How an isolated island in Peru survived the pandemic – and plans to bring back tourists

Peru’s legend-filled and tourism-dependent Amantani island has big plans to bring in international visitors. Stephen K Hirst reports

(Teresa Tianyi Li)

There’s an apocryphal story Abel Mamani Calsin likes to tell about a pair of visiting archaeologists to Amantani. Upon discovering a cave network beneath the island, they believed they were on the verge of a major discovery. But one night, they were visited by two spirits who communicated with them telepathically – warning them to stop digging, that humanity wasn’t prepared for what they were about to find. The archaeologists packed and left the next day.

I asked him about it.

“So telepathy, Like Professor X?”