Coronavirus: Aussies speak of two-week ordeal to get home from Peru

After a two-week ordeal to get back from Peru to Australia, 14 days quarantine in Sydney beats military lockdown for Nat Read.

Nat Read and Nick Gourlay speak of the two-week long ordeal to get back from Peru to Australia. Picture: Supplied

“I’m not laughing, I’m crying,” Nat Read said on her first phone call to lifelong friends as they burst into spontaneous applause at the news that she was safely home in Australia.

After a two-week ordeal to get back from Peru to Australia with her partner, Nick Gourlay, 23, the emotion is briefly overwhelming. At this stage facing 14 days quarantine at the Sheraton in Sydney with food of an unknown quantity and an empty mini bar beats being under military lockdown on the other side of the world.

“If we stayed in Cusco any longer I think the situation would have become worse,” she said.

“After the President declared the state of emergency our hostel got shut down, and there was no explanation why. It was a chain so we think it might be because of the cost of running the hostel.

“We started hearing hostels were being raided by police for drinking in the common areas. We were never sure of the rules. Our hostel would sell us beer and say it was fine, but if the police were to come then we were on our own.”

Nat Read and Nick Gourlay in Peru.

Ms Read, 23, said the night before they moved to the other hostel the police raided it and 40 backpackers were arrested and forced to sign documents written in Spanish before they were released after four hours.

The pair eventually got word from a Facebook group there was a company helping stranded Australians home. Ms Read said it wasn’t until a week later the Department of Foreign Affairs began working with the company to assist organising the flight home.

“DFAT said they couldn’t comment on when they actually started to work on getting people back from Peru in correlation with this company. It was up to the government to help us get out when they had already failed to inform us this would happen.”

Ms Read said she experienced an overwhelming sense of relief when the flight landed in Sydney.

“This morning with our police force and army at the airport it was much more relaxed and welcoming compared to our experience at the airports in Peru,” she said.

“Having the police welcome us, ask how we were and help us with our bags made me feel so happy – on the verge of tears happy.

Arriving at Sydney airport. Picture: Supplied

“It was unnerving being in Peru with the police force having such a strong and alarming presence.”

The pair now face 14 days of enforced quarantine at the Sheraton in Sydney’s CBD. Ms Read said that while she’d prefer to be home she isn’t complaining.

“We understand this measure is for the greater good and so far the meals have been good. We are pleasantly surprised.”

When Peru went into lockdown Ms Read said the Australian embassy in Peru shut down with it.

“I had no one to call. There was no warning this was going to happen from the Australian government. There were no alerts at all. Nothing to tell us we should stop travelling.”

Ms Read said it was difficult having people berate them for being there when they had no warning there wasn’t going to be a way out.

“Trying to get out was chaos. We went to the bus station to try and get a bus out to Lima but none of them were running. There was one flight available to Lima but tickets were around $800 each for an hour flight. There were hundreds of people trying to get out of the city.”

After chartering a flight to take them from Cusco to Lima to then catch a connecting flight from Lima to Sydney, Ms Read said they were never certain when the flight was leaving.

“We weren’t told until about 5pm the day before if the flight was going ahead. Before that there was no solid information at all. No call from DFAT to confirm. All the information we got was through the charter company.”

The flight home cost Ms Read and Mr Gourlay $5,640 each.