Venturing Out Into the World ... of Covid

Oct 12, 2020   Costa Rica
BLOG: Un-related thoughts and activites of the day . . . .

I'm freaking out. I can still bail out on the flight, leave the airport, and stay in Costa Rica. Oh wait, shit, I already went through immigration and have used up my extended tourist visa. :( And along with it I have relinquished my free Covid medical coverage. I have no medical insurance at home. If I get sick from traveling, I'm screwed.

But as much as I loved it, it already feels good to be out of Zancudo. I had a wonderful shower at the Holiday Inn this morning and I feel so much cleaner than I have in 8 months. My skin feels better and hair is softer, even using the hotel shampoo. Who would have thought that a month visit to my friends in Costa Rica would turn into over 8 months of pandemic lockdown?!

On the super super long walk toward immigration in Miami I had two moments of emotion where I almost thought I was going to cry. It's like I was so happy to be back in the US; it was too strange how the wave of emotion just hit me. I was fine with the decision I made to stay in Costa Rica once the pandemic hit and the borders closed. I love my community in Zancudo and I believe that was by far the best place to have stayed during the worst of the Covid breakout. But now things are opening back up and it's time to go home.

As always, I'm grateful for Global Entry. Even more so now that I don't have to wait any longer than I have to in a line with other people. I'm simply not used to having to be around other people now! Right now I'm sitting at the hotel that's actually in the Miami Airport looking out at the tarmac at all the planes taxied at the gates. I feel a sense of the pandemic on a global scale. It's one thing when it affected my small bubble In Zancudo. I didn't see much of the world other than that for almost all of 2020. Then going up to the airport in San Jose, that certainly felt different. Holiday Inn Express by the way had extremely wonderful safety measures. Much better than the ones I've seen in Miami here so far! But anyway, back on track, looking at all the planes at the gates with nothing taking off on the runway, it feels strange like I did in China when the airport was pretty much deserted, but the reason for this is because of the pandemic. Things are supposedly pretty open around the states, but what I'm looking at out my window right, now there's nothing open about it at all.

With an 8am flight, my ask went on at 6:15. Then with the 6 hour layover and flight to San Diego, it will be about 14 hours with this mask on. Ugh. I have a long-sleeve jacket on and I'm turning the airplane air on high even though it's totally freezing me out! No food or drink on the plane or in the airport. Sigh. The Miami airport safety measures were okay I guess. I had no idea what to expect. At the gate they had 1 seat open then 2 with stickers on them not to sit.

Getting off the plane was even different, although people in the states still can't seem to figure out how to disembark politely and in order. Only a few gates are even being used in Atlanta, but the airport is still pretty crowded. I managed to find a row of seats without arms to lay across. Ha, try to sit near me now! I got a couple hours sleep and awoke to a full(ish) gate. People trying to sit apart but all of a sudden nobody's wearing masks! Under the guise of eating or on their phone. WTF - time to get out of here. I donned my face shield and cruised to my next terminal. Ummm, food court full, no distancing, no masks!! I'm also the only face shield in the entire airport and I'm getting a lot off looks. I wonder what the Covid numbers are like here?!

Delta is being pretty good. They're keeping planes at only 65% full and are trying to keep distancing while boarding and unloading. They're doing what they can. I'm still feeling very weird about flying and quite frankly being out in the big world after being in my small town for so long during this whole Covid mess.