Peru | Tue, October 13, 2020 | 06:32 pm
Peru opened the ruins of Machu Picchu for a single Japanese tourist after he waited almost seven months to enter the Inca citadel, while trapped in the Andean country during the coronavirus outbreak.
Jesse Takayama ‘s entrance into the ruins came as a result of a special request he had made since mid-March in the town of Aguas Calientes, on the slopes of the mountains near the site, Minister of Culture Alejandro Δ said on Monday.
“He had come to Peru with the dream of being able to enter,” he said at a virtual press conference. “The Japanese citizen, along with our head of the park, came in to do this before returning to his country.”
Takayama, his ticket on hand since March, entered the ruins of the citadel, built more than 500 years ago on Saturday, and became the first tourist to be able to walk through the World Heritage Site in seven months. His original plan was to spend only a few days in Peru to get to Machu Picchu.
“This is so great! Thank you!” Takayama said in a video on the top of Machu Picchu Mountain.Minister Neyra said that in November the stone ruins of Machu Picchu will be reopened for national and foreign tourists, without specifying the date. The site will permit 30 percent of its normal capacity of 675 people per day.
“We are still in the middle of a pandemic,” Neyra said. “It will be done with all the necessary care.”