WHAT NOW????

                                                            By Pam Walker

 

I had so many things planned!  January 2020 was to be the beginning of a great year!  Travel is always in my future.  That is what I do for a living.

March, I had planned a trip to newly developed areas in Argentine Patagonia! Pristine and away from everything, I was really looking forward to this trip.  A chance for me to get away from the ordinary, go fly fishing, riding and in particular, hiking the beautiful trails to maybe see a Puma or Guanaco and some local birds. Photography is my passion…so there was to be no lost opportunities here.

 April was to the tulip fields near Amsterdam. Again, my photographic juices were flowing.  I had never seen those famous fields even though I have been in Holland many, many times before.  Even went there for one short weekend with my husband a few years back.  Yes’s that is me….any chance I get!   Never too short or too long, I take my opportunities when they come to me.

In May was a scheduled trip to a beautiful Caribbean Island to check out some all-inclusive hotels and see renovations in others. The Caribbean is a perfect place to spend a short time on a beautiful beach and sipping the local brew that the beachside waiters just can’t wait to put in your hand!  The friendliness of the Caribbean attitude can’t be beat!

That was a 10 months ago now!

Enter Covid-19 …..and sheer chaos!

 One trip after another fell by the wayside as the dreaded disease traveled from China to Europe to the USA and then down to South America and elsewhere.  Countries were closing their borders…..friends were calling from all over the world saying they could not leave their homes without a permission slip from the local authorities!!! 

Am I dreaming or are they all back in high school all over again?

 Am I getting a refund?  Who knows…it is a no man’s land out there!   Many people think that people in my industry travel for free. Many years ago, that might have been true.  But in today’s world, it is all about the bottom line. Every hotel and many of the airlines are adopting their own policies and there is no consensus of thought in anything.

Hotels are closed…airlines cancelling flights or taking off empty!  Will this ever end?

People that had traveled the world with me were cancelling out of fear of the unknown….or fear the would not get home. Too much gloom and doom TV!  It’s driving everyone insane and to the “poor house” too.  Fear of going outside…going to restaurants…getting on planes! Fear of losing livelihoods!

What now?

Well I for one am not afraid.  As soon as these countries open up and their ecomomies are back open…I am going to be on the first plane out of here.

  I sit here at my computer day after day looking at the video tours of museums and the Seven Wonders of the New World and dream of the day I will say hello again.  To have that chance to stand in the British Museum, or King Tut’s Tomb in Egypt.  I will be there. There is a whole world out there waiting for us to begin explorations again. For those that seize the opportunity….it will be like new discoveries!  I predict that the truly appreciative will be brave enough to travel.

To see the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone in all its glory…..with tons of animals and birds that are free to be  where the crowds used to be.

No more lines…no more crowds…..there is so much the world has to offer.

They say it will be a “new normal”.  Yes, we may have to wear a mask in a restaurant, or on a plane. That is just being prudent during these times.  But to feel the warmth of the sun on your face as you enjoy the beautiful surroundings of our world…..that just makes the new normal more special. You might be surprised at what you had missed before.

 What now? 

 No more enclosure or stay at home orders…no more fear either!   Just get out there!  Join me…I will be roaming the world…One Heck of a beautiful place!

 

Pam Walker is a Virtuoso travel advisor and can be reached at pam@walkeradventures.com