April 30th
Most of the time on this blog, I am posting a couple of months out of date, desperately trying to catch up....
However, recent events have brought me crashing in to the present....
Newsflash....
Unfortunately, we were getting in to that spiders web road system that forms round all huge cities where all roads form spokes to the central hub - narrowing our options. Cycling round Mexico City would take time and retreat back to the coast was not a good option. So we broke our self imposed rule to cycle everywhere and took a bus to Puebla about 100 miles to the East of MC. It just seemed prudent to
1 - Get slightly further away in the direction of less cases of flu.
2 - Still be in a city should we need to get further away still.
3 - Be on the right side of Mexico City should we carry on cycling.
Currently the number of fatalities in MC is 168 with around 2000 hospitalised depending on what source you choose.
All "non essential" government services have closed down including all tourist services. Peru and Argentina amongst others have suspended Mexico flights, with France calling for other countries to follow suit. Options are narrowing and Sue and I are currently debating what next? The WHO is stating that there is no need to close borders.... but then if the UK simply refuses entry of Mexican flights to it's airports????
Life in Puebla seems to be carrying on fairly normally except for the face masks and museum closures. Schools are closed, and families have been asked to remain indoors, but a walk around the city centre shows that many people are taking the opportunity to spend time socialising with family and friends, streets are busy and businesses remain open. People here seem to be taking a wider perspective and it's a pretty tranquil place.
There's doesn't seem to be any reason to be overly concerned at the moment, and Mexicans seem to be taking this in their stride. However, from a totally selfish perspective, the closure of everything that is good is gonna put a serious crimp on the tour....
The WHO meets in Luxembourg today and we're awaiting their report before making any kind of a decision....