Tourist evacuation overwhelms Peru city

Australians trapped near the ancient ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru last week have finally fled the country, three days after being evacuated from the flood-ravaged area, where at least 20 people have died.

As 3500 foreign tourists were flown to safety in Cusco last Thursday, they found themselves trapped again - this time as the small city struggled to handle the influx of people wanting to fly out.

Flights out of Cusco have been booked out days in advance and continued heavy rain has caused some flights to be delayed or cancelled, Australians told Fairfax Media on Monday.

Brisbane men Andrew Lee-Lovick and Geoff Fanning, both 25, managed to board a flight to La Paz, Bolivia, last night.

They were evacuated from Aguas Calientes with their tour group on Thursday, four days after completing the Inca Trail and becoming stranded because mudslides and torrential rain had destroyed the town's only transport system, a train line.

"We're pretty relieved everything's over and that we're finally out of Cusco," Mr Lee-Lovick said.

"It was a bit stressful at the time. The first couple of days it was a real mess, nothing was organised. Our tour company didn't really do much for us so we were scrambling."

Mr Lee-Lovick said his trekking group had been forced to cling to another group of Australians for assistance during the ordeal because their own tour leader had abandoned them, walking back to Cusco through the dangerous bushlands.

The situation was chaotic for several days and the group stockpiled a week's worth of food and water, believing it would be that long before they were rescued, Mr Lee-Lovick said.

Things turned around when the Peruvian military took over the evacuation operation from local authorities on Thursday, using 12 helicopters and 40 pilots to ferry out 3500 visitors.

The men and their fellow travellers queued for six hours at Aguas Calientes train station in a bid to get on to one of the departing helicopters.

"It's not the fact we were sitting around waiting (that annoyed them), it was the fact we didn't know how long we were going to be (in Aguas Calientes),'' Mr Lee-Lovick said.

"We were mentally preparing for a week. There were so many mixed reports, we were told one thing and so many other things were happening.

"(But) we were really impressed in the last couple of days, how everything started to move when the military took over.

"Once we were seeing things happening it was a lot calmer."

The evacuations ended late on Friday.

Mr Lee-Lovick said two Australians and a New Zealander who finished the Inca Trail on Wednesday, arriving in Aguas Calientes in the midst of the most chaotic period, defied safety warnings and walked to Cusco early the following morning, unaware the helicopter evacuations were going to speed up that day.

He heard they had arrived safely.

Mr Lee-Lovick said his group all managed to leave Aguas Calientes via helicopter on Thursday.

He and Mr Fanning were aboard one of the last helicopters that afternoon and although they were able to get a hotel room in Cusco, transport out of the city was booked out.

The men waited in the historical city for three days before flying to La Paz on Sunday morning, local time.

They have been forced to cut short their plans to spend a week in Bolivia and a week in Argentina before flying home on February 11.

They will now spend a couple of days in the Bolivian capital before enjoying five days in Buenos Aires.