Another long interlude between posts. You’d think with sitting around doing nothing and numbing out that we’d have more time to post, but in actual fact, when you’re locked up with very little to do, the days blow by in a haze like snow drifts in Alberta. Besides, there is not much to post about let alone take photos of. You’ve already seen the palm trees off our balcony and I’m pretty sure 10 different angle shots of the murphy bed, Ikea dresser, and the fridge are not high on your interest list. We have fumbled through the days with the usual yoga, scrabble, almost daily grocery shopping, reading, and Netflix. We have also made friends with the local birds and they come around every day for a chat on the balcony. Cute. Mostly they are there for the breadcrumbs I suspect. Small things. At least back home you can go outside whenever and some of you even have gardens to play in. Spain’s lockdown has been pretty harsh. But it is changing.
As of last Saturday (May 2nd), we’ve been allowed out together…with restrictions. Social distancing of course, one hour only, and a 1 km leash. We get to choose that hour between 6am-10am OR 8pm-11pm. That is for everyone between 14 to 70 years old. 70+ get different times and children get to play all day…with an adult. Grocery shopping though is still only one person. So, freedom at last…sort of. People with kids sort of get to go out all day and people with dogs get to go out for dog walks twice a day, so sort of all day, especially if you take the poor dog for a 15km walk. We were thinking of maybe renting a kid or a dog…maybe both.
The Spanish have done an excellent job of managing this ‘crisis’ we think, and the health situation is getting much better, but I do have some tips for the government. I like giving people in authority advice. I find they are usually very interested in what I have to say, and they often escort me to a private back room where we can seriously discuss things. So, tip number 1, maybe stagger the times a bit more…? Or just let it be the entire day? What do you think happens when EVERYONE is out between 6am and 10?…hint…it’s crowded! They are all on the promenade walking, jogging, biking. Social distancing is NOT happening (you are lucky if you don’t get run down by bikers) and I’m pretty sure no one is turning around at the 1km marker. And you want to know what else? The people that were out in the morning are out again in the evening…I know, ‘cause we see them. It’s a freakin’ zoo! Just open it up! The shopping thing is a bit weird too, like we are allowed to walk together, but not when we go to the store…? Tip number 2, if you do not really enforce it, stuff happens. Ok, enough advice for the government. I’m sure they’ll take it to heart.
As for us, besides being a little bored at times, we have had a lot of time to reflect on all of this. The world’s a mess and the reaction to the virus borders on madness. Could we have done things differently? Possibly, but we’ll never know as you can’t prove a negative. Getting back to some semblance of normal will be a struggle and we suspect the world will never be the same. Travel certainly will be affected for a long time. And so, on that note, we have finally booked some flights outta here…again. We avoided the $3k-6K each price gouging that now seems prevalent and found a reasonable but convoluted route through Amsterdam and Toronto back to Vancouver. This happens beginning of June. We are not sure what to expect when we get back and as we have no real home, I suspect another quarantine is in our future. The Canadian/BC government will want a ‘plan’ so, we have a month to come up with one. And I’ll have some tips for them as well which I know they will really want to hear, especially the ones about our freedoms…sort of.
Postscript: We went for our hour walk this evening and decided to chance the beach promenade for part of it and surprise, no bikes. Looks they are banned from the ocean front. So much nicer and way more room. I guess the authorities thought my tips were pretty good.