Corona Daily 298: The Man and the Mountain

Jesse Katayama from Osaka was 25 years old when he decided to travel the world. He was passionate about two things, boxing and teaching boxing. His dream was to open a boxing gym in Japan. A committed young man, Jesse decided he must spend a year visiting different countries and continents, to learn different boxing techniques. The year would also allow him to visit some of the great places in the world.

Jesse’s plan was simple. Travel a country renting small apartments. Attend boxing schools and tournaments. Where possible, earn some money by teaching boxing to local students. Using that formula, he spent two months each in Australia, Brazil, South Africa, Egypt and Kenya. Peru was his last stop. His planning was meticulous. Months before, he had booked an expensive ticket to visit Machu Picchu, Peru’s most visited site. He rented an apartment in the quiet town of Aguas Calientes, only a few miles from Machu Picchu. His ticket was for 16 March. He would end his grand world tour after that and return to Osaka.

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Machu Picchu, loosely translated as an old mountain, is a fifteenth century citadel. It is the site of an ancient Inca city, high in the Andes of Peru. Fortunately, the Spaniards who plundered the country didn’t know of its existence. Made of polished stone walls, Machu Picchu is considered to be one of the seven wonders of the world by some. If you have not seen the Taj Mahal or Machu Picchu, you have not lived. More than 1.5 million visit it every year. Tickets are exorbitant and must be booked months in advance. Despite capping the numbers of visitors, the place is always crowded. Tourists can stay only for a few hours.

On 15 March, a day before Jesse Katayama was due to visit it, Peru went into a lockdown. Machu Picchu was closed for all visitors.

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Days turned into weeks, and weeks into months. Jesse found ways of occupying himself. He took yoga classes. He enrolled for fitness and sports nutrition exams. Once the lockdown became relatively relaxed, he started to teach local children how to box.

Occasionally, he gazed at his entrance ticket wistfully. He had been so close. When he went on his morning run, he could see the mountain. With so much time at hand, he visited the surroundings, the Aguas Calientes waterfalls, the Putucusi mountain, Yanamayo and other places. But Machu Picchu remained elusive.

Peru has suffered badly in the pandemic. It has lost more than 33000 citizens. Peru has the highest deaths per million in the world, one out of every 1000 residents has died. And yet, Jesse waited week after week, in the hope of using his ticket.

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By now, everyone in the town he lived in knew of the Japanese who was waiting for seven months to visit Machu Picchu. Newspapers interviewed him. Hundreds of his well-wishers wanted to petition the government on his behalf.

On Mon. 5 October, in a virtual news conference, Alejandro Nevra, Peru’s minister of culture, made an announcement. In recognition of Mr Katayama’s patience, he would be granted special access to the tourist site.

On Sun. 11 October, Jesse Katayama spent a whole day at Machu Picchu. Some staff and guides were allocated to him, but he was the only tourist in the citadel. “The first person on Earth who went to Machu Picchu since the lockdown is meeeeeee.” He posted on his Instagram account.

Day after tomorrow, he will leave for Japan. The townspeople are giving him a tearful farewell. Local children have drawn Katayama pictures, and as a memento made a Peruvian doll for him out of toilet paper rolls.

Ravi