Peru’s famous ruins of Machu Picchu, which have been locked down for months due to the coronavirus pandemic, reopened on Monday to a lucky Japanese tourist after spending months stranded in the country due to global travel restrictions.
In a video I mentioned it first By The Guardian, Jesse Takayama expressed his gratitude to officials who approved his request to visit the antiquities after arriving months ago in a small town near the ruins, where he has remained since the Peruvian government imposed restrictions on the emerging coronavirus. Others around the world.
“He came to Peru with a dream that he would be able to enter,” Peruvian Culture Minister Alejandro Nira told a news conference on Monday, according to the Guardian. “A Japanese citizen entered with our park president so that he could do so before returning home.”
Takayama originally bought his ticket to visit the ruins in March, according to the news outlet.
Peru has had to enforce severe travel restrictions due to COVID-19, including ending all incoming international flights earlier this year, which only subsided this month after the rate of new COVID-19 cases in the country began to decline. August.
The country has seen its rate soar in recent days as well, and is still facing one of the worst outbreaks in South America, according to pooled data. From Johns Hopkins University.
“We are still in the middle of a pandemic,” added Neira. “This will be done with all due care.”
Peru has recorded just over 849,000 cases of the COVID-19 virus, and 33,305 deaths since the start of the epidemic.
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