I REMEMBER WHEN…
Originally Published the Week of Sept. 20, 2023 in Western Outdoor Publications
We were waiting on the docks here in La Paz waterfront to get folks on board their boats to go fishing. Just another gorgeous morning in the Baja.
One of them mused, “What was it like here during Covid?”
Wow. That got me thinking. So, I started to tell them.
And I realized that just about this time in September, ONLY three years ago, we were just starting to open up things down here again.
Man…was it only 3 years ago? Did we really go through all of that?
Everyone’s experiences were different depending on where they were during those crazy days. But, as I started to tell the stories, I felt like the old man telling old war stories or the grandpa who relates how “back in the day” he walked to school through blizzards barefooted.
It was ONLY 3 years ago.
I remember…
That as the rest of the world was starting to hunker down, Mexican was in a pile of denial.
Mexican President Obrador was telling people things like “keep going out. Do not change your activities. Eat at restaurants. Get together with your family!”
He was out kissing babies and saying things like “Mexicans are immune from Covid because we have Aztec blood.” He was wearing a special amulet that warded off the virus…so he said.
He told folks that Covid was a rich people disease because mostly only rich people get sick because they travel. Mexicans aren’t very rich and don’t travel much so don’t worry.
I’m sure he meant well…but…
WHAM…it hit.
Everything shut down. And they said it would only be temporary. Like several weeks maybe.
Oh sure.
Of course there were masks.
Stores, restaurants, hotels, schools, airports, churches…everything. They even shut down the beaches.
They shut down the whole ocean!
No one allowed on the beach. No one allowed on the water for fishing, swimming, snorkeling, kayaking…NADA.
Most of the time, the city looked like a scene from the zombie movies. No one out. Nothing moving. No lights. No cars. Nothing on the water.
There was a 8 p.m. curfew.
No more than 2 persons in a car. One had to sit in front and one in back. Both with masks.
Social distancing everywhere if you were even allowed to gather.
Limited access to markets and stores. Restricted hours. Only one person per family could enter.
Only so many people in an aisle. You had to walk through and get sprayed in a fumigation tent to go inside.
Oh…you had to also step in a trough of sanitizer before entering places. Sanitizing your feet and shoes was pretty important. Then stepped on a dirty towel to dry your feet!
Plus you had your temperature taken as well.
Since all “non-essential businesses” were closed, that meant the breweries. No beer.
In your neck of the woods, there might have been the toilet paper panic. Here there was the rush for beer. People bought up cases and cases.
When that ran out, there was a black market that popped up.
Lines formed when a store got a shipment. You were only allowed to buy a certain amount. When they ran out, folks in line got into fights.
Beer prices skyrocketed to what amounted to half-a-week’s salary for the average blue-collar person! And they still lined up.
Fumigation teams in hazmat suits roamed the streets.
I heard that at one point helicopters or planes flew over the city spraying some kind of sanitizer on the whole city.
Most folks huddled together with family in their small residences already overcrowded many times.
No school. No internet. No laptops. No NETFLIX to pass the time. Couldn’t go outside to play or to the beach.
Since many folks live hand-to-mouth on a cash basis, there was no work. No unemployment checks or government assistance checks coming.
I still wonder how they survived.
But we did. And we all went and accepted all the things we look at as “goofy” nonsense now. But 3 short years ago, we just didn’t know.
Back in the day…We just didn’t know.
Talking about it now feels like I’m telling war stories. It kinda was. Not that long ago.
And years from now, we’ll tell people about having gone through the “great pandemic.” We just didn’t know.
That’s my story!
Jonathan
______________
Jonathan Roldan has been writing the Baja Column in Western Outdoor News since 2004. Along with his wife and fishing buddy, Jilly, they own and run the Tailhunter International Fishing Fleet in La Paz, Baja, Mexico www.tailhunter.com.
They also run their Tailhunter Restaurant Bar on the famous La Paz malecon waterfront. If you’d like to contact him directly, his e-mail is: jonathan@tailhunter.com
Or drop by the restaurant to say hi. It’s right on the La Paz waterfront!
_____________
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
Website:
Mexico Office: Tailhunter International, 755 Paseo Obregon, La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico
U.S. Mailing Address: Tailhunter International, 8030 La Mesa Blvd. #178, La Mesa CA 91942
Phones:
from USA : 626-638-3383
from Mexico: 044-612-14-17863
.
Tailhunter Weekly Fishing Report: http://fishreport.jonathanroldan.com/
Tailhunter YouTube Video Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBLvdHL_p4-OAu3HfiVzW0g
“When your life finally flashes before your eyes, you will have only moments to regret all the things in life you never had the courage to try.”
That's My Story 
Leave a comment