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.