PERU - Carla Valpeoz, 35, traveler from Michigan, Pariwana Hostel, Cusco, 11 Dec 2018 *blind*

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Thanks for posting the extremely detailed article.

Does anybody know if Carla speaks Spanish?

The article implies that she does (traveled with a group of Argentine and Spanish tourists). At the same time, some of the group may have spoken English to varying levels and used English when speaking to Carla.

I visited Turkey decades ago and it was fairly common for English speaking locals to wait around out door historical sites and also inside museums and offer guided tours. Carla may have been approached by some body and offered guide services while she was walking to the ruins.

If Carla does not speak Spanish, then the guide would have to speak English to have a chance at getting retained. This could limit one pool of people to:

- English speaking males known to offer guide services at the village ruins.

These males can be identified by local knowledge, and also possibly through reviewing issued guide licenses for the town. if I remember right, Turkish local history guides needed to have a license by the Turkish government. I don't know about Peru and licenses. The village appears to be off of the quick Machu Pichu tourism route. This may limit the number of English speaking local guides and produce a still smaller pool of people.
 
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Mauge said:
She does. Her father seems to be a native Spanish speaker, from the videos I've seen.
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That definetly increases the probability of speaking Spanish and also increases the number of locals she would have been able to interact with in depth which in turn, increases the number of potential criminals that would have a common ground in approaching her.

Then again, English was not my mother's native language, yet I grew up only speaking English. Likewise, with Spanish, I have known several Hispanic children/ young adults from homes where one or both parents are native Spanish speakers, yet the younger generation only speaks English. It just depends on what language is used around the house and how strongly the surrounding area encourages retaining Spanish.
 
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Cryptic said:
That definetly increases the probability of speaking Spanish and also increases the number of locals she would have been able to interact with in depth which in turn, increases the number of potential criminals that would have a common ground in approaching her.

Then again, English was not my mother's native language, yet I grew up only speaking English. Likewise, with Spanish, I have known several Hispanic children/ young adults from homes where one or both parents are native Spanish speakers, yet the younger generation only speaks English. It just depends on what language is used around the house and how strongly the surrounding area encourages retaining Spanish.
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I know. I've read many times that she speaks Spanish, and besides that many, many people in Cusco speak English. They have a tourism based economy.

She seems to have vanished in thin air. The river being so close to Pisac is something that has always concerned me.
 
Mauge said:
She seems to have vanished in thin air. The river being so close to Pisac is something that has always concerned me.
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I read an interesting comment about the village from a tourist looking for a shaman ceremony of the sort that involves hallucinogenic drug. He was disappointed when the ceremony was not “authentic” (what did he expect- that any locals with amnistic beliefs would just sell ceremony access to tourists?)

Anyways, he related that he and the “shaman” both used the drug during the "ceremony". I wonder if there is a drug scene in the town catering to tourists. If so, have any tourists became residents due to cheap and convenient access to the drug? Likewise, have some locals become dealers?

Maybe a foreign resident approached her about being out of money etc? Or a local dealer has turned predatory? Though the town / village looks too small to support an expatriate community, I have read of other villages in the jungle side of Peru that have attracted some drug fogged foreign residents perpetually seeking to be included in ceremonies.
 
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I believe you're talking about ayahuasca. It's a brew that's prepared by local shamans and used in "traditional" religious ceremonies, and makes people hallucinate and... you know, get in touch with their inner something. I know people who have used it, and it's not frowned upon. However, it has to be prepared by someone with experience, and since its effect lasts many hours those ceremonies usually take place at night.

Ayahuasca dealers don't exist, afaik. Marijuana and cocaine are cheap and quite easy to purchase, especially in Cusco (the city itself, not the village where Carla went missing).
I hope that was a little helpful :)
 
Mauge said:
I believe you're talking about ayahuasca. It's a brew that's prepared by local shamans and used in "traditional" religious ceremonies, and makes people hallucinate and... you know, get in touch with their inner something. I know people who have used it, and it's not frowned upon. However, it has to be prepared by someone with experience, and since its effect lasts many hours those ceremonies usually take place at night.

Ayahuasca dealers don't exist, afaik. Marijuana and cocaine are cheap and quite easy to purchase, especially in Cusco (the city itself, not the village where Carla went missing).
I hope that was a little helpful :)
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Thanks for the detailed information. Yes, ayahuasca is hallucenegenic drug that was referred to.

The articles that I have read about it seem to imply that its origins are with the indigenous groups in the Peruvian Amazon. I wonder if its use is really traditional with highland groups? My guess is that creative highland locals might be offering "traditional ceremonies"- yeah, right to tourists centered on a drug that is not, well traditional to their area.

That possible irony aside, how much of a drug scene is there involving foreigners in the Cusco area? Are there a noticeable number of foreign resident "drugees" loitering in the area and perhaps in the smaller villages along the historic trails? If so, I imagine some are broke and desperate or perhaps are more hardened "bad news" types.

The infamous Charles Sobhraj led an expatriate robbery/ murder gang in India during the 1970s that targeted foreign tourists or wandering travelers. Though a potential assailant would statistically be local, I still wonder if these smaller villages have foreign residents known to approach tourists and befriend them.
 
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Cryptic said:
The articles that I have read about it seem to imply that its origins are with the indigenous groups in the Peruvian Amazon. I wonder if its use is really traditional with highland groups? My guess is that creative highland locals might be offering "traditional ceremonies"- yeah, right to tourists centered on a drug that is not, well traditional to their area.

That possible irony aside, how much of a drug scene is there involving foreigners in the Cusco area? Are there a noticeable number of foreign resident "drugees" loitering in the area and perhaps in the smaller villages along the historic trails? If so, I imagine some are broke and desperate or perhaps are more hardened "bad news" types.

The infamous Charles Sobhraj led an expatriate robbery/ murder gang in India during the 1970s that targeted foreign tourists or wandering travelers. Though a potential assailant would statistically be local, I still wonder if these smaller villages have foreign residents known to approach tourists and befriend them.
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SBM
Ayahuasca is from the Amazon region. Shamans claim it's been used in the highlands for centuries, which might be true. But once again, they make a living out of it, so who knows :D
There are some foreigners that stay to open some kind of business, mostly restaurants. Some others stay for a couple months, work giving English classes at informal language institutes, and then move to another city where they do the same. And then there are the ones you're talking about. They sell hand made jewelry, weed pipes, friendship bracelets, etc. on the streets. They stay in the city for a couple weeks, maybe a little longer. But the number is not what I'd call noticeable... maybe 20 tops?
As you mentioned, it's likely that a local did it - someone feeling comfortable with the area. She could've been accidentally killed in an ayahuasca ritual, but I don't think that's what happened, since she was planning on returning at 1. If she was really into trekking and willing to take some risks, she might've fallen into the river. Sadly, at this point i don't think we'll ever find out what happened to her :(

This is a website offering ayahuasca retreats in Pisac for foreigners: https://www.sacredvalleytribe.com/
Here's a news article about a tourist from Philippines that died in a ritual in 2016 in the same village: Cusco: Turista filipino murió durante una sesión de ayahuasca
 
Mauge said:
SBM
There are some foreigners that stay to open some kind of business, mostly restaurants. Some others stay for a couple months, work giving English classes at informal language institutes, and then move to another city where they do the same. And then there are the ones you're talking about. They sell hand made jewelry, weed pipes, friendship bracelets, etc. on the streets. They stay in the city for a couple weeks, maybe a little longer. But the number is not what I'd call noticeable... maybe 20 tops?
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Thanks again for the detailed local information.

The expatriate scene in Cuzco seems a lot tamer than what I saw in Instanbul many years ago. There, the expatriate "wander in" types seemed far more into the local hashish drug scene as users and low level sales to other tourists. My guess is that the routinely and greatly inflated their prices. The "crew" gave me the impression that they had been there for alot longer than a few extra weeks or even months.

Some of the "crew" worked is restaurants, some in "dive" bars. Perhaps others as higher end prostitutes. A good number, however, did not appear to work much at all. I was approached by crew members on an occasion or two. They were bored, wanted conversation and one also asked if I wanted to "party".

Though they did not seem dangerous, I am male (hardly invincible, but it does greatly diminish sexual motives) and also declined the "party" offer. They then would drift off. I could not help but wonder if there were others who could be more aggressive.
 
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ETA Ws thread..
PERU - Jesse Galganov, 22, Canadian, Huarez, 29 Sept 2017
rbbm.
Their daughter vanished abroad. Months later, they don't know if she's dead or alive - CNN
June 9 2019
``(CNN)Shortly after his daughter Carla went missing in Peru, Carlos Valpeoz left behind his old life as a contractor in the Texas Hill Country and boarded a plane to find her. He brought only a backpack with him, unsure how long he'd be away from home.

Valpeoz, 71, conducts himself with relentless force, but his eyes and the weight he's lost reveal his exhaustion. When he talks about his daughter -- his "Carly," his "Carlita" -- his husky, deep voice breaks into sobs.
For nearly six months he has traveled to nearly a dozen small towns in a remote region of the Peruvian Andes called the Sacred Valley. He takes flyers with his daughter's face printed on them and walks from house to house, interviewing anyone who might have seen her. Living on his savings, money from his son and some https://www.********.com/findcarla donations, he's been staying in small hotel rooms and trying to spend as little as possible on food and toiletries.
Carla was on her way to an Inca archaeological site near Cusco on December 12 when she vanished and her family's lives turned upside down.``

``In long phone conversations with the Valpeoz family, Ayala Leon has guided them while they navigate through red tape, deal with calls from shamans looking to take advantage of them and look for experts to help in Carla's search.
She and Alisa Clamen of Canada, whose 22-year-old son, Jesse Galganov, disappeared while backpacking in the Peruvian mountains in 2017, have become like a second family for Carla's brother.
"The pain is the same, different circumstances, but the pain is still there," Carlos Jr. said. "I could never repay them for the amount of love, support and information that they've given me."
 
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StarEyes said:
I still think about Carla. I’m blind, and it freaks me out that someone could take advantage of that.
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Me too, the description of her father looking and looking is heart breaking. Equally sad is that Carla was so, well, normal outside of her disability.

The route she was taking is common with tourists. Locals are accustomed to tourists and there is no communal hostility to them. The towns are viewed as over all safe. No endemic gangs.

Though a handful of locals, as in any area, sell drugs to tourists, or peddle admission to "ceremonies" involving an ohh so organic (well, at least purportedly so) hallucenagenic drug, the towns are not viewed as the epicenter of a volatile drug scene.

Carla was doing the standard tourist activity of hiking to accessible ruins and shopping at tourist markets. In short, an ordinary woman following her dreams to see certain sites- no risky behavior and no high risk side activities.
 
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Cryptic said:
Me too, the description of her father looking and looking is heart breaking. Equally sad is that Carla was so, well, normal outside of her disability.

The route she was taking is common with tourists. Locals are accustomed to tourists and there is no communal hostility to them. The towns are viewed as over all safe. No endemic gangs.

Though a handful of locals, as in any area, sell drugs to tourists, or peddle admission to "ceremonies" involving an ohh so organic (well, at least purportedly so) hallucenagenic drug, the towns are not viewed as the epicenter of a volatile drug scene.

Carla was doing the standard tourist activity of hiking to accessible ruins and shopping at tourist markets. In short, an ordinary woman following her dreams to see certain sites- no risky behavior and no high risk side activities.
Click to expand...

It completely baffles me. I’m still wondering if it’s a death by misadventure. I’d think they’ve thoroughly scoured the area she was last seen, though. It just takes a chance encounter with a nefarious person, and within seconds: the person is disappeared. I guess I just feel for Carla with our both having blindness. I hope her poor Dad gets to find out what has happened.
JMO
 
Another tourist has disappeared in Pisac this past September:

Equipo de drones llega de Lima a fin de buscar a turista desaparecido en Cusco (VIDEO)

Jan Prosper Dennerhag (67), disappeared on the last eight of September in the town of Pisac, located in the Sacred Valley of the Incas (Cusco). Since then, the Police have followed his trail without positive results, having to resort to technology and search through drones in order to find the whereabouts of the foreigner.

These agents and their drones will join two others available to the Police in Cusco , consisting of a team of four pilots, who will move in shifts to different parts of the Sacred Valley of the Incas, in order to search for the foreigner in the ravines. and more remote places.

“We have specialized personnel from the Police Aviation Unit operating in the place, they are making a tour of inaccessible places where the patrols cannot reach. We hope to get a general mapping of the place and many more clues in the space of 10 days, "he said.
 
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Family of Detroiter missing in Peru for 3 years not giving up on search (detroitnews.com)

Detroit — It's been three years since Carla Valpeoz was supposed to be on a flight home to Detroit from Peru. She didn't make that plane, but her family said they haven't given up hope that they'll get her back.

Valpeoz, who would have turned 38 on Dec. 8, was known for defying expectations of the legally blind. She crisscrossed the globe, sometimes solo, to explore new places. The Detroiter set out on a trip on Dec. 2, 2018, to trek the historic Macchu Picchu site in the Andes Mountains in Peru with a friend when she failed to show up for her returning flight. Her family and friends say they haven't heard from her since.

"It's like she evaporated," her brother, Carlos Valpeoz, told The Detroit News. "I do not like using the word disappeared to describe her case. She did not simply vanish from this planet. Someone is responsible for her abduction ... and has gone to great lengths to make sure she is never found."...
 
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