Peru protests: Australians stranded in Machu Picchu after civil unrest 

Australians are among more than 300 tourists stranded at the remote world heritage site of Machu Picchu in Peru after violent political protests broke out in the country.

Protesters blocked the only train line running in and out of the area triggering landslides to cover the tracks with large rocks and helicopter evacuations were suspended due to bad weather.

Very limited train services are understood to have resumed in the last few hours, but they can only take tourists to the nearest city of Cusco due to track blockages and tourists will have to walk or find another means of transportation to the rest.

Some tourists are attempting the 40 km walk to the next town in the hope that the trains to Cusco will be more accessible from there.

A group of Australians stranded in Machu Picchu tell how they have no way to leave the area

Political protesters have blocked the railway tracks that provide the only access in and out of the area with some tourists attempting a 40km walk to the next town.

The Machu Picchu UNESCO World Heritage Site is extremely popular with tourists.

“I think it’s my best chance to get my flight out of the country, but that’s more than eight hours of travel,” said stranded Australian Alex Cauchi. 9News.

“You know we are trying to hide our money in case the protesters come and then find out how we got from Ollantaytambo to Cusco and then from Cusco to Lima and if we have flights,” said fellow traveler Monique Spurr.

Janelle Nicholson, traveling with her visually impaired husband, spent a fortnight volunteering at a nonprofit in the area, but the couple are now stranded as well.

She said they requested seats on a helicopter to evacuate them, but are being moved down the list for elderly or injured people.

“There is no hospital here so they have priority and I understand that,” he said.

The Sydney woman, MacKenzie Reynolds, said she did not know how she could leave the area.

“The railways have been destroyed by the protests, parts have been stolen, parts have been blocked with rocks,” he said.

Actually, there are no roads in and out of this city.

MacKenzie Reynolds (left) and other Australians (right) wait for helicopters to take them out

Helicopter evacuations were suspended yesterday amid bad weather

Workers try to remove a boulder from the train track to the Inca citadel

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said the Australian embassy in the capital Lima has received 170 requests for assistance from Australians in Peru.

“Many of them are in the city of Cusco and Machu Picchu, where transportation options are limited,” a statement from the department said.

There are no reports of Australians being injured or caught up in the civil unrest, the department said.

However, access to food and medicine for stranded tourists could become a concern if access to remote areas like Machu Picchu remains blocked.

The protests, in which Peruvian authorities say 17 people have been killed, sparked when leftist President Pedro Castillo tried to illegally dissolve Congress but was charged and arrested.

Protesters take the Pan-American highway in the Northern Cone of Arequipa after the announcement by the new Peruvian president Dina Boluarte of her intention to present a bill to parliament to advance the general elections scheduled from April 2026 to April 2024

The new president Dina Boluarte, a former vice president, said she is heading a transition government and urged the country’s Congress to approve a proposal to advance general elections.

Protests since the arrest of former President Castillo, who is in pretrial detention while facing charges of rebellion and conspiracy, have paralyzed Peru’s transportation system, closing airports and blocking highways.

On Wednesday, the Boluarte government announced a state of emergency, granting special powers to the police and limiting the rights of citizens, including the right to assembly.

‘We want the immediate closure of Congress; we want the resignation of Dina Boluarte,’ René Mendoza, a protester on the border with Bolivia, told Reuters.

“All of Peru is in struggle.”

Supporters of former President Pedro Castillo protest demanding his release and the closure of the Peruvian Congress in Lima