2 Shelton Women Stranded In Peru After Coronavirus Closes Border

SHELTON, CT — Two Fairfield County residents are back in Connecticut after their vacation last month to Peru took an unexpected turn that left them stranded when the country closed its borders amid the global spread of the new coronavirus.

Amy Pavlik is a Stratford native and Giuliana Candiotti moved to the area when she was 12. Both women now live in Shelton. They departed Connecticut on March 15 for Lima but, before their scheduled return six days later, Peru issued a state of emergency, canceling flights and closing airports.

“Immediately after notice was given, all flights out of the country were sold out,” Pavlik said in an interview with Patch via Facebook Messenger. “It was a stressful and scary situation. We showed up at the airport anyways in hopes that we would be able to buy a ticket at an airline counter, but we were sent away.”

The two ended up staying in Peru eight days longer than planned, quarantined in an Airbnb and uncertain when they would return home. They went to the U.S. Embassy the day after the border closed, but got no answers, Pavlik said.

“We were in touch with our families the whole time,” she said on Messenger. “My parents were worried but tried to stay positive because they knew I was having a hard time. Giuliana has a daughter that we were in touch with daily — it was just hard to not have answers for her because we didn’t have the answers ourselves.”

Eventually, Pavlik and Candiotti decided to try their luck and go the embassy.

“We just showed up to the embassy and made it on standby on a flight and they just happened to have a few extra seats,” Pavlik said on Messenger.

The chartered embassy flight departed March 29 from a military base in Lima and landed in Washington, D.C. Pavlik and Candiotti must reimburse the government for the flight at a rate of anywhere from $800 to $1,500, Pavlik said.

“It was much different than flying out of a regular airport,” she said on Messenger. “… They couldn’t do regular security checks on us so they had dogs sniff our bags.”

Now, several days after their return, Pavlik and Candiotti are settling into the country's new normal amid the coronavirus, staying home and working remotely.

“We are doing OK — both happy to be back,” Pavlik said on Messenger.

The state of emergency in Peru has been extended to April 12, according to the embassy. The country had 1,414 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus and 55 virus-related deaths as of Friday morning, according to Johns Hopkins University & Medicine. As of Thursday, Connecticut had 3,824 confirmed cases of the virus, 59 of which were in Shelton, according to state data.