Adventure turns into nightmare for suburban Boynton Beach couple stranded abroad with COVID
Larry and Marcy Gever of suburban Boynton Beach never expected their South American vacation to end in Lima, Peru, but it did after they both tested positive for COVID just before they were ready to board a plane to return to their retirement home in Valencia Cove.
Contracting COVID is an ordeal for anyone to deal with but it can be especially daunting, as the Gevers discovered, if you get it in a foreign country. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines bar anyone from getting on a plane to the United States for seven days after a positive test or until you receive a negative COVID antigen test. The Gevers had to find a hotel room and isolate and that wasn’t easy because The Wyndham, where they stayed on vacation, was booked. They finally were able to find a room at a Holiday Inn.
The problem for the Gevers, and others in their situation, is that someone with COVID can continue to test positive long after they are no longer transmitting the virus.
“We were afraid that might happen to us,” said Larry, “and who knows how long we would wind up having to stay in Peru.”
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Other countries, such as Canada and Britain, have recently lifted their COVID testing requirements for vaccinated visitors but the United States continues to insist on a negative test to board a plane back to the country.
To their relief, they tested negative. Now they had to find a flight to get home, and they had to do it quickly. The negative test was only good for 24 hours, according to the CDC.
“There was just one Catch-22 after another,” Larry said, noting that American Airlines would not let them rebook within that 24-hour period because all flights were full. They eventually found room on an Avianca Airline flight that took them to Miami via Bogota, Colombia. They returned home this month.
What lessons are to be learned from being stranded abroad with COVID?
In retrospect, Larry Gevers said there were some lessons learned.
One is to buy an Apple watch, which Larry had. He was hiking through a rain forest in Peru when his watch indicated he was having episodes of atrial fibrillation. He is not sure whether COVID was responsible for the heart issue. But he had COVID-like symptoms. He was fatigued and congested, so much so that the Gevers decided to end their two-week vacation early.
Before all this happened, they began their trip in the Galapagos Islands, where they spent three days on the main island of Santa Cruz. They saw giant tortoises, lizards, sea lions and seals. They visited the Charles Darwin research lab.
Larry’s heath issues began on day six of their vacation in a Peruvian rain forest. An avid hiker, he was exhausted, and had trouble breathing. They never got to Machu Picchu. They decided it might be too much for Larry as the elevation is more than 11,000 feet.
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They still did not know they had COVID. They took a flight from an airport near the rain forest to Lima. That is when they became stranded after testing positive outside the Lima airport.
Another tip: Buy trip insurance. They decided well before the trip that it is something they needed, and they are glad they bought it. They estimate that the booking of the flight home on short notice, the cost of lodging and meals for the week in Lima cost them more than $7,000, most of which they expect to recover from their insurance company.
And it helps to be bilingual. Not knowing Spanish made it difficult to communicate in Lima. “We were surprised at how few people spoke English,” said Marcy. “It caused some issues for us as we’re not fluent in Spanish.”
The Gevers were fully vaccinated and, in addition, had previously received two Moderna COVID boosters. The vaccines and boosters, they believe, kept them out of a hospital in Lima.
The mandatory test to come back to the United States has caused the Gevers to postpone any future international travel until the CDC relaxes its rules as other countries have done. The U.S. Travel Association has called on the Biden administration to “immediately remove the inbound testing requirement for vaccinated travelers.” The trade group noted that the costs associated with maintaining the measure are significant.
The Gevers’ travel agent billed the trip as an “adventure” vacation. For the Gevers, it had a little too much adventure.
Mike Diamond is a journalist at the Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. He covers county government and transportation. You can reach him at mdiamond@pbpost.com. Help support local journalism. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: COVID: Boynton Beach couple stranded abroad after testing positive
