I did a lot of other extremely cool and far less common stuff than the Inca Trail, although I did hike parts of that too, further north near Chachapoyas and Kuelap.

There is a lot to do and see in the region and I was working in Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, mainly in rural or remote areas so I had a good opportunity to experience some interesting things.

I'm sure I have some details wrong, but this is the gist according to my Peruvian wife and her family.

The old president, Pedro Castillo, tried to get rid of the current congress. This is a power that the president of Peru has, but they obviously need support of the military and other government entities to actually give the action the weight that it requires. Unfortunately for Castillo, the congress can also impeach him, which they did saying he was corrupt. The military supported the decision of congress, so Castillo was out. He tried to flee the country as is typical in a failed coup (if you want to call it that), and he was imprisoned.

Although the process is totally legal, the people are mad because of who is in charge of the government now, the new, unelected, president does not share the same views as Castillo, I forget her name. Just like most countries, they have the right wing and the left wing. Castillo represented the left wing saying he would look after the people. It seems that he was corrupt and totally self-serving, (as is common in governments, especially in South America).

The right wing is the typical right-wing party wanting to give a lot of power to businesses (for the kickbacks, it would seem). One example is that they want to give companies the rights to mine on indigenous, protected, land. There are many more examples, but the people don't feel represented, and want special elections. So far, it's heating up, they have closed some main roads to get around the country, and places like Machu Pichu are closed for the time being. This is a major blow to the economy of the already struggling country. The protests started in far away provinces and towns, but have spread into the capital city of Lima. The government is trying to quell the protests to the point that they have started using physical violence to get the people in order and have killed some protestors and bystanders. This naturally causes the unrest to grow.

There is even rumors that Chile and Bolivia are looking to capitalize on the unrest and claim southern Peruvian territory, which wouldn't be the first time. It's a mess.

TLDR: Its a mess because of a change of political power.

Ever since December 8 2022, lots of roads and airports were closed due to political demonstrations in southern cities. Some of it has been cleared, but it's resumed in Lima - my friend arrived there one week ago and the roads across the mountains were shut down again, and buses weren't running. They had to take car rides along the back roads which took longer. I recall hearing more than once that Machu Picchu was closed and tourists were stranded as a result. The other comments describe the why and how, but getting around certain parts of Peru are somewhat difficult at the moment.

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