Caribbean Travel Dreams Blog

Yes, I actually said that out loud ... "I'm Going To Mexico" tomorrow to spend 6 days in the Cancun & Riviera Maya beach areas.   Over a month ago, I would have gotten the response "I'm so jealous!" ... now it's a hand over the mouth with a little gasp and a hushed ..."Are you really going?" ... "Aren't you afraid you'll get sick?".

I was like everybody else watching & reading media reports of the swine flu ... ooops I mean H1N1 virus ... but I decided to sit back, wait and watch  ... and here are my humble thoughts:

1) While in South Africa this past March I had an unbelievable sinus infection, fever, etc. that came back to haunt me a week after I came home ... sick in bed for 3 days, antibiotics, the works.  Who's to say 500 others who crossed paths during my stay in South Africa didn't get the same infection and bring it home to their countries ... no repots to verify ... no way of knowing ...

2) In all my 49 years I've had what we term "the flu"  and "flu-like symptoms" many times ... can't say I've ever had a blood test any of those times ... but curious to know if I had been tested, would it have been H1N1?  For all I know, I've had "swine flu" many times over the years... but I'll never know ...

3)  A couple of years ago I was on the island of Martinique during an earthquake reported to be 7.4 magnitude.  From the news reports back home, my family thought I was never to be seen again.  The quake got our attention for sure on the island ... but in actuality, some services were interrupted, a road or two were buckled, a church lost its steeple, schools were closed as a precaution to check stability, luckily very minimal damage.   My first-hand experience of media hype.

3) With a population of 26.7 million people in Mexico City (been called the"epicenter" of the epidemic), the relative percentage of people in Mexico City that have been affected is 5 ten-millionths of 1 percent.   Not bad odds.

My heart goes out to those who have been affected with the flu as well as the many who are now struggling to feed their families because of loss of employment.   Tourism is the most important sources of income for the beach areas of Mexico (where there have been no reports of influenza), and those already struggling to feed their families are even more devastated.

So, yes I plan on giving Mexico a great big hug this week ... and I'm saying it loud and proud ... "I'm Going to Mexico"!  Stay tuned ...

Pattie Mitchell, ACC
Travel Dreams
E-mail: traveldreams10@yahoo.com
www.traveldreams.us