Hebden Bridge woman trapped in South America with nowhere to go amid coronavirus

Kaya Nash, 25, works as a boutique store assistant aboard the Azamara Pursuit and had been getting to grips with Brazilian culture as the country celebrated its forty-day carnival season.

After what was supposed to be a routine South America Season trip with her company Azamara, Ms Nash and her fellow shipmates were thrown into a melee of confusion as they were left ‘unsettled and frustrated’ amid the Covid-19 virus hitting the continent

She said; “Before the coronavirus situation hit us we were travelling on our routine South American season, where we saw the incredible carnival in Rio de Janeiro.

“Our crew left port and suddenly we weren’t able to dock anywhere due to the coronavirus lockdown.

“We were at Argentina’s Ushuaia port, which is the most southerly point above Antarctica, and weren’t able to dock.”

The next destination for the Azamara Pursuit was Valparaiso, in Chile, but again were unable to dock.

“It was scary, we had limited access to internet,” said Ms Nash.

“At first our crew didn’t take it seriously, but my dad text me saying I had to come home right away, that’s when I knew it was getting serious.

“We didn’t know what was going to happen - it was really frustrating and unsettling.”

Although the Azamara Pursuit, with its 600 passengers, was designated a healthy ship with no virus cases, the crew would have to stay aboard and could not leave for 21 days - all the while losing resources such as food and drink.

Eventually, a jet-lagged Ms Nash was lucky enough to get a flight back to the UK, but many of her colleagues are still stuck in Miami after the ship was eventually able to dock there.