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Wisconsin travelers trapped in Peru are now on U.S. soil

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PERU — Some Wisconsin travelers stuck in South America are a step closer to home.

Mark and Maggie Sprague, along with five others from the Milwaukee and Madison areas, have landed in the U.S. after being stuck in South America for several days.

They finally got a flight out of Peru, which abruptly shut its borders due to the coronavirus pandemic last week. The group originally traveled to South America for a wedding. They'd been trying, without success, to get a flight out of Peru for days. Appeals to the U.S. Embassy, the State Department, and Wisconsin's Congressional delegation all fell short.

Sprague reports in a Facebook post that a member of his group is a citizen of Brazil, and she was ultimately able to get help from the Brazilian Embassy.

In the post, he details the all-day ordeal, trying to get the full group of seven on a flight to Lima.

"OK, so 20 minutes of screaming, shouting, talking, crying, standing and thinking this isn't going to happen and all of a sudden all is good to go, the seven of us all have boarding passes in our hand," Sprague described.

He said there was cheering on board the flight once its wheels left the ground.

The group landed in Atlanta Thursday morning.

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