on the road to colima

A reader on the Facebook edition of Mexpatriate wrote this morning that she is feeling very dispirited.

On a walk back from the bank this morning, she noted that no one was wearing a mask in the businesses or on the street. That concerned her because, as the villages here are once again providing work for the residents, precautions are not being taken to maintain social distancing.

I concur with her observations. Other than the fact that people are not legally allowed to enter the ocean to swim or to fish from the shore, there is little evidence here that there is a COVID-19 infection on the loose. Masks are unworn. People are gathering in large groups (there was a children's birthday party across the street from my house last night, and an even larger adult party just around the corner.) In other words, people are getting on with their lives.

Mexico is probably at the height of its COVID-19 infection curve. At least, for new cases. The numbers go up and down, but the trend is up -- keeping in mind there is no general testing for the virus in Mexico. These numbers are based on survey extrapolations.

Even though, deaths seem to have started a downward curve.

  

Best practices would suggest that I stick around the house as much as possible. But circumstances do not always lend themselves to practicality.

As you can probably guess, there is a parable to accompany that bit of folk wisdom -- a parable that sums up the dilemma Mexican families are facing in this round of infections.

Omar informed me last week that a family member was going to a hospital in Colima. As is the practice in Mexico, family members needed to accompany her for her hospital stay. Between the two of us we made that happen. They rode the bus to Colima.

On Saturday he asked if I could drive to Colima to pick them up. I couldn't. I was in charge of facilitating our church service. So, we agreed to make the trip early this morning. They would have returned on their own, but there were bus problems.

We left the house at 6:45 AM and made good time to Colima. I will confess that I was a bit concerned about driving into one of the urban hotbeds of the virus until I realized I had driven to Manzanillo whose numbers are even higher.

I should have set aside those concerns because we stopped at a relative's house without mingling with the general population. Instead, we created a general population in my SUV. It seats four comfortably. If the fifth person is added, it is tight. We had a total of seven passengers.

There is something alluring to me in Mexican families. I am only an accessory, but I get to experience life I never would from the outside. The only person who spoke English in the car was me. We had barely pulled away from the curb when the conversation began. 

Apparently, there are no rules about one person speaking at a time. And I do not think there was a lull in the two-hour drive back to Villa Obregón. 

When Omar or his sister would address me directly, I participated in the conversation. I will confess, though, that I usually lost the thread of the general discussion.

There were two reasons for that. The first is the most obvious. My Spanish is not up to snuff to be a full combatant in these exchanges. Part of it is vocabulary. I could understand separate words, but quite a few were not stored in my memory.

The second reason was out of my control. I have trouble following conversations when people talk over the top of one another. It is one reason I stopped watching television news commentaries thirty years ago.

By the time we got back to the beach (a mere 4 hours from when Omar and I had left), I was mentally exhausted -- and exhilarated. It was a pleasure for me to share part of their lives on the drive back, and to learn more about the human condition.

One of those things learned is that the people who live and work here have been anxious to get back to work. They are informed about the virus, but the more immediate need is to support their families. For that reason, they welcome the return of the Mexican tourists.

I have noticed an uptick in the number of out-of-town cars that have been arriving in Barra de Navidad over the last two weekends. Some of the cars have brought families who own or rent homes here. I now recognize some of them by sight. But the two cars that stood out to me were parked across the street from the Oxxo. Two new Mercedes-Benz S class sedans. Gray. Twins.

We also followed a tourist bus from Cihuatlán to Barra de Navidad. It turned off while we continued to Villa Obregón. I do not know where it finally parked.

So, it is true. Almost all of the town is open (other than swimming or fishing in the ocean -- for now). And people are happy to see their livelihoods returning.

The big question is how many tourists are going to make their way to the beach?