Duluth couple stuck in Peru amid violent protests, national emergency

Duluth residents Matt Johnson and Hilary Buckwalter-Wilde had been completely off-grid in Peru's Sacred Valley for 11 days when they found out Monday morning that their journey home might be much more difficult than expected.

While the couple had been at their Peruvian friends' plant-medicine retreat in the Andes, going through psychedelic plant-medicine ceremonies that Johnson hoped would be one way to battle his recently diagnosed prostate cancer, Peru had fallen apart.

Peru's president, Pedro Castillo, had announced he was dissolving Congress, and then congress impeached him and replaced him with a new president. After Castillo was jailed, his rural supporters blocked roads and swarmed towns and cities in protests that soon turned violent.

Friday, more than 20 people nationwide had been killed in protests. Curfews were ordered in parts of the country to try to contain violent demonstrations as clashes between protesters and police in the southern city of Ayacucho left seven people dead and more than 50 injured.

Dina Boluarte, who was Castillo's running mate and was sworn in as president on Dec. 7, has failed to quell the anger despite a proposal to hold early elections. Peru's long-running political instability is reaching a boiling point as no elected leader since 2016 has been able to complete the five-year presidential term.

Johnson, a 46-year-old Duluth firefighter, and Buckwalter-Wilde, a 45-year-old who owns a counseling business, were supposed to fly out of Cusco, Peru, on Tuesday. But with airports shut down, a nighttime curfew and a nationwide state of emergency, they have instead been mostly cooped up in their hotel, two blocks from Cusco's Plaza de Armas, a hub for the protests.

Outside, they hear noises; sometimes it sounds like gunshots, other times like flash-bang grenades. They stocked up on emergency provisions: ramen and fruit and wine. They went out for burgers and beer, breaking their no-meat, no-alcohol pledge for the aftermath of the retreat; stores were mostly shut down and streets were mostly quiet, although they avoided the protests' center. They have a flight out scheduled for Saturday, but they don't know if it will take off.

"We have no idea if this is the beginning, the middle or the end of what we're doing here," Johnson said over Zoom from their hotel room. "Things could get worse. The U.S. Embassy advised we shelter in place. But we realize we're people of privilege who can be at this safe hotel, we haven't run out of money or access to food. There are so many people in different situations."

For example, hundreds of tourists remain stranded near Machu Picchu, Peru's most popular tourist destination, after protesters shut down rail service earlier this week.

The Duluth couple had flown into Cusco, the regional center and former capital of the Inca Empire, a couple of weeks ago with a big goal: To right themselves emotionally, spiritually and physically. Both believe Western medicine falls short when it comes to cancer, so Johnson felt that living his healthiest and most authentic life was key to fighting it.

They read "How to Change Your Mind," Michael Pollan's bestselling book about the new science of psychedelics. Johnson changed his life routine; leading into their retreat, he says he's never felt healthier.

"Just get my head where it needs to be as I embark on this cancer journey," he explained. "It goes beyond healing cancer and having the cancer be gone. It's more like accepting whether I have one day left to live or 50; time isn't as important as making every day count."

Their retreat in the Sacred Valley involved four plant-medicine ceremonies with fasting and therapy sessions in between, where they examined their inner selves.

After they returned to Cusco on Monday, they got a WhatsApp message from the airlines saying their flight was canceled.

As they sheltered in their hotel this week, scrolling the internet for any sparse news about the protests and the political situation, anxiety started to creep in. Their flight is scheduled for Saturday night: Cusco to Lima to Los Angeles to Minnesota.

"Everything seems 50-50 at this point," Johnson said.

"People have been stranded at the airport for days," Buckwalter-Wilde said. "We don't know if this small airport will be chaos or orderly. We have no idea. We're feeling a little bit apprehensive at leaving our safe hotel to go to who knows what, then who knows what in Lima either."

"Now it's to the point we're making decisions whether we leave or not," Johnson said. "We'll plan to go there way early and hope for the best."

Johnson framed their uncertainty as a perfect way to practice what they'd learned in the plant-medicine ceremonies: To surrender control.

"The medicines really make you surrender to what's happening," he said. "And here it's like, OK, you get to really practice it in real life. Accept what's happening that you can't change, can't control. You can either be miserable or choose not to be miserable. And we're choosing not to be miserable."

Bloomberg News contributed to this story.