Returning to Peru I discovered the rainy season has certainly arrived. Floods, tens of missing people and a handful of dead were reported as heavy rains from the Amazon slammed into the Andes. This regular event, known in some parts as the Bolivian Winter, happens each year and brings the high Andes its only source of rain. Further down however towns and their people are washed away in mudslides and floods as rivers break there banks. Bridges and roads, that took the entire year to rebuild from the same disaster the year before are again destroyed.
The town of San Ramón, Chanchamayo, that I spent a week in last year suffered badly with 15 missing and 8 dead, most of the town was underwater and vast parts destroyed. The department of San Martín has been flooded for a while now and in the Sacred Valley landslides threaten to bury the town of Calca near Pisaq.

Update 09/02/07: More heavy rains in the last day or so.

• Two bridges have been washed away in Pasco and towns flooded. The authorities are trying to airdrop food and medical supplies to the people of Austrian Tyrolean origin who have lived there for 250 years. 4 have been killed.
• Nearby in Tarma, a town I have visited, 1 person has been killed by the heavy rains.
• In Ucayali and Loreto several roads have been washed away in landslides leaving people stuck.

Tags: chanchamayo, disaster, huaycos, san ramon