A Minnetonka couple remains stranded in their Cusco hotel as violent protests continue after the arrest of Peruvian president Pedro Castillo.
Castillo was impeached and then arrested after announcing a plan to dissolve Congress and install an emergency government. The country's Supreme Court ruled he must remain in pretrial detention for 18 months, prompting his supporters to protest around the country.
"We were in Santiago, Chile when the president was overthrown," Eric Evenson said. "We contacted the embassy at that time and they didn't raise the level of alert. We asked if we should go to Peru and they said yes."
Eric and his wife Clare took the trip as part of 10 year wedding anniversary delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Because we were on the Inca Trail and we were away from a lot of people, we started seeing the tensions on Monday when were going to Rainbow Mountain," Evenson said. "On the way back from Rainbow Mountain we started seeing all of the cutdown trees and all of the protesters blocking roadways. That's when we noticed that things were getting pretty tense."
Once back in Cusco, a ten minute trip to the airport took Eric and Claire an hour. Their vehicle passed a mob of rioters running towards the airport where the perimeter had already been secured by government police.
As they got closer to the airport, the couple exited the vehicle on the street and walk through the gates to get inside.
Their airplane got as far as the tarmac.
"We were on the tarmac, pushed back from the gate. The rioters used like a bomb and something to blow a hole in the wall of the airport. We couldn't see it but people on the other side of the plane could see rioters entering the airspace."
The plane returned to the gate and Peruvian military members helped passengers get back inside the airport. Passengers stayed in the terminal until it was deemed safe to leave and they were eventually kicked out.
The airport has been closed since.
"The more stressful thing to us was how stressed out and concerned the locals were and continue to be," Evenson said. "Our cab driver was very concerned about our safety and he went around the mobs. You could see and feel that he was really stressed. He basically dropped us off and said, 'Go! Go! Go! Get in the gates!' So that was kind of stressful."
Since then Eric and Clare have been sheltering inside their hotel in Cusco where there's adequate food and supplies. Others have not been as fortunate.
"Our friends from a different hotel came over to our hotel yesterday because they ran out of clean water and they were conserving gas so they could cook food. Their menu was cut down a lot because the hotel was almost out of food. They came to our hotel, used the shower, had food, and got clean water."
Eric says they're beginning to worry about how they will replenish things like natural gas because trucks likely won't be on the roadways.
"We're hearing more and more people coming back from Machu Picchu and West Calientes and they're walking 20 miles on a railroad track that's been vandalized that's very unsafe but it's the only way to get to Ollantaytambo. We met a young couple that walked the full way from Machu Picchu all the way back into Cusco. It took them a long time but thank goodness they're safe."
About 100 other U.S. citizens and another hundred tourists in the hotel. Each of the have been told to reach out to their senators and representatives back home.
Eric says reaching out hasn't been very encouraging.
"For the first three or four days a lot of people we reached out to including the Embassy in Lima felt very disconnected and didn't believe what was happening on the ground. Even us we're realizing the weight of the situation. We have over 1,000 Americans stranded in this city and if you look at the front page of any news outlet it's all about Ukraine."
As of Friday, there was no timetable for Eric and Clare fly back to Minnesota and return to their three daughters.
"We've had five or six rebooked flights since Monday. Delta's put us on standby lists, but I think the biggest challenge is determining if it's safe enough for us to leave the hotel and get to the airport safely."
Contacts within the Peruvian government told Eric and Clare that the airport was secured late Thursday night.
"We're hoping that if flights can start going and they can secure the roads and flights, that we'll be getting out of here late Saturday and Sunday."