Protests in Cusco Peru – Living In Interesting Times

“May you live in interesting times.” This phrase seems eerily appropriate, now that we are living through the protests in Cusco Peru.

That quote, often falsely attributed to a Chinese curse, suggests that boring times are best for the lives of normal folks. And from the high-altitude perspective of global history, this is probably true. War, famine, disease, and political upheaval, although historically entertaining, are never fun. Especially for the average person who simply wants to get out of the line of fire and live their life.

Well, it turns out that Two Travel Turtles is stuck in the middle of some interesting political times in Peru, as you may have seen in the news. And the political protests in Cusco Peru, along with those in Lima, Arequipa, and the Andahuaylas region are at the forefront of all of this.

Since it has been a couple of weeks since our last post, we thought that we should update everyone so you didn’t think the worst! Simply put, a combination of minor health issues, followed by an extended period of heavy tourist-style travel at Machu Picchu, kept us from updating our blog in a timely fashion. But we’ll write about all of that later.

Just as things started getting back to normal for us slow travel-wise, protests in Cusco Peru broke out!

So What is Going On in Peru?

For those interested in the current political state of Peru, I suggest reading this article by the Associated Press, one of the best non-partisan outlets for fact-based news. It sums up recent events quite well.

Needless to say, the situation is complicated. And is only made worse by disparities, as well as lack of trust, between the urban (read: Lima) and more rural (read: non-Lima) regions of Peru.

As western outsiders, it would be arrogant for us to voice our opinions about political situations that we have no experience with. The Peruvians have been very kind to us and we only hope that everything is resolved as peacefully as possible.

So What is Going on in Cusco?

The protests in Cusco Peru have made life interesting.

In Cusco, Peru protesters called for an “indefinite general strike” in response to how congress and the newly appointed President of Peru (Dina Boluarte) handled the ousting of ex-President Pedro Castillo. Although we aren’t 100% sure what an “indefinite general strike” means, it seems that the city has shut down, more or less.

What do we mean by this?

Alejandro Velasco Astete Cusco International Airport is effectively closed. No flights in or out of Cusco.

Train service to Machu Picchu has been suspended. No, our Machu Picchu plans were not disrupted.

Major roads leading in and out of Cusco have been “barricaded” by protestors. Commercial and tourism traffic seems to be restricted, although local traffic…not so much.

Trash service (and presumably other city services) has been suspended. And since last night was trash pickup night, the streets are getting a little messy.

Many stores and eateries are closed. And from what we can tell, the vendors fall into 4 major groups:

1. Stores that close their doors for business out of respect for the politics of the protests.
2. Stores that close their doors for business out of fear that marching protesters will vandalize them for not observing the strike. This is a real fear.
3. Stores that are “open”, but have lookouts in the street for protesters. They are prepared to close their doors the moment they hear/see protesters coming down the street.
4. Stores that are fully open, and could care less about the strike.

Generally speaking, the further away a store is from the protest hotspots (like the Plaza de Armas) the more likely it is to be open for business in some form.

And store workers seem to be of mixed opinions about the protests.

Make no mistake, the acting President of Peru, Dina Boluarte, is NOT popular in communities like Cusco (read: non-Lima). In contrast, ousted ex-President Pedro Castillo was very popular in these same communities. Apparently, Castillo was born and raised in a rural community and was thought to give these underrepresented areas a greater voice in Peruvian politics.

But it is clear that despite the rationale of the protests, they still make many locals feel uncomfortable.

Some aren’t sure that the protests will result in meaningful change. Some think they give groups of disenfranchised youths an opportunity to act out aggressively in their own communities. And some think that the protests might invite military intervention by the government if things don’t stay peaceful.

As we said, the situation is complicated.

So What Do the Protests in Cusco Peru Look Like (so far…)?

We wondered the same thing, so we hit the streets to check things out.

Our area of Cusco was very safe, so we made our way towards the city center using common sense as a guide to whether or not we were in any danger.

Hitting the streets, we were taken aback by the lack of traffic.

And locals were milling about. Few people went to work today, so folks were in the streets swapping news about what was going on.

Some businesses whose doors were closed (but not padlocked) had them secured by coathanger wire by protesters who were passing by. Not sure why, but we saw it happen.

We also noticed how quickly trash started accumulating in the streets when there is no one to remove it!

We intended on going to the Plaza de Armas, as that is where demonstrations always seem to take place. As we made our way through narrow alleyways, we encountered smallish groups of marching protesters who were congregating at the Plaza de Armas. Here is a video of what we saw.

Note the lack of weaponry. This group, as with almost every other we encountered today, did not look like they were wanting to start trouble.

We could hear the protesters at the Plaza de Armas well before reaching it. And as we arrived, we could tell immediately that these protests were serious.

Serious, but well-behaved. Check out this video of what we witnessed.

Hopefully, protests in Cusco, Peru stay peaceful as police were present to keep an eye on things. And Peruvian police are not afraid to use force if deemed necessary. Things would go sideways in Cusco quickly if violence were to break out.

And I suppose it could.

Early this morning before the city lockdown was confirmed, we attempted to ride a public bus to one of the historical sites on the outskirts of Cusco. That was when we discovered that the buses stopped running due to the strike.

While waiting for the bus (that never came) on a major street we saw a group of 8 young male “protesters” wielding metal rebar clubs walking in the middle of the road toward the center of town. And we saw them throw rocks and clubs at a car (presumably a taxi) that was not respecting the general strike. They paid no attention to pedestrians though.

This was the only incident of any violence that we personally witnessed today. The vast majority of protesters look like they want things to be peaceful (see the above videos), but there is definitely an undercurrent of concern in the community that a few bad apples could create a tinderbox situation with military intervention.

Here’s hoping it doesn’t come to that.

Current State of Two Travel Turtles

We are doing just fine.

We have a comfortable, secure apartment away from the main protest areas in the historical section of Cusco.

We have Airbnb hosts who are looking out for us.

And the condition of the street outside our apartment makes it very unlikely that we will be visited by unwelcome protesters.

That, and the fact that unwanted guests would have to charge up 5 flights of stairs completely exposed to a wide range of anti-siege medieval defensive tactics by our little neighborhood community. Our friends who are well-versed in military tactics would approve of our defensive position, I’m sure.

But we don’t think it will come to that.

Our Airbnb host suspects that the protests in Cusco, Peru will soon calm down in observance of the Cusquenian Christmas Holiday period from December 15 – 25. As we are supposed to be leaving Cusco by night bus on December 23, the timing of the holidays would be perfect for our exit. And if the roads do not open, we are confident that we would be allowed to extend our stay in our current apartment until things open back up again.

We also have worst-case-scenario bugout options available if things don’t calm down over the next couple of weeks. Chile, Bolivia, Brazil, and Ecuador are all reachable by bus, presuming there is road access available. And from there we can fly to wherever we wish to go.

So we are living in interesting times at the moment!

But honestly, aside from minor disruptions to our local travel plans, it is business as usual. Of course, we are keeping a close eye on the protests in Cusco, Peru, and will adjust accordingly if need be! But here’s hoping that things settle down and we can continue onward through Peru as planned.

We’ll see!

Thanks for reading!

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