Calgarian stuck in Peru amid pandemic frustrated with airlines, Ottawa
'We're just kind of sitting here waiting, hoping to get home'
A Calgarian who is stuck abroad as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to unfold says the fear of the unknown is the hardest thing to cope with.
Summer Anderson says her eyes are sore from staring at screens trying to stay updated and find a way to get herself and her boyfriend out of Peru.
"We're just kind of sitting here waiting, hoping to get home," she said.
The 26-year-old says that without any warning, the Peruvian president informed all tourists the night of March 15 that they had until midnight the next day to get on a plane home.
But she says the planes filled up before the country was locked down and closed its borders.
She says she's frustrated because they are healthy and should be able to come home.
But Anderson hasn't had any luck reaching out for help from Air Canada, WestJet or the Canadian embassy in Peru.
"Can't get through to people, you can't book anything online. It just says that there's an error, it's been cancelled and so we're pretty much just sitting here at the hotel in quarantine," she said.
She says the airlines and federal government should be more forthcoming with information to ease peoples' worries.
Global Affairs Canada says it's fully aware of the stressful situation for Canadians abroad. It says Ottawa is working as fast as possible to respond to the high volume of requests for information.
But in cases where borders are shut down, the department says people might be stuck for an indeterminate amount of time.
On its blog, WestJet says it is suspending its international flights on Sunday, and after that it will begin running rescue and repatriation flights with its partner airlines.
With files from Colleen Underwood