El vecino gallo and other stories

A little bit about lockdown in Mexico

4.54am, April 26: El vecino Gallo is awake. I can hear him up and about. I should be asleep, but like a lot of other people, my hands have the consistency of paper and can pretty much be lathered just by adding water, I’m not sleeping well, staying up far too late and having weird dreams. I envy people like Piolo who can sleep through a hurricane or a pandemic.

I don’t want to dwell too much on the current pandemic, it already occupies enough of my headspace, both asleep and awake. This is the new reality.

I decided to stay here in Mexico, as the thought of getting back to Australia through airports and via the USA seemed like a more terrifying prospect. I also don’t have a job in Australia until October (or a home for that matter) and my money will go further here. Most importantly, I came to Mexico for a reason – to get to know Piolo, so I saw no reason to cut that short. Time will tell if I made the right decision – like everyone else, I don’t know what’s happening one day to the next, including whether I will be able to make it home in October.

#quedateencasa

On around March 16, shit got real – Sonora got it’s first case of COVID-19 and I have to say to the credit of the state government here, things moved pretty fast. Much like the Australian governments faffing about, just with a Mexican flair, the president of Mexico was hugging people, biting children and refusing hand sanitizer in favour of lucky charms, so the state governments started to lock things down. A curfew was introduced in Sonora between 6pm-6am.

As it stands now, no one is allowed on the streets at any time in groups of more than one. Like everywhere in the world, some people don’t really abide by rules. Supermarkets are traumatic, people don’t respect distance and continue to talk pointless crap on their phones, blowing their germs around. Thankfully, I have found lots of people offering home delivery fruit and vegetables, so we no longer have to endure it.

I think we are up to day 40 or so in isolation and at this stage will remain here until 1 June, although I imagine this is going to be extended.

#nohaycerveza

The hardest thing for most people in Sonora is probably the lack of beer. The government has put bans on the distribution of beer in an effort to stop people having parties and people are pretty devastated. North Mexicans are the biggest consumers of beer in the country, no doubt in part driven by the fact it is so damn hot here – 40 degrees already and it’s only April! Can’t wait for summer!

It’s all a bit fucked really….

A lot of people seem to be focused on the positives of the situation only, like lots of learning online, growth opportunities etc., but anyone who knows me will know that I keep it real – this situation is shit and it’s OK to talk about how fucked it is. If you have some shitty days, that’s OK too.

Things that are hard for me personally:

I was supposed to be in Colombia this week and next week and that’s sad, because I was looking forward to it.

I also have a plane ticket for Campeche in Mexico for May with plans to visit some ancient Mayan ruins with Rody, one of my besties from Monterrey for some quality girl time, but I guess I’ll have to be content with Zoom catch ups for now.

We only have 2 rooms in the entire apartment and now that it’s hot, we more or less only have 1, as we need to be where the air con is. That is not without it’s trials and strains on us as people and a couple.

Stay inside everyone and keep washing your hands 🙂