudslide killed two people, but many who started the four-day trek before that will arrive in the coming days.
“It's worrisome. We didn't think it would take this long,” said tourism minister Martin Perezy. “We can evacuate 120 tourists per hour, now the only thing we need is for the climate to help us out a little bit.”
Stranded travelers, including hundreds from the US, Argentina and Chile, reported food, water and accommodations shortages in Machu Picchu Pueblo, a village of 4,000 people near the citadel.
“It's chaos. We don't have food, we don't have water, we don't have blankets, we can't communicate and the police lack an evacuation plan to put us at ease,” said Alicia Casas, from Argentina.
