Cusco, Peru Political Protests – An Update

Hello readers! Thanks to everyone who reached out to us expressing concerns for our well-being. We’ve received a bunch of messages asking how things are since our last post, so we thought it best to give you our boots-on-the-ground observations of how the Peru political protests continue to affect Cusco.

That, and we thought you might be interested in hearing about changes to our travel plans since the protests look like they may be continuing for a while!

Peru Political Protests – Preparing for the Worst in Cusco

Over the last couple of days, we’ve been told by locals, as well as the United States embassy, that we could expect scheduled political protests and another general strike in Cusco on Monday, December 19th (today).

In an email we received from the US embassy, we were told to anticipate mass gatherings of protesters, road closures, and a shutdown of transportation, shops, and general services. In essence, Cusco would be closed for the day, if not for the foreseeable future.

And all tourists were warned to duck and cover, understandably. So we decided to not do anything touristy today, just to be safe.

But at around noon, when protesters during the last strike gathered at their peak, we noticed that there was considerable car traffic on the streets. And we couldn’t hear the horns and crowd noise from the Plaza de Armas as we did before.

As a matter of fact, it seemed like Cusco was operating pretty much like normal.

Our curiosity piqued, we decided to hit the streets to see what was going on.

What Are We Actually Seeing? – Monday, December 19th

So we walked downtown, where we were certain to see evidence of any protest disruptions.

And this is what we saw: loads of people milling about in the streets, doing business, and going about their daily lives as usual.

Most of the stores/restaurants were open for business, public transportation was running in earnest (inside and on the fringes of Cusco), and private collectivo buses were making runs to open tourist destinations outside of Cusco. And the Plaza de Armas was completely devoid of protesters.

It was almost like the local protesters changed their minds and decided that additional protests were bad for business.

Seriously, if it weren’t for the lower volume of tourists in the Plaza de Armas, you wouldn’t know that political protests were even an issue in Cusco.

Here’s hoping that things stay this way.

So What Is Cusco Like Right Now?

Things are pretty close to normal at the moment (5 pm on Monday, December 19th). But not 100% normal.

What do I mean by this?

The military arrived in Cusco several days ago and secured the Alejandro Velasco Astete Cusco International Airport. They are also monitoring the general situation in town, although we really haven’t seen much of a military presence personally. Police, yes. Military, no.

The Alejandro Velasco Astete Cusco International Airport is open, and flights are entering/leaving Cusco at normal capacity. As you can imagine, tourists are leaving faster than they are arriving.

The trains leading to/from Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu town) are running again. UPDATE: Apparently protesters damaged the railroad tracks leading to/from Machu Picchu overnight. Train service is no longer available for now.

There is a military-imposed curfew in Cusco, from 4 am – 8 pm.

Public and private transportation in/around Cusco is operating close to normal. We know that there are a couple of roads/bus routes closed off in the lands surrounding Cusco, but tourist transportation in particular seems to be running to at least some locations (but not all).

Keep in mind we have no idea how bad the road closures are between the major towns and cities in Peru. Word on the street is that major connector roads are still blocked by protesters in some cases, and tourists are encouraged to use air transportation to escape their particular situations.

Stores and restaurants are open, and there are no obvious shortages of supplies.

City operations are functioning, as far as we can tell. At least the piles of garbage have been hauled away, and offices seemed to be open.

So What’s Our Take On the Peru Political Protests? Are We In Danger?

Honestly, Cusco feels like it is pretty much operating as normal, but with fewer tourists crowding the streets. The biggest uncertainty seems to be the reliability of ground transportation between Cusco and the outlying areas. From a tourist perspective, this means that access to historical and archaeological sites is a bit of a crapshoot.

But in the grand scheme of things, this is a minor concern. This is not to say that everything is fine now, as protesters, police, or the military could decide to escalate things. But even when things were very tense in Cusco last week, we never felt in danger or targeted at all.

The Peruvians are simply protesting perceived injustices within their government, which is within their legal rights so long as they don’t incite violence. Simply put, tourists have nothing to do with their protests. That, and directly harming tourists would be very bad for the local economy long term.

Having said all of this, we continue to keep our eyes open for danger and use common sense to drive our decision-making. We honestly feel that if we just maintain our role as interested observers of the situation, we’ll be fine.

How Have We Adapted During The Protests?

Aside from intermittent ground transportation disruptions, we’ve carried on as usual. Meaning, when the going gets tough, we go exploring!

Since our last protest post several days ago, we’ve been able to thread the needle of safety and transportation availability to do the following things:

• During the last general strike, we explored the Archeological Complex of Sacsayhuaman, whose unregulated entrance is very close to our Airbnb. We hiked 15 miles, up mountainsides, along valleys, and through many hidden, but magnificent, Inca sites. It was one of the best hikes we have ever taken!
• When public transportation resumed over the weekend we explored the spectacular Inca archaeological site of Písac. Truth be told, this site rivaled Machu Picchu in its magnificence. And had 0.1% of the tourist volume.
• We were also able to take advantage of the available weekend public transportation to explore the Inca archaeological site of Tipón, whose impressive terraformed aqueduct system is still functioning.

So we haven’t been stuck in our Airbnb waiting for the world to end.

And we fully plan on blogging about all of these experiences, including Machu Picchu, once we are in a stable situation. Stay tuned!

Speaking of stable situations…

So What’s Our Current Plan?

As mentioned in our last post, we were planning on leaving Cusco on December 23rd, and moving onward to Arequipa, Peru by night bus.

But we’ve scrapped that plan.

The conditions in Arequipa are considerably more sketchy than in Cusco, and the Pan-American highway is still plagued by protesters closing it at random intervals. We don’t see the wisdom of moving into an even more unstable situation, so we’ve decided it is time to leave Peru.

We will come back someday to finish our Peru tour, exploring Arequipa, Nasca, and the Sacred Valley near Cusco when the political situation has stabilized.

So where are we going on December 23rd?

We’ll be flying from Cusco to Jorge Chavez International Airport in Lima, Peru. And from there we will pick up a connecting international flight to Colombia!

We will first fly to Medellin, Colombia for a few nights. And then we will fly to the chill, coastal town of Taganga, Colombia (near the city of Santa Marta) on the Caribbean coast for one month.

Time to ditch our cold weather clothes and hiking gear for Speedos and SCUBA gear!

After just over one month in Colombia, we will resume our planned 1 year Latin America tour by crossing the Colombia/Ecuador land border and arriving in Quito, Ecuador by bus. Sounds sketchy, but it is actually pretty easy and is much cheaper than flying to Ecuador!

Closing Thoughts

So that is what has been going on in the lives of Two Travel Turtles during these interesting times.

The Cusco, Peru political protests have been civil overall, and we are doing fine. And although the local situation in Cusco is looking promising, we know that it is very fluid.

And we have been very fortunate. Our travel flexibility has allowed us to explore Machu Picchu and many Inca ruins in the Cusco region, although not as well as we would have liked. The Sacred Valley will just have to wait!

Until next time…

Thanks for reading!

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