Dozens of workers were hard at work on Wednesday clearing the streets and railway line of the tourist town of Machu Picchu, located at the foot of the famous Inca citadel, after flooding caused by summer rains south in the Andes.
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“It will apparently take a few more days, because after the cleaning, one of the bridges will have to be reopened so that tourists can access Machu Picchu and the city itself,” the mayor of the city told AFP. the city, Darwin Baca.
Nearly 900 tourists were evacuated from this town of 5,000 inhabitants, called Machu Picchu pueblo, after Friday’s floods which left one injured, one missing and destroyed many homes, according to the Ministry of Tourism.
“We are asking the regional government, the central government to help us with this program” of cleaning and works, “because the consequences are felt as soon as Machu Picchu is closed,” Baca added.
The town of Machu Picchu is located in the Sacred Valley of the Incas, at the foot of the mountain where the famous stone citadel built in the 15th century is perched. The latter did not suffer any damage despite the heavy rains, according to the authorities.
The railway is the main way to access Machu Picchu from the city of Cusco, the ancient capital of the Inca Empire. Peru Rail said the service would be suspended at least until Thursday.
In the absence of a railway, visitors can access it after walking about eight kilometers.
The citadel remains open, but no more than 300 to 400 Peruvian and foreign tourists a day access it, which is however a third more than last year, according to local officials.
Some 450,000 people visited the famous Inca citadel in 2021, a far cry from the 1.5 million it hosted before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The citadel was closed for almost eight months in 2020 and Cuzco lost around $1.4 billion in revenue due to the absence of tourists.