'I want to go home:' Sask. couple expecting to get on flight out of Peru after COVID-19 lockdown

After weeks of stress and countless phone calls, Russell Edwards and Heather Hind-Hluchaniuk are finally scheduled to fly home.

The couple from Melfort and St. Brieux, Sask. travelled to Peru for a holiday earlier this month, but within days of their arrival, the country's president closed its borders and enacted a strict curfew.

However, after negotiations, the country agreed to allow Air Canada to come into the country and fly out hundreds of trapped Canadians.

"It's kind of a turn for the better," said Hind-Hluchaniuk on Wednesday morning. "I want to go home." 

Their original flight home on March 20 was cancelled. After that, the couple launched into weeks of calling Air Canada, the Canadian Embassy and the travel agency, with little to no success.

This weekend, the couple received a notice from the embassy that rescue flights would be taking people out of the country on April 1 and 2.

She said it was incredibly welcome news.

"I, myself, just want to see my kids," she said. "Which is still another two weeks because we have to go into mandatory quarantine again back home. But at least I will be able to phone them easily."

The couple were mainly confined to their rental suite as police patrolled outside, enforcing the quarantine.

Hind-Hluchaniuk and Edwards will board a plane at Lima's military base before leaving. The city's main airport has been closed down for weeks.

The federal government said it was trying to bring Canadians staying outside of Lima in the cities of Cusco and Iquitos to the airport to get people out of the country.