After a financial 2019 drawback, I was saving my money and my vacation days, up until now.
Originally, I was gonna spend 1 week in New York with a mate of mine this month, but my ESTA got denied, ironically. Can you guess why?
Even if it got approved, we would still be blocked by what is now currently happening globally; the Corona Virus or COVID-19, because the U.S.A. decided to block international entry from Europe before I flew into Panama.
I knew that the outbreak was happening at that point in China, Iran and Italy, and it seemed that Latin America would not be impacted, but I was dead wrong. After walking through Panama City on the first day in just about 30 kilometers, the day after, everything changed.
As I took my Uber towards Miraflores Locks to check out the mechanics of the Panama Canal, the guards told us it was closed because of Corona. And soon after, all of the other tourist attractions closed, as well as nightclubs, swimming pools, gyms, parks and other points of interests.
In this chaotic confusion, because I was unable to discover on the internet or via Google Maps what was still open, I was still able to spend a day at Playa Veracruz, the beach, where I turned out to be the only one chilling out and having my back get sunburn there.
After this and the city trip, the Panama government and it's president kept introducing more stricter temporary rules, such as an active curfew from 9PM until 5AM, that only supermarkets, drug stores and some hotels would still be open, and worst of all, international flights would be entirely blocked for a month starting on the 23rd of march.
My very short vacation feeling then turned into days of stress as I was trying to reach out my travel agency and the air company, but they were unreachable because I was not the only one; atleast 250.000 other Dutch tourists around the world were stranded or were about to become so depending on the visited country.
At the very last moment, my dad back at home in the Netherlands, was finally able to speak towards someone of KLM, who managed to re-book my original flight(other bookings after that got either cancelled, or I was denied ESTA in U.S.A. , even for a transit spot).
Via transit in Rio de Janeiro in Brasil, I was able to escape the lock-down happening in Panama, or otherwise I would be spending at least a month or even longer, trapped in paradise in a hotel room, kind of similar to Dae-su Oh from Oldboy(2003).
I was only able to do a city trip in 1 day, and do 1 day at Playa Veracruz, that's it as far as touring goes. Luckily, I was also able to date 2 beautiful women; a Nicaraguan and a Venezuelan, and I had a wonderful time in different ways with both of them.
In overall, I underestimated the overpowering Corona virus, and as it consumed my vacation until it broke it down, I will promise myself that I will re-do Panama in the future, as well as Costa Rica, which I originally wanted to visit last Wednesday, but that country soon closed it's borders due to the virus too.
For now, I will have to stay at home in Holland, like everyone else, because my country is getting overwhelmed by the virus too. I just hope that a vaccine, a cure or group immunity will be able to help, and that secondary, I will get refunds of my failed bookings, and that thirdly, I will reset my vacation towards Central America.
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