Duluth residents Matt Johnson and Hilary Buckwalter-Wilde had been completely off-grid in Peru's Sacred Valley for 11 days when they found out Monday morning that their journey home might be much more difficult than expected.
While the couple had been at their Peruvian friends' plant-medicine retreat in the Andes, going through psychedelic plant-medicine ceremonies that Johnson hoped would be one way to battle his recently diagnosed prostate cancer, Peru had fallen apart.
Peru's president, Pedro Castillo, had announced he was dissolving Congress, and then congress impeached him and replaced him with a new president. After Castillo was jailed, his rural supporters blocked roads and swarmed towns and cities in protests that soon turned violent.
Friday, more than 20 people nationwide had been killed in protests. Curfews were ordered in parts of the country to try to contain violent demonstrations as clashes between protesters and police in the southern city of Ayacucho left seven people dead and more than 50 injured.
Dina Boluarte, who was Castillo's running mate and was sworn in as president on Dec. 7, has failed to quell the anger despite a proposal to hold early elections. Peru's long-running political instability is reaching a boiling point as no elected leader since 2016 has been able to complete the five-year presidential term.
Johnson, a 46-year-old Duluth firefighter, and Buckwalter-Wilde, a 45-year-old who owns a counseling business, were supposed to fly out of Cusco, Peru, on Tuesday. But with airports shut down, a nighttime curfew and a nationwide state of emergency, they have instead been mostly cooped up in their hotel, two blocks from Cusco's Plaza de Armas, a hub for the protests.
Outside, they hear noises; sometimes it sounds like gunshots, other times like flash-bang grenades. They stocked up on emergency provisions: ramen and fruit and wine. They went out for burgers and beer, breaking their no-meat, no-alcohol pledge for the aftermath of the retreat; stores were mostly shut down and streets were mostly quiet, although they avoided the protests' center. They have a flight out scheduled for Saturday, but they don't know if it will take off.
"We have no idea if this is the beginning, the middle or the end of what we're doing here," Johnson said over Zoom from their hotel room. "Things could get worse. The U.S. Embassy advised we shelter in place. But we realize we're people of privilege who can be at this safe hotel, we haven't run out of money or access to food. There are so many people in different situations."
