Traveling to Peru? Don’t !

It’s not a good time for tourists to travel to Peru. Tourists should stay away from Peru right now. Lima and other parts of Peru are collapsing in mud.

It’s not a good time for tourists to travel to Peru. Tourists should stay away from Peru right now. Lima and other parts of Peru are collapsing in mud.

eTN Ambassador Daniel Vivas is caught in this situation first hand. His home and neighborhood is cut off from the rest of Lima. There is no water, there is no food, and there is no way to get to the rest of the city – the only bridge collapsed. Daniel is tweeting, he is on Facebook and on the mobile phone asking for help. His eighty year old mother is praying and she is frightened.



There are 72 confirmed dead. It may only be the beginning. Earlier this week weather forecasts on Peruvian TV and Radio, the National Meteorology and Hydrology Service of Peru (Senamhi) forecast was about upcoming dangerous flooding- until a government minister threatened to put weather forecasters in jail and label as terrorists for spreading “fake news.” A local El Nino phenomenon, the warming of surface sea temperatures in the Pacific, will likely continue along Peru’s northern coast at least through April, said Dimitri Gutierrez, a scientist with Peru’s El Nino committee.

It could bring disaster to this Andean country and deserts are turning into violent muddy rivers taking everything along the way.

Daniel tweeted: The City of Lima collapsed today in traffic affected by the rains of yesterday. But they don’t want it to look like this? Maybe they’re waiting for the waters to reach government palace.

He told eTurboNews: ” Big time guys! The flooding is everywhere. We are getting unusual tropical storms.” We’ll we have had around 72 confirmed casualties but not tourists whatsoever. 17 homes were flooded in my immediate neighborhood. I live in the highest area- luckily.”

It’s hot here, rains, flooding, mudslides caused for Lima and other cities to collapse. The road to Custco is closed. Tourists should stay away from Peru right now.

More than 70,000 people have become homeless as Peru’s rainy season has delivered 10 times as much rainfall than usual. This number is expected to increase rapidly.

About half of Peru has declared an emergency to expedite resources to the hardest hit areas, mostly in the north where rainfall has broken records in several districts, said Prime Minister Fernando Zavala.

Peru is bracing itself for another month of flooding.

The U.S. weather agency has put the chances of an El Nino developing in the second half of 2017 at 50-55 per cent.

In Peru, apocalyptic scenes recorded on cellphones and shared on social media have broadened the sense of chaos.

“There’s no need to panic, the government knows what it’s doing,” President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski said in a televised event, urging people to stay clear of rivers.

The vast majority of people affected by the extreme weather are poor, including many who built makeshift homes on floodplains that had been dry for 20 years, said Chavez.

“There’s no electricity, no drinking water…no transit because streets are flooded,” said Valentin Fernandez, mayor of the town Nuevo Chimbote.

Peru must rethink its infrastructure to prepare for the potential “tropicalization” of the northern desert coast, which some climate models have forecast as temperatures rise.



More heavy rain will affect parts of Peru and Brazil – as much as 300mm could fall in just 2 days bringing additional risk of flooding and landslides.

About the author

Avatar of Juergen T Steinmetz

Juergen T Steinmetz

Juergen Thomas Steinmetz has continuously worked in the travel and tourism industry since he was a teenager in Germany (1977).
He founded eTurboNews in 1999 as the first online newsletter for the global travel tourism industry.

Share to...