A 23-year-old Belgian tourist disappeared in Peru more than 10 days ago while on her way to explore a canyon in the Andean highlands, after visiting the famous Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, several sources reported Friday.
Natacha de Crombrugghe had left a backpack in her hotel room in the Andean town of Cabanaconde on January 24 before leaving to visit the Colca Canyon, a popular tourist destination in the Peruvian highlands. Since then, her whereabouts have been unknown.
“Two National Police rescue teams began searching for the tourist of Belgian nationality,” reported the state agency Andina, indicating that Eloy Cacya, an expert high-mountain rescuer, collaborates in this task.
The young Belgian, a law graduate from the Catholic University of Leuven and who worked for an insurance company until recently, according to her LinkedIn profile, last communicated with her parents in Brussels on January 23.
“The last contact with his family was the aforementioned day at 05:30 pm (22:30 GMT) when he was in the Cabanaconde district, then his GPS was deactivated and his cell phone was turned off. She had a three-day itinerary in the town, “said the portal of the Lima newspaper The Republic.
De Crombrugghe regularly shared photos and comments from his trip to Peru on social media, but suddenly stopped doing so. The last post of him on Facebook of him is from January 20.
“Machu Picchu is not only beautiful, it is sublime,” he wrote next to a photograph of him in which he appears smiling with the stone citadel as a panoramic background.
Later, he went to Cabanaconde, a town near the Colca River Canyon, in the Andean region of Arequipa, over 4,000 meters above sea level.
The Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs was informed by his parents of the disappearance, according to the media in that country.
The Belgian embassy in Lima did not report the disappearance, but a foreign affairs spokesman in Brussels told Belgian media that the ministry is in contact with the family and that the “diplomatic team on the ground is following this very closely.”
The De Crombrugghe family asked for help through social networks to locate the young woman, which was unsuccessfully broadcast by Peruvian netizens and activists.
Both the family and the Belgian diplomatic officials hope that she will appear safe and sound. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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