We continued sailing down the coast of Central America all night to arrive in Puerto Chiapas, Mexico before breakfast this morning. We were docked until 5:30 p.m. so we basically just enjoyed a lazy day in port. We did get off the ship for a short time just to mill around the cruise terminal.
In our cabin, we each worked on our individual projects, taking turns using the internet. Ronnie was able to connect with his zoom BSF class tonight, even having an video connection about half of that time. All in all it was a very nice day.
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| water taxi |
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| view from our balcony as we pulled into port |
Earlier today Ronnie said he suspected that the couple in the room next to us have Covid. He had noticed that a room service tray stays in the hallway between our doors and that no one is going in or coming out of that room. He also had noticed yesterday that the lady on the balcony next to ours had a terrible sounding cough. So this evening when the butler came in we asked if the people in the room next to us had Covid and he basically confirmed our suspicion, saying that "they are in isolation."
Because of Covid, Oceania (along with several other cruise lines) has upgraded its HVAC systems to HEPA (or a similarly rated MERV) air filters. Of course one can get exposed anywhere, but the virus seems to spread easily where there are lots of people in confined spaces. So I'm glad to know they have at least done this on all of their ships. Additionally, on most cruise ships passengers are allowed to serve themselves (buffet style) in certain dining areas. But on this ship, the workers serve your food so that guests don't have to handle serving utensils that everyone else has handled.
When we got off the ship, there were a couple of ambulances parked outside with lights flashing. Obviously there had been some type of medical emergency. The onboard clinic can treat minor illnesses so we wondered if there was a fall, heart attack or ?? We said a prayer for them because a vacation is not the place you want to be sick, much less need to be hospitalized. As a side note - we purchased medical evacuation insurance in the event one of us needed to be hospitalized for any reason. Like any insurance, you're glad you have it but you hope you won't need it!
Here are a few random photos I took around the port this afternoon.
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| Ronnie goofing off |
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| nice view of the Insignia from the back |
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| Mexican folk dancers entertaining in port |
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| we saw both green and yellow coconuts |
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| ambulance leaving with cruise passenger |
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| the most attractive port we've visited so far |
So sorry your neighbors are sick. This new variant of Covid is awfully fast spreading. Stay well! Love the pictures!
ReplyDeleteThey are out of quarantine now. I talked to her briefly and she said they weren't terribly sick. But Ronnie said her cough sounded terrible. I think the ship's medical people had to give them the "ok" to come out of quarantine.
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