Photo: Facebook
A visually impaired woman from Michigan has gone missing while vacationing in Peru.
Carla Valpeoz, 35, traveled to the South American country earlier this month for a friends wedding,The Detroit Free Pressreports.
Instead of rushing back home to Detroit, Valpeoz, an experienced traveler and author ofVisionless Adventures, decided to extend her stay to enjoy all that Peru has to offer.
Valpeoz reportedly spent the first six days of her trip in Lima with her friend Alicia Steele. Steele, 32, toldThe Detroit Free Pressthat after the wedding, Valpeoz planned a solo trip to Machu Picchu, also known as the Los City of the Incas. The two had planned to meet back up in Lima on Dec. 13, but Valpeoz never returned.
Steele says she received a text message from her friend on the night of Dec. 11, explaining how much fun she had while visiting the ancient attraction.
“I can’t wait to tell you all about it. It was absolutely worth [it] 100%,” the text message read, according toThe Detroit Free Press.
“I’m coming in on Thursday afternoon so I will send you the details through email once I check in. It would be a wonderful welcoming [sic] to have all of you come pick me up.”
Valpeoz never emailed and has not been heard from since.
Carla Valpeoz.Facebook
Being that this was not Valpeoz’s first trip abroad, Steele just assumed she missed her flight from Machu Picchu to Lima and that she would just see her at the airport for their return flight to the U.S.
However, when Valpeoz failed to show up for their return flight on Dec. 15, Steele filed a missing person report and stayed in Peru in hopes of locating her friend.
“This would have been after her flight back to Detroit,” Valpeoz’s brother Carlos told theFree Press. “She already did that. She spent the entire day there. Why would she have to go back.”
Carlos, who currently lives in New York, also opened up about his sister’s disappearance to Fox 2 Detroitsaying, “Carla, I love you. Please come back safe to us.”
Carlos also told the news station his sister is an avid traveler, who started as a volunteer at the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn in 2015. She was later brought on as a tour guide.
“She’s worked for Michigan United, Southwest Community in Detroit. She basically does work for the people,” Carlos continued to Fox 2.
Seeing that she was alone, Carlosexplained toNBC News that a group of local tourist invited her into their group.
The group then spent the entire day together and even went out dancing at a club before returning to their hostel around 4 a.m. on Dec. 12.
Around 9:30 a.m. that same morning, a woman from the group noticed Valpeoz was gone as were all of her belongings.
A receptionist at the hostel claims she saw Valpeoz leave in a taxi.
Despite this, Valpeoz said it is her life’s mission to travel to different countries to experience how other cultures live, in hopes of unifying different communities.
In addition to Peru, Valpeoz has visited Egypt, Papua New Guinea and Yemen.
At this time her disappearance is still under investigation.
source: people.com
