Tag: coronavirus

Coronavirus Journal part 3

So are you guys happy? I am talking to all who wanted to be free to roam, not wanting to wear facemasks and went straight to the bars when they were opened… now we are seeing a big surge. Don’t tell me it was for the BLM protests because Memorial Day, stay-at-home protests happened before and the surge is only in parts of the country, while the BLM protests happened nation wide.

Well, rant is over. Now you know why I haven’t written. I have been kind of mad.

Life has not changed for me since the last post. Working from home, then after trying to do some studying and failing, and mostly watching Netflix, Fandango and any movie the wife finds on cable streaming. What I have been trying to do is contacting my older relatives. I think my mon would get mad if she founds out I talk more to her sisters than her. (I love you mom!)

Calling my grandmother, however, is becoming heartbreaking.

She gets genuinely happy when she hears my voice. She is getting on her years and living in a city with a very high number of cases at the moment. She is getting tired of being locked up. She only receives visits from two of her sons, and she is clearly missing seeing the rest of the family. She normally would be visiting her daughters and her grandchildren, who some already have kids of their own.

She loves seeing the kids, and she misses the interaction. I have trouble keeping a conversation going. I don’t know if she just doesn’t hear it or I am seeing the first signs of Alzheimer (her mother died of it).

I live far away, so there is not much I can do. If you have an elder relative and your country is still under lockdown – which at this stage is mostly USA and some countries in Latin America – call them. They will need the interaction.

Spring Break – Reprise

El Canon del Sumidero was a beautiful site to visit, but also very crowded. (Photo taken by me)

As anyone who is living right now, I have been affected by the Coronavirus outbreak. Not as much as others. I don’t have symptoms, nobody in my household has, we have acquired groceries (including milk, eggs and toilet paper which we were low), and have hunkered down for one week of who-knows-how-many.

I needed to let some time pass to write again. My last post about Spring Break could have been misunderstood that I was one of the crazy young people going to Florida even though authorities say to avoid it.

I wasn’t. I was anxious about my trip and the uncertainity of what was happening. The reason why I was optimistic was that Mexico, specially the state of Chiapas, had fewer positive cases than Austin. I thought I was escaping from the pandemic for one week. My destination was safer!

I got anxious just seeing people with masks at the airports. When we arrived at our destination, we went to see the town of Tuxtla Gutierrez. See, I thought we were on a small group and mostly visiting rural areas. I had the idea we would not be in crowded places, but when we visted the plaza, my preconceived notions were all wrong. It was packed!

Now I was concerned. Chiapas is not wealthy, it relies mostly on tourism and is rural in almost all areas. My first impression was that if it got the disease, a lot of people were going to suffer.

I try to enjoy the trip, but I kept reading the news. There were rumors of the border closing but nothing concrete. I knew it was coming, but we didn’t have a specific date.

Then, on our last days, our tourist guide got the news. The historical sites were closing down to avoid the pandemic. There were a lot of tourists from different places of the world – including Asia and Europe – visiting the same small places. It seems we were the last wave of people visiting those sites since they closed down a day after we visited. On our return date, we knew the border was closing.

Now everything is worse as before we left. I haven’t shown symptoms, and Mexico is in denial, like Americans were weeks ago. The denial is more out of necessity. Without tourism, they are going to lose their jobs and way of life.

But…most of the places I went were so far away that there is hope the virus will never get there. There is a chance the poorest sites will not see the disease, while the richer sections of the country will suffer.

That’s wishful thinking of my part. At the time I am writing this there are reports that rich Mexicans brought the virus and are infecting domestic workers. Rich people will get the treatment. The poor will not.