North Carolina couple coping after forced to stay in Peru due to coronavirus outbreak

It was a vacation they were looking forward to. But now, two North Carolinians will do anything to get back home.

Posted 12:59 a.m. Mar 29, 2020 — Updated 12:59 a.m. Mar 29, 2020

Adam Owens

, WRAL anchor/reporter

RALEIGH, N.C. — It was a vacation they were looking forward to. But now, two North Carolinians will do anything to get back home.

Elizabeth Basnight of Carrboro and Jeff Carver of Rodanthe took a vacation to a small town on the coast of Peru. They have been there more than two weeks now — days longer than they planned — because of the coronavirus outbreak.

"We were essentially stuck," Basnight said. "We couldn't get out. Our flights were canceled."

NC couple stuck in Peru during coronavirus outbreak

The flights were canceled by the coronavirus and efforts to contain it. They got a few moments in the waves before the virus also shut down the beaches.

"Getting a little bit of cabin fever when all you can do really is work out, send text messages and email," Carver said.

They said they are in communication with government leaders at all levels — hoping someone can come through for them and get them out. At the moment, they do not know when they will get back to North Carolina.

"There is a fair amount of anxiety that comes with that," Basnight said, who has a young son waiting for her back home.

Talks with her son over FaceTime end in the same heartbreaking way.

"Whenever I go to hang up, I mean, he starts crying 'no wait, don't go'," Basnight said. "He is ready for me to get back and I am ready to be reunited with him."

When you do not know when that might happen – it’s hard.