Armours on first plane out of Peru

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Tim and Marie Armour were on the first of three flights bringing stranded travellers home from Peru.
The Armours arrived back in Creemore at 3 a.m. Wednesday after spending days in an apartment in Lima, wondering if and when they would be able to get a flight home after the country closed its airspace. They were amongst about 400 travellers to come home, leaving more than 4,000 Canadians behind.
“Our kids are the incredible workhorses that put it together to get us on that flight to get out of there,” said Tim, now home and in self-isolation for 14 days. “We’d have been lost without them helping us.”
From Squamish, B.C. the Armours’ children Eric and Kim worked with the consulate to get their parents on a priority list due to their “advanced age,” which Tim said he accepted as a good reason.
Although they were concerned about getting home, when asked how it was, Tim said, “Boring as hell. We were just sitting in a little Airbnb apartment 12 floors above the street looking down on the city, nothing to do and nowhere to go. Everything was closed. All the television was in Spanish. It was unbelievable.”
He said they were worried about getting home and about picking up the virus.
The Armours arrived in Lima on March 10 and did get in some sightseeing before flying to Juliaca on March 12. They took in the sights, before heading to Cusco.
“We just arrived at our hotel there and the tour company called to say we had less than 24 to get out before the border was closed. We managed to get a flight to Lima the next morning (thank God for that) because I couldn’t get my breath up in the mountains with the rarefied air,” said Tim in an e-mail from Lima. (Being bored, he was attempting to send The Echo a poem. See page 5.) “Once in Lima we spent the rest of the day trying to get a flight home. One minute we were told no flights at all, then a flight one way for $6,000 each but on attempts to get it, that evaporated too.”
Tim said the whole city is on lockdown. They were allowed out once a day to get groceries but even then they were questioned by police and military holding machine guns, and there was very little food available on the shelves.
All the time, the government of Peru was changing its story about allowing flights, and closing the airports.
Eventually they received confirmation that they were on the list for a flight. On Tuesday they made their way to the Canadian embassy and began a long day of waiting in lines. They took bus-loads of people to the military airport and processed flyers.
“I have to say, the whole thing was really well organized but it does take a lot of time to get that many people through the system,” said Tim.
They boarded an Air Canada plane at 4:30 p.m. Two more planes were scheduled to pick up other Canadians stranded in Peru.
“We’re now thankfully, home safe and sound. All of the airline staff, and personnel and the embassy staff were an incredible help,” said Tim, adding he got a lot of support from MP Terry Dowdall’s office, who “kept all the wheels greased.”
The Armours are feeling well but are self quarantined.

Covid Captives

by Tim Armour
In Lima, in limbo we wait, arms akimbo,
Till governments stir into action,
To send down the orders to open the borders,
Give homeward bound travellers some traction.
In darkest Peru now there’s nothing to do.
We came here to see Machu Picchu,
But everything’s halted.
No one’s to be faulted,
At least coca leaves are a free chew.
Escapes seem to vanish when TV’s in Spanish,
When bars and cafés are all shuttered.
Each eve the sun’s sinking brings cops’ lights a blinking,
Our holiday dreams all but guttered.
My Rankin whodunit three times now I’ve run it,
The pages are dog earned and gritty.
My embassy worker says, “What a tear-jerker.
There’s no English books in this city.”
The only thing standing twixt me and a landing,
On pavement 12 stories below me.
I sit on my couch and I open a pouch.
It’s a travelling gift from my homie.
Some addicts are smokers, some snorters, some pokers.
Some simply tipple. One guzzles.
My pal Colleen Stamp is forever my champ.
She saves me her newspaper puzzles.
Some give that a labelling. They’d say she’s enabling.
For my thirst she’s my sorcerer’s apprentice.
But, with crosswords to tide me, the world can abide me.
And to some I appear “compos mentis.”

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