Lima, Peru – Two Israelis Escape With Only Minor Injuries from Bus That Plunged Into Ravine; Other Passengers Dead or Seriously Wounded

Lima, Peru – “A miracle,” was the only way that Peru police were able to describe how two Israelis, Tali Bar Lev and Nirit Mansour — alone of a full bus of 60 passengers — survived a plunge into a ravine with only minor injuries.

The two Tel Aviv girls, 21, were on a months’ long trip away from home, a common coming of age ritual among Israeli youth. As they made their way through South America, they had reached Peru. Their parents were pressuring them to return to Israel, and they were debating whether to continue their trip or finish it.

The two girls boarded a bus this past weekend in Cusco in the Andes mountains, planning to visit Ica near the Pacific Ocean. The bus trip involves 14 hours of driving on a winding mountain path with sharp curves. On one curve, the bus toppled over and plunged into a ravine 100 meters below.

Most of the passengers were local Peruvians, but there were a few foreigners aboard.

“We didn’t know what hit us,” says Tali. “We were napping and we suddenly woke up when the bus hit a rock at the bottom of the chasm. Then the bus rolled over on its side and landed on the roof. We were banged up.

“At first we thought we were buried underground. We didn’t understand what had happened. Suddenly we heard pounding and shouts of people who were injured. It was horrific. We wanted to run away.”

Rescue forces eventually came and removed the two Israelis from the bus. They were carried to a nearby mountain clinic where conditions were primitive.

“The clinic looked like a butcher shop,” said Tali. She and her friend decided to take a taxi to Cusco. The two girls contacted Shachar Malka, a security officer in the Israeli embassy in Lima who made sure they received proper medical treatment. The two girls are hospitalized but their injuries are relatively minor.

Malka says, “The police don’t understand how only the two Israelis managed to survive with only minor injuries, when all the other passengers were killed or gravely injured. Many of the injured are dying in the operating room, so the numbers of those who died are changing all the time.”

“We feel as if a great miracle happened to us, probably because we were in the bottom floor of the bus,” says Tali. “Everywhere in the bus there were bodies and seriously injured people. It was horrific. People were overcome with panic and no one knew what to do with himself.”