Digital Nomad in lockdown
It is itching, I need to travel, but I cannot. Currently, I am in Mexico, and I know I am lucky to be in a country that handles COVID19 that well, but at the same time, I am beginning to get impatient. The horizon is beckoning and I have nowhere to go.
I am not the only nomad struggling with travel limitations. Many of my friends I met over the years are wondering when and if they can ever travel again in freedom like we use to do.
Work is getting low since everybody feels the economic backlash int heir pockets, especially small business owners and travellers whom some of us depend on for projects. And it is becoming a drag.
Yesterday I was watching the COVID press conference from the Federal Government in Mexico and they announced press conference number two hundred and sixty-something, and it hit me: That is nearly a year-long press conferences. Six months ago I was in lockdown, now my State, Quintana Roo is yellow and I am a happy person since I can go out, beach life is almost back to normal, and although I have a constantly running nose and an itchy throat from earing a mouth mask and my hands are scrubbed so clean nothing won’t stick to it, not even my own new skin, I feel lucky.
My temperature is taken every day several times, and without any raise, I feel healthy as ever. Yet I know around me an invisible danger lurks. In every meeting, everything I touch and especially when I try to look over the state borders for possibilities to move on.
I feel lucky to be in the place I am right now, yet I am not happy
All other states in Mexico are orange, and hotels are not even open yet, and therefore I find myself stuck. Stuck in impossibilities for a reason that beyond believes: Some Chinese had a rotten lunch and that made him sick.
When I walk the beach and see the distant Island of Cozumel and beyond, I feel the need to travel. It makes me cranky that I cannot. I am bored stiff and without the challenging ever-changing scenery and cities around me, my creativity dies with every step I set in the concrete jungle called Playa del Carmen.
Nomads live to travel and the vagabondish lifestyle is a way of being inspired and motivated
We, nomads, are not meant to be in the same place for too long. We thrive on travel, we are horizon bound. And yet many of us are stuck. Some in paradise, others in countries where the food runs out and the visas expire and all sorts of problems arise.
We face a whole new set of challenges and although many of us went home with he last flights out of the sick countries we were in, many remained and struggle.
Some, in the early days, posted happy photos of cheap luxurious rentals and tropical destination, but after a while, the provisions became less and less and the homeowners raised the rent in order to fix their own wallets. Some are stuck with double costs, of both visa extensions and houses to rent in 2 countries because the lockdown caught them during a quick visa run or holiday abroad.
No matter how our situation is at the moment, we all wonder if life for us will ever be normal again
Can we ever travel worry-free like we did, cross borders whenever we feel like and roam around as we used to do? I do not see that happen anytime soon. News about a vaccine is vague and when I think about a vaccine I wonder where you can get it when you are a visitor, and how it will affect travel business, and what about voluntarily or not? And how will governments respond to guests that are in the country already when vaccinations become available and mandatory?
How long will the economic damage due to COVID19 and the lockdown echo in the future and how long will it take for the business to pick up again at the known speed, if ever?
With everything on hold and everything under a magnifying glass, the world does not only study the virus but also the financial system, history, equality and freedom. There seems to be a question mark on everything these last few months. And demands are everywhere some not even reasonable anymore and freedom is not only diminishing when it comes to travel, but it also becomes scares in the media, on the Internet and even in the streets. It seems that that what was normal and legal once, now is bothering so many people, and illegal acts have become normal and acceptable, even for law enforcement.
And amidst of all that noise the world population is making, nomads wonder about their future, and their safety and their position. And it seems like we are on the threshold of a whole new world order. And I hesitate to accept that the world might never be the same again, ever.
