I’ve never been one to back down from travelling to a country with a bad reputation, or one that’s going through difficult times. After all, most of North America’s perception of these countries and situations are heavily skewed by media coverage, which we all know, is often politically biased, or biased just for the sake of a better headline. My first solo trip ever was to Nicaragua in 2018, just months after hundreds of students were killed in political protests. The result was that people were extra kind to me, feeling hopeful that their tourism economy would bounce back, and a beautiful little island that I had essentially all to myself, with the exception of a few backpackers who were hardcore enough to ignore the pleas to skip Nicaragua. Just the kind of people I want to be surrounded with.
So, when news of the COVID-19 virus outbreak started to come out late December of last year, and I was ready to set off for Guatemala, I wasn’t worried. In fact, I had gone my entire 67 days of travelling not worried about it.
“It’s just a media hoax. It’s all fear mongering. Remember how scared everyone was of the Swine Flu? Or Ebola? And then it blew over and everyone was fine. It only impacts older and vulnerable people. I’m young and healthy.”
All the things I said when I was confronted by friends and family who told me not to travel-- especially at the tail end of my Latin America trip, but even more during the 5 days I was back in Canada before I left for France. I started to grow increasingly worried, but never enough to call off the trip, and my friend Jenevieve who I was planning on travelling Europe and Africa with would reassure me, and I would echo the same sentiments. Regardless, I travelled armed with a pack of Lysol wipes.
I think the panic started to set in even before I left. It was 2 hours before I was supposed to go to the airport, and I was just about to step inside of the mall to get a few last minute things when I received a phone call from one of my freelance clients-- particularly the one I had plans to work full time for when I was done travelling. She had a bad case of the flu, as did her family, and Denver and Boulder had essentially gone into panic/lockdown mode over the weekend. She was honest and told me that not only was she not feeling ready to take me on full-time quite yet (but still really wanted to), but that there was a recession coming. The recession, she explained, was bound to happen because the market was doing very well and needed to correct itself from a few things that happened in the 2008 recession, but she didn’t know when or how or for how long this would all take. For now, my work load wouldn’t change. I got off the phone, took a deep breath, and decided that this was a “later” issue to think about, and purchased my last few things for the trip before heading off.
Me and a very empty Louvre.
At first, I thought this was going to be a similar trip to my one in Nicaragua- the flight to Paris was sparse, and both Jen and I had entire rows to ourselves. Visiting the Eiffel Tower was nearly empty, which made for great photo opps. I noticed this at the Louvre, and the other tourist attractions as well. It seemed like a treat to have these major attractions to ourselves. But as the days went on, the COVID-19 pandemic started to take hold in policies and across the world- starting with the U.S ban on all Europeans and travellers who had been to Europe in the last 14 days. So, even if I was going to start work for my freelance client, it definitely wasn’t happening now as I wouldn’t even be allowed into the U.S. Then, schools across Ontario, my home province in Canada, all shut down. Then, the president of France addressed the nation saying schools were closed there. A day after that, Jenevieve and I changed our flights from April 11, to March 16.
It was a difficult deliberation for both of us. While I had spent the last 2.5 months travelling Latin America, Jenevieve had been funemployed, gearing up for our European trip. She was more reluctant than I, which is surprising to anyone who knows both of us as I’m typically living life on the edge, much more than her. With tourist attractions shutting down and borders closing, we discussed the worst case scenarios, compromising by going to Portugal, and so on. Ultimately, we decided it would be best to go back to Canada after we left Bordeaux.
It wasn’t even a day after we changed our flights that the French president announced the closing of all non-essential services and businesses. Then, we both received emails from the Canadian embassy, saying to come home as soon as possible. And the day we flew home, France went on complete lockdown, saying there would be consequences for those who are ignoring orders to self-isolate. We were so lucky to be on the flight that we were, because we knew things were about to be chaotic in the airports. We also snagged business class seats on the way home, half to avoid the masses who may very well be infected, and half because it was so disappointing to end the trip early that we needed to “treat” ourselves. The plane was fully packed, a huge contrast to the plane ride there that was nearly empty.
We love priority boarding!!
So, this is all my long-winded way of saying, if you’re thinking of travelling in the next two months, or if you’re overseas right now, you should probably consider coming/staying at home. I am literally the queen of taking advantage of cheap flights, cheap attractions, and so on, during times of crisis, and I would refuse to continue a trip in much more developed countries than I’ve travelled to before. Physicality wise, there’s a high chance that half of the things you want to do won’t even be operating. And think about the spreading of the virus- which can present no symptoms in one person, but be lethal to the next. How inappropriate is it to be border hopping right now? Especially if you consider that the virus took a major foothold in now locked-down Italy, from tourists. It was both tourists and the Italian people who thought it would not be an issue to be travelling and operating normally.
For those saying that this is just the flu, and that even if they got it, they’d survive. I’ll just call you out for having extremely individualistic, almost exclusive North American, values. Your health does NOT define the community's health. If you could prevent one person, EVEN ONE PERSON, from dying, or from being sick, why wouldn’t you? Why wouldn’t you care that thousands of people have died from a virus that could be prevented with hand washing and self-isolation? It took China 3 months to go from the start of this pandemic to recovering from it and going back to their normal lives. East Asian culture is SO heavily family and community based, and they have the resources and the care for their fellow people to attack this head-on. It’s the same culture across Europe as well.
I got tested for the COVID-19 virus about 20 hours after I landed in Canada. For free, and after waiting only 1.5 hours. I am one of the lucky ones. I have a home to comfortably self-isolate in, and the privilege to have parents who would ship me off to a hotel if I’m sick, but would continue to take care of me. So I have 2 safe, comfortable housing options, and a job that continues to pay me whether I work from bed, or from France. It’s safe to say that a huge part of Canadian population isn’t in the same boat as me. So please, please, save your hike, your tours, whatever for later. I know that it feels hard and like an inconvenience now, but unfortunately, self-isolation and closing businesses will either feel like an overreaction if the virus never takes hold, or we’ll be living with regret that we didn’t do more sooner, if the virus does. Let’s play it on the safe side for just a few weeks so that we’re not fighting an exponentially growing epidemic.
After getting tested!! NO, these masks don’t stop you from contracting something from someone else, but they DO stop you spreading things.