buzzing questions

When you discover the next city you're travelling to has just announced that the first three people have tested positive for coronovirus, what do you do?

Initially nothing. Being two Brits and a Cuban with a good sense of humour, we laugh it off. And wash our hands. Again!

We had a long but excellent journey through the countryside stopping to find the world’s tiniest bird, the Cuban bee hummingbird in a family's back garden. It was alive with birds including the stunning Cuban oriole.

We travelled down the gorgeous Bay of Pigs (with the most intense azure sea I think I've ever seen), stopping at the war museum on the way. Leo is a walking history book and simply picks up a story when we ask a question so he's been a great person to travel alongside on this journey. He showed us briefly round the museum and translated key bits of info to add relevance to some of the photos. 

Arriving in Cienfuegos, we managed to speak to the tour operator in Cuba who revealed that the casa we were due to stay at was where the Italians with the virus were staying. It's closed!

What do you do now? Still nothing as they had already found us new accommodation in Trinidad. But we ask for information now on options for flights so we know our choices. We've talked about where people will stay if they're quarantined here and it's not really looking good. Including what they'll be fed. 

We buy a card for the internet and find an email from the UK travel agents telling us that Trinidad may well be quarantined but it hasn't been yet.

What do you do now?

Well, we thought about it long and hard. Changed our minds a few times but concluded if we didn't change our flights now, we may well lose the opportunity with other people doing the same.  We now certainly don't want to find ourselves in a lock down in Trinidad. It's the last venue on our trip apart from a couple of days in Havana to chill out.   So really, there's nowhere else we'd choose to go. 

It also turns out Leo checked out of the same Casa the day the virus checked in. We're hoping they didn't coincide. We've been exceptionally cautious and careful.

Rather than wait for Monday when the travel company reopens, we logged in to Air France online. We're coming home tomorrow night, all being well... In every sense.

It's strange but I don't feel disappointed as we've had most of the experiences already. It is a shame though as it's a stunning country. Neither do we feel panicked. It's simply a probability game and playing with choices. 

Let's hope I'm back blipping in a couple of days time and not holed up anywhere taking photos of four walls.