A RISCA woman who was abroad on a ‘paradise’ working trip, managed to make it home with a dramatic exit as the coronavirus shutdown began.

Businesswoman Beth Trevett was on a working trip to the global Tribal Gathering Festival in Panama last month when she was told to get out quick or face being stuck for an unknown amount of time.

Ms Trevett, director of The Wonder Bar pop-up drinks business in Caerphilly, was among hundreds of people from across the world at the festival who had to make an early exit after Panama border control feared an imminent lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The three-week festival saw a mixture of electronic, trance and global music, as well as ceremonies from native tribes, and was set in the Panama wilderness - with a backdrop of what is said to be one of Central America’s most beautiful beach locations.

Ms Trevett was one of the bar co-ordinators at the festival. She said: “The festival site was paradise - in the middle of nowhere, where the jungle meets the ocean.”

Just two days before the end of the festival, rumours began spreading that the local authorities would be closing the festival, and everyone had to leave.

This was followed by the festival owner rebranding the site as a hotel.

On the day the festival was due to end, Panama health minister Rosario Turner declared a state of emergency and ordered the festival-goers to remain on site, as the country had its first death from Covid-19.

“There were about 300 people left on site at this point and we were all in quarantine,” said Ms Trevett.

Luck would be on Ms Trevett’s side as the organisers held a meeting and information had been given that declared that anyone who had been there for three weeks could leave.

However, her original flight home had been cancelled due to the UK going into a lockdown.

“The borders were closing on March 23 and we needed to leave the country or stay on lockdown in Panama for at least 30 days,” she said.

She managed to get a new flight for £450, unlike others in her situation, who were being charged thousands.

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“Days later, the British Embassy put on three buses to pick up the British citizens from the site. Telling us to be ready by 10am, we waited in the heat until the arrived at 2pm,” she said.

“They only gave us water after we begged, when we asked where we were going, we were told ‘somewhere in Panama City.’ We were stopped at least six times at military checkpoints.

“There was a curfew in Panama City which started at 9pm. We got there at 8.45pm so there was no chance to stop and get food after our journey.”

Ms Trevett then had a frantic application for a visa to travel to Miami and onto Toronto, before finally getting a connecting flight to London Gatwick.

“When we got to the airport, all the flights to the USA had been cancelled except ours. We had to leave two of our group behind because they hadn’t been out of Europe for more than two weeks, meaning they couldn’t fly through the States," she said.

“We definitely had good fortune that we got back - a lot of people didn’t. There are still 50 crew on site de-rigging the festival, but there are also many crew that got out of the festival, but didn’t manage to get a flight home before the borders closed.”