On 31 May 1970, a huge earthquake struck off the coast of Peru. The quake and the massive landslides it triggered killed approximately 70,000 people. A wall of ice came loose from Peru’s highest mountain, Mount Huascarán, careered down the mountain at incredible speed and buried the town of Yungay. A statue of Christ in the town’s cemetery and four palm trees were all that remained of Yungay.
According to President of the National Chamber of Tourism Carlos Canales Anchorena, casinos will not reopen until August. While the government plans a gradual reopening of the tourism sector, casinos will be the last sector to open to the public the Minister claimed.
Casinos will be opened as part of the “Tourism for All” programme which will launch in July.In an interview with magazine Caretas the minister admitted that the tourism sector was currently “in intensive care.” While large scale inbound tourism will be closed this year apart from possibly business travel he said he was optimistic that domestic tourism will see an upsurge later this year.
Peruvians try to return home but are stopped in Lima (photo Reuters)
Riot police in Peru have blockaded a major highway and fired teargas into crowds of people attempting to flee the capital city and return on foot to their rural hometowns as the country’s strict coronavirus lockdown entered its sixth week.
Local television images on Monday showed hundreds of families, including young children, trekking along highways with their belongings on their backs as they made long journeys to family homes. Poor Peruvians have been trying to leave Lima since last week, many saying they had to choose between hunger or homelessness in the city or risking exposure to Covid-19 as they attempt to return home.
She claimed to be the final descendant of the last Incan Emperor, Atahualpa — a claim the Peruvian government backed in 1946 — and she allegedly learned to sing from “the creatures of the forest.” Yma Sumac didn’t just hit octaves. She knocked them out of the park with a growl, and took them for ride around the Milky Way. For opera aficionados, the Peruvian soprano goes down in history as one of the most talented, and wonderfully weird performers in modern history.
She was born in 1922 as Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chavarri del Castillo in the misty Andes mountains. When she moved to New York in 1949, Sumac was singing in hole-in-the-wall-joints in the Greenwich Village.
Some reports claimed she had a six-and-a-half octave range, in lieu of the average three. And that made her nothing short of a miracle, and she soon signed with Capitol Records. Bruce Springsteen once declared: “It takes only a fraction of a second to succumb to her unique voice.” Audio restoration expert John H. Haley said her voice had, “the bright penetrating peal of a true coloratura soprano,” but in a place of “alluring sweet darkness…virtually unique in our time.”
Hi everyone, we’re cooling our heels at home as are most of you these days.
We’re holding off on all coffee sales, as we’re trying to lay low until things quiet a bit on the pandemic. It’s awful, but we’re coping as best as we can. I worry more about my mother in Las Vegas in a home there.
This too will pass, pray early, pray often!
Virtual hugs to all…
Real Farmers, Really Good Coffee, Direct to Your Cup
