May 1, 2020
We have been in Oaxaca for almost a month and a half now, rarely leaving the El Rancho RV Park. Life here is pretty good. Rent is cheap, a vegetable truck comes twice a week, we get deliveries of meat, beer, drinking water, propane, Walmart, Amazon and Costco. We have a nice pool, the weather is great, sunny and in the high eighties almost every day. Everyone at the RV park has been here for at least a month and rarely go out so we have been comfortable relaxing our social distancing.
Life has settled down as everyone gets to know each other. Almost every week we have a birthday party, groups have started Spanish lessons, music lessons and Yoga classes. We are lucky enough to have a couple of professional musicians so we even have occasional live concerts. We are all very lucky to be at the El Rancho with each other rather than being stuck alone in an apartment somewhere. I believe Olivia is having the best few months she has ever had. One of the other families has three boys, aged, 7, 5 and 2. The oldest boy, Rafael picks flowers for her and they hang out all the time. The RV park is quite large and surrounded by tall walls and a big gate so the kids are able to run around, ride their bikes and play as they like. Our little community is like something from some small town in the 1950’s where everyone knows each other, no one locks their doors and kids are let out of the house to roam around by themselves. Every day Olivia goes out by herself to play with the other kids, an opportunity afforded few kids these days in the United States. On the flip side we are lucky that we don’t have to entertain Olivia all day long and can just send her out to play with the other kids. The kids bring a lot of fun and brightness to the park as well. The RV park would simply not sparkle as much without the laughter of children.
The outside world has little effect on the people at the park other than the isolation. Nobody here has to go out to work or worry about losing their jobs. Our expenses are extremely low and much less than if we were still travelling. Nobody has gotten sick and the part of Mexico we are in has a relatively low infection rate.
All this being said we are a group of travelers and everyone is looking forward to and making plans for when restrictions are relaxed. As for us, I am going to keep an eye out for opportunities to go to Asia so that we can visit our families. I expect that once things open up there will be a short period of time when airfares and hotels will be extremely cheap and with a little luck we will be able to take advantage of the bargains.