03.17.21
The recent buzz has been about the one year “anniversary” of when our lives radically changed, as the coronavirus, AKA COVID-19, upended our formerly normal routines. Anniversaries are usually celebratory, but this is far from a celebration, yet does warrant us taking note. Of how much our individual lives have changed, along with many others who have been more severely impacted, in addition to the worlds of medicine, travel, hospitality and many others. Instead of confining themselves in cubicles and physical offices, many have learned to work remotely, and man, what a shift THAT has been!
Kathleen and I have been location independent for the past two years, and, as many others found that they do NOT need to live in the city where they worked—or even the same country!—the real estate market has changed radically.
Along with the many negative events over the past year, including us not being able to Travel Younger, the good news is that the world “may” be emerging from this mess. I say “may” because there are still many unanswered questions, and even though vaccines are available to more people, COVID is not gone.
Our town here in Mexico still requires masks in many places and we are not even close to living “normally.” I have had several trips back to the US and normal is even further away THERE, even though some states are discontinuing the mask requirement, and others are trying to operate business as usual.
For us, the world has opened up, as we recently took road trips to the cities of Bacalar and Chetumal, here in the Yucatan peninsula. Bacalar, one of the “Magical Cities,” is about four hours south and even though the normally vibrant blue waters were not as beautiful as usual, it was still a nice getaway. We went to an attraction called “El Rapido,” which is a strong current of water flowing from one lagoon to another, which acts almost like a river running downstream. The water HERE was a vibrant blue-green and the perfect temp, as we hiked upstream, got into the temperate waters, and flowed several hundred yards until the movement slowed enough to exit.
The city of Chetumal, just a few miles from the Belize border, is a big city, but even so, had lots of charm. We had a lovely meal on the ocean front with our friends who used to live there, and even though we were just minutes from the border, we could not cross. The virus is still rampant in Belize and whereas many expats used to make a “border run” to renew their six month visa, we were unable to do so. The days of easy border crossings for a few hours, and then returning to start the clock anew, may be gone with the computerization of immigration and border crossings.
Meanwhile, we have several other side trips planned as we FINALLY count the months until it’s time to move on.
We had a flight booked in September from Cancun to Rome, then onward to Croatia, and recently discovered that flight was cancelled, with nary a word from TAP Airlines. That changed our plans and now we are looking at other options south of us as we hope and see progress in other countries. Here at the end of the first quarter of 2021, things are still tight, but what will the world look like in six months? It will not be normal as we knew it, but many tourism driven countries lost their entire summer seasons last year and many are loath to face more economic loss. On our possibility list are Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Peru in South America, and Panama and Costa Rico a bit closer.
Meanwhile, here is a brief video that shares some of our experiences over the last 12 months and ironically, on March 21 it will be one year since we arrived in Puerto Morelos.
Let us all hope and pray that the worst is now behind us and we can move forward into better times.
