Cusco Campervan Quarantine

• NOTE: This blog post is going to have a ton of text and very little pictures!
• NOTE: As the scenario changes everyday etc., and even the people in power making the decisions have no idea, I am only going to make this one post and update it, not multiple posts. Would prefer not to mention this part of the trip at all 🙂

Before we got to Cusco, we stopped at rainbow mountain for a hike up to 5000 meters (insanely difficult), we also did an ATV ride to some lakes and to a salt making thingy and also booked our 4 day adventure tour to Machu Picchu, just to have the night before the tour El Presidente Vizcarra announce a total lockdown on Peru. Basically it was just after there was one case and he is taking a hard core tactic to it, my guess is because of the number of ICU’s and Ventilators he has. However just to make things fair my guess for the Chile President going on Lockdown is cause everyone is protesting against him. Love a state of emergency.

10 days

The Lockdown starts as 10 days on March 16th. We are very lucky to be at a large spacious Overlander Campground just on top of Cusco. When El Prez made his announcement, a lot of overlanders returned here. By the end of the day, we were about 20 vehicles (not including those already long term parked here while the owner is away [free parts]) and about 60 people. It’s a little crowded as the higher levels on the campground are very difficult to reach cause of the muddy rainy path, but morale is good. We have a big meeting, make a whatsapp group and quarantine life begins. In all actuality with the lockdown, National and state borders are closed, and you are only allowed to leave home, one person per family, to go grocery shopping, pharmacy or bank. Everything else is closed anyways. All good, I venture once into town and since we are on top of Cusco at 3400 meters, the hike back is intense. Sign of corona, outta breath. I’m always out of breath here.

Camp life is good, as I said, morale is good, there are even a couple of children birthday parties, the Frenchies have their zoomba course, etc. One German dude eventually snapped and had a meeting to yell at all of us, basically a standard Alles-Besser-Wisser who knows more than doctors cause we have two here and the told him what he was doing was wrong and he didn’t care. He and his family of 4 with 4 dogs locked themselves into their van not ever leaving till they finally got a hotel downtown waiting to go back to germany where it is so much safer. At this point there was less than 100 cases in Peru and Germany was way beyond that. It is what happens when you watch to much news. Anyways I like the guy, after he left we all enjoy making fun of him while having a beer around the fire.

Eventually El Prez kicks things up and the Nation gets a curfew (Ausgangssperre) from 8pm till 5am. Zoomba courses got cancelled and we all have to been in our cars at 8pm. Not the worse, as despite being so close to the equator, at this altitude when the sun sets it gets cold, really cold. There are still regular fire and bbq action though, all good.

The Camp Owners start to get nervous and now we can no longer leave camp (even though the government says we can). At least they do our grocery shopping for us and for the first few times even bought bottles of wine, all good.

25 Days

Well we all saw this coming. Before the original 10 days was up El Prez added another 15 days after the 10 (I may be wrong here by a day or two, been here a while…). Was kind of expected. Most of the people are still relaxed but there are some concerning themselves with going home. At least these people not out of Virus fear, but basically outta being trapped for a long while in Peru. This I can at least understand.

Life goes on as usual. About 5 days before the 25 days are up, Another two weeks are added till April 26th. I am actually shocked, thought it would be at least till May 1st of 16th. Of course, it can always get extended again, indefinitely.

More days?

Only time will tell…

Quarantine Facts and Myths

Need to throw this out there for all the Germans who are watching too much news:

• You can only go out to grocery shop, pharmacy, or bank, 1 person per household. And you need a special permit to drive.

Yeah, the streets are pretty empty, but I’ve seen it all. The cops are friendly, only once in a while will they remind you to wear your mask.

• The President says Military and Police will not be punished if they shoot and kill those in violation of curfew:

Yeah, so what. I’m not in violation of it, and he has problems in his country in the northern states where people are throwing parties non stop and disobeying the curfew leading to mass arrests and of course, mass virus spreading. No one has been shot. The Prez, Military nor police want to shoot anyone, was just a threat to the northern states that are quasi-rebelling. Such typical military style leadership is the standard norm down here, and used to be in Europe not very long ago. I find the German parliment stating that hairdressers have to keep a 1.5meter distance way more entertaining than this statement.

• Yes we have toilet paper. No one here is pack ratting / hamstering. The noodle section at the grocery store is well stocked. No one understands the toilet paper thing. Another reason I am glad I am here.

• Men are allowed out Mon, Wed, Fri, the ladies on Tue, Thur and Sat. Sunday is complete closed.

So many people forwarded this to me on Whatsapp with a strange picture I don’t understand. What is wrong with this rule? I bet the germans would do it with Ausweis Number meaning every person would have to be controlled, doesn’t make sense. Also, as I went out today (Man’s day) there were so many women still on the street. All good, but a good system in general. Most importantly, doesn’t it make it a better world? On one day all the men can go out and have a good time and the next day the women have to leave. Sounds golden to me!

• Other rumors, myths. We are being controlled, harrassed by police and military, we have to take health tests, they are burning europeans, etc…

Millions of other rumors by the same people who told us to be careful and it isn’t safe down here and we will get killed by drug lords. Meanwhile the death toll here is just a fraction of that in Germany, Europe and the USA.

What do we do?

Well, just like you, we are bored. I do any work on Hubi that I can possibly think of, most of the other men at camp do countless tasks to their Overlanders that maybe need to be done, but by day 20 I saw people organizing screws and bolts by size and length. I’m sure you are doing the same, I’ve seen the videos.

Health wise we are great. Michelle started the Quarantine with a cold but it is long gone. She does her Yoga and other exercises multiple times a day and I signed up for the Athlean X Xero program which is really great and I can highly recommend. Only negative are the athletic explosive days where at 3400 meters I run outta breath way before my muscles get tired, did make me vomit and almost piss myself though. Good exercise.

Michelle is also taking some sort of online course certificate, have to ask her about it. I’ve been keeping myself busy with the Switch, finished Witcher 3 a second time and JZ got me stoked again for Civ6. Also Mario Kart Tour for the Phone is an amazing game that I recommend to everyone. Gotta quit playing Schaffkopf.

We also chat with our neighbors a lot, share a beer or a drink with them in the evenings, there have been a few parties but they have been heavily reduced. Feel free to call us on Whatsapp at any time, would love to chat it up (we are same as Chicago time which should be 7 hours different from Stuggi although not sure about the current Summer/winter time).

Also the owners have now lifted the slack a bit and we can go back in the city. I went today. Was nice to get out at first.

Alcohol

Of course during a quarantine alcohol is very important or you are going to start beating things and going crazy. At first it was no problem and then one day the owners said they would stop buying. Luckily, I came up with many ideas which were implemented and we received a massive supply for all of camp. Supply is running low again but we can go out again. In case we can’t, I have more ideas easy to implement.

Also some say that garbage can lid looks like the Meisterschalle:

Whats the Camp like?

Place is nice. Even though I was thinking in case of Quarantine I want to be at the beach with a Surfboard so I can pass the days, we are very lucky here. The place is spacious, there are kinda 3 levels of earth here. Also 3 craphouses and two showers which are regularly cleaned and with toilet paper as early mentioned.

We started on the lowest level by the gate. Here we had a lot of very friendly french neighbors and two german dudes, each with their Unimogs (they aren’t Unimogs. I got yelled at for calling it a Unimog, apparently they are something nicer but I forgot the name. We looked online and found some for 250,000€). There is then a dutch corner with two Danes and Chileans around the corner. Next to them a lil’ more French then the Argentinian/Mexican/American/Kenyan family. Other side of that is the Mother Ship, even bigger than the Unimogs, Canadian/Columbian dude and his Columbian family. 2nd level had a Swiss Renter pair and a quasi-self-hardcore quarantine french family. Up on top was a young Germany Couple and another Chilean couple.

Just about everyone is really friendly. There is also a cat which the owners deny but is clearly the offspring of their two cats. It is playful sometimes.

The owners dogs are really cool but old so they just chill all day.

One German Unimog guy and his Swiss gf have some sort of dog, only 1 year old, waaay too much energy. This thing needs to run 100km in the morning before it gets calm. Here, it gets about 500m of movement before being strapped to the Mog again.

There are a handful of kids here but they aren’t mega annoying. Also the Mother Ship set up some slack lines for the kids and starts fires regularly. The Dutch corner has a girl who is on a mission of anti-plastic or self-sustainability etc. During her presentation even she noticed that her home country has a much bigger plastic problem than South America, but it is a really good cause. Someone needs to educate all of South America not to throw their garbage anywhere, and educate them for multiple generations, some places are terrible(Argentinia especially). Although at the same time there are plenty of Americans and Europeans that need this lesson too. She lucked out big, next to her is an older Dutch pair their second time around the world. They spend alllll day cleaning, fixing, modifying her campervan.

The crazy Besser-Wisser left quickly. The old swiss couple a while after. The young German couple who were really cool left yesterday, outta money, and one of the Unimog guys with them. The Frenchies are currently planning a mass exodus, but still no approval. The few of us left are waiting it out…

Going home?!

I’m stubborn. But really what’s the point? I can go home to the parents in law house and be quarantined there. Fun. Not to mention with the flights and the airport and Germany, 99% chance I get the damn virus there. I know El Presidente will keep extending the quarantine. But it we do get out May or middle may, that’s still 6-8 weeks more of South America that I wouldn’t get if we go home now. We have a million back up plans on what to go when and where, the only real concern is if there will be flights come June. I doubt the embassy will fly people forever, but we will see.

Made a pro/con list. Heavily weighted on the pro’s for staying here :). Although the question of today is, for how long?

The news each day is a rollercoaster. I really hate the news. First day it’s hopefully and promising and the next it’s heart breaking and demotivating. Hate the news. More rumors going around the camp today, spoiling my good feeling yesterday.

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