The trip home and the four days after

Flying Home - March 26 2020

This was the scene at the PV airport when we arrived at 0815. There were three orderly lines, although it looks like confusion in the pic. Three AirTransat planes were leaving within ninety minutes so ten desks were opened at 0900. In the meantime we stood and chatted with our fellow travellers. Everybody mentally calculated the position in the lines and were acutely aware of our places determined by the time of arrival. As one of us said, "Good job we are Canadians" implying that we were all polite and orderly - well the English perhaps?

We are next at the counter now

Once the desks were opened we had to move to the standby line, as the Toronto line had two parts, those with seats and those on standby. This meant that we had to move through the two Montreal lines and arrive in front of the correct desk. Converging in one line from two directions, some travellers went behind a large pillar and some went in front of it. However all abided by the unwritten rules and we approached the desk in the same order as arrival. It was another ninety minutes before we stood in front of the desk passports in hand. Boarding pass in hand we went to Security, where we were asked if we had symptoms of the virus, then to the gate and then on a bus to board the plane.

As we boarded the plane we noticed that each seat had a package of "Pringles" and a bottle of water. Bread and water for the return trip. Safety concerns had overridden cabin service. Nobody objected as we had all brought our own food on board.  Arriving in Toronto thirty minutes early we were held on the plane for those thirty minutes as the airport operators did not want to congest the customs hall.

On the kilometer long walk to the customs we were handed a piece of paper with instructions on how to quarantine ourselves as we were now in a fourteen day self-isolation period. Arriving at the customs hall we were directed to machines, every other machine was disabled to provide 'social distance', the customs desk had a barrier in front of it so that we had to lean over and hand the documents to the officer. The airport seemed deserted as the usual hustle and bustle was absent. The baggage had arrived at the carousel and was neatly lined up for pickup and as we left the hall another piece of paper was thrust into our hands with more instructions about the next fourteen days and the government's expectations of us.

Home at last
The larder was full, thanks to our daughter who had been fussing for days - online. She had shopped and we lacked for nothing. Also we had shopped online with PCExpress and another load is coming on April 2nd. So the jobs were to restore order to our electronic world and figure out what to do for fourteen days.

A problem with the modem took three days to fix and now on day four we are fully functional and we still need to navigate another ten days.

Closing the blog now - see you all next year.

The last day - we come home tomorrow

A lasting memory - PV 2020

The last day of the Mexican quarantine and coincidentally, our last day in PV  - tomorrow doesn't count as we leave in the morning. We will be at the airport by 0830 for an 1115 flight. As AirTransat has a habit of leaving early if the plane's passengers are all aboard then it could be sooner.

Yesterday we jumped bail again and went downtown to one of the 40% of open restaurants, great meal - we were the only people eating there at that time, half empty buses and no customers for the "churro man". "Wiki def of churro" This vendor, one of only two we found, in the Town, is normally kept busy for hours in the evening and always has a lineup at his stall - not last night. As with all of the "Vallantarses" he is suffering from the sudden evacuation of visitors and the 5 day quarantine.

The survivors social distancing!

So what will we do today? Pack up our stuff and try to keep below the weight limit when we pack our suitcases. Clean the studio and then try to waste time until the morning dash to the airport. Indications are that the great rush of people trying to get out has passed. The flight we are on is the last flight that AT has scheduled for the next 30 days.

Today is pigout day, we all have tons of food left over so we have use it up, what we don't pig-out on will go to the maids. Big b'fast, smaller lunch and a trip to the Marina to find an open restaurant - after all we have cooked for ourselves twice today!

A diary of the Mexican self quarantine?

20th March:
The day started off really well, coffee and more virus discussion.
We had been directed to the AirTransat website where a list of cancelled flights had been published as well as the list of homeward bound flights. We have been put on the same Thursday flight as original but a week earlier. So we now leave Thursday 26th on TS 649.

Then as people drifted in to the coffee shop it became obvious that only the WestJetters had no plans. Transatters have been put on next Thursday's plane, ACers are sticking to their reservations until April 11th. So that means that all of us are out of here in the next week. Westjetters are confused and making frantic plans to get planes. It should be noted that WestJet has completely failed their customers and most of them arranged flights back on other airlines because of the lack of communication and difficult contact with the call centre.

Now for the really bad news - the pool is closed down!

21st March:
OK we cheated and jumped bail, rode on the bus, which was only half full, and went downtown to find a local handicraft repair person because Sandy needed his Nepalese necklace adjusted. The whole of the downtown was a bloody ghost town:

As you can see  there is nobody around. This area is normally wall to wall people with a bustling public market at this time of day - 1.30pm Saturday.

The pic on the left is the local artisan market usually full of people bused in from the cruise ships, sometimes three in a day will dock. The pic on the right is the local market area of Lazaro Cardenas.

As we walked from our favourite pastry shop we noticed that some of the local bars were shutdown and that restaurants had few customers. People had either left town or stayed indoors.

The day ended with a farewell party in Abe and Ollie's room, our friends of many years who are leaving for Aberdeen SK. tomorrow. Most of the liquor and beer left was demolished.

Everyone has their own version of the truth

A bunch of people meeting for coffee but the convo soon turned to evacuation plans. Let me tell you about ours.

Last night we had only heard of WestJet suspending operations as of March 22nd. We, the four of us, had a return flight on April 2nd, so when Doreen woke up and said "perhaps we should leave earlier than April 2nd." - based on fears of local conditions entering the unknown. This was brought on by a Municipal proclamation from the Mayor's office that closed bars, casino, and restaurants over 50 people and anywhere that sold beer. I considered leaving early and got right on to the AirTransat (AT) website. Finding a flight that was leaving a week earlier than planned, next Thursday, I booked it and received a booking confirmation. Our fellow travellers did the same a little after us and did not get a confirmation number even though an email was sent from the credit card company that they has just purchased tickets.

So when the others questioned AirTransat why this had happened they were told that AT had just cancelled all flights in the system and to watch for news on the AT website. But we were told, by AT, that as we have a flight on the 2nd we should be back on a plane any day between April 2nd and 5th. So back to us - do we have the original booking or the new one (which btw had cost us $1300 each) time will tell. I had messaged AT on FB Messenger to ask which flight we had and a reply came back a few hours later asking what we wanted. I told them and now we wait for instructions.

Meanwhile we meet fellow snowbirds; all have a tale to tell. A couple of people have managed to get tickets by using the call centre in Canada by their kids using Canadian phones and another person just phoned his travel agent (an endangered species) and told her to get  on it - she did. We also had frantic friends who went to the airport to find out what was going on. One was told that there were no arrivals coming in, even though "FlightRadar" an aircraft tracking app showed five Canadian planes in the air, and another was told that the people at the airport would not know anything until after the 22nd. So we just sit and listen to all of the tales and wonder which one is the real one.

So we sit and wait!

In other news the local conditions don't seem to have changed much. The tourist industry has ground to a halt, as a result of the bars closing, and snowbirds just seem resigned to their fates of having to wait and watch airline websites for news. After making a list of missing food items, as I said we are thinking that we will be leaving April 2nd, we needed to go downstairs and buy them.

The pic on the right shows the scene in the produce department at 1pm today. An abundance of food and hardly any customers. The usual thing for any day - no panic buying yet!

OK the airfare situation may be a little clearer. Yesterday we were told that all airlines would not be flying after March 22nd. It appears that that may only be true for WestJet and SunWing. Air Canada and AirTransat have made no effort to shut their bookings down and we may be able to assume that our planned return dates may not change. But meanwhile about half of the usual Snowbirds we know have changed their returns and are now coming home early.

After all the doom and gloom, not to mention the sheer insanity, it is a relief to go shopping and not encounter rabid glassy-eyed consumers fighting each other for whatever product they buying to hoard.

This is the scene at the end of one of the aisles in the Soriana, a large supermarket chain. This store stocks the same stuff as the local No-Frills and at about the same price. The only big difference in prices is the beer and wine shelf. A sixpack of my favourite beer - XX, costs 69 pesos ($4.23 cdn) and a 750ml box of wine the same. The lack of a price disparity has always amazed me as the average wage of the average local is not very much. In fact the minimum wage has just been raised 30% and now stands at 123.22 pesos a day ($7.63 cdn)!!! A North American outrage. This is why we try to tip at least at the 15% level. At the grocery stores you will see the bag-people, usually seniors, at every cashdesk. They will only get the tips from customers so we give them all the small change.

But back to the insanity of hoarding TOILET PAPER the logic of it is non-existent. As this meme explains the average person will never use it all.

Tonight we are going to a birthday party for one of our group of Snowbirds. It will be at one of the bigger restaurants in the local mall. The State of Jalisco, has not yet shut down the local economy by shutting restaurants/pubs or casinos. The neighbouring State of Nayerit has done this but the obvious pressure from the City of Puerto Vallarta has kept this City open. After all the high tourist season is in its last month. So it will be interesting to see what the effect of this pending pandemic has done to the locals. I fear they are totally ignorant as Mexico has done little testing to discover the extent of the problem.

As a daily note I learned later on this afternoon that our neighbour, Fred, is flying home on Saturday. He has a Westjet ticket and is travelling with his dog. An almost impossibility to rebook in normal circumstances. But his daughter working with a travel agent in Ottawa has managed to get them both on a plane. Bloody well done Meg.

Chaos in the travelworld

OK nothing has gone as planned in this Winter trip, first we were late in leaving and now we cannot get out - thanks corona virus.

OK the plan was to leave on April 2nd. But in the process of arranging an early flight for our next door neighbour, a computer illiterate who first language is not English, we discovered the latest situation.

The Government has issued travel bans and now the airlines have suspended operations for 30 days from the 22nd of March. So everybody who has a return flight after that now has to wait for the "rescue flights". The process consists of registering on the Government travellers' site and await contact from the officials who are handling the rescues. Website here

We haven't been doing much in the past couple of days, just semi "self-quarantining" with a few fellow residents. Of course we are all 'self-distancing' and being confident we believe we are immortal! Where we are there is a large supermarket in the building and a few restaurants and of course the pool on the roof. Today we will explore the stores, yesterday was a 'stat holiday' and nothing was open, and see if there are any shortages on the shelves. 

I will try to post on a regular basis so this is my way of keeping in touch and disseminating info for others in the same position. Thanks to this 'interwebthingy' as we are really plugged in to the Facebook and Twitter. Not much is getting past us.