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1 minute ago, The Blinking Eye said:

 

What I didn't understand was I thought we weren't supposed to fly during a pandemic. So the whole thing confused me and seems really bad modeling for public health standards. It didn't occur to me that the whole family would have been vaccinated. That also seems really poor form since most places only have enough vaccines for 75 and older.

 

The flower shop owner who was charged for rioting on January 6 got permission to continue with her plans to have a bonding with employees trip to Cancun, too.  I wonder if all of her employees have been vaccinated.   I think the last place I'd go to now in any country would be a tourist destination.

 

 

 

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14 minutes ago, The Blinking Eye said:

 

Oh I can talk politics forever, and if I see a comment about it, I will naturally react. I just hadn't seen Paulette's comment so wasn't aware that was a taboo thing here, just like when I went on to talk about Stockimo and got shushed. In general, I don't censor myself, even if that's called for. I don't really believe in approving or disproving certain topics and controlling speech. But at the same, I come here mostly for photo talk and ignore the chatty personal threads.

 

I'm not sure it's an absolute ban, or what. 

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3 minutes ago, MizBrown said:

 

The flower shop owner who was charged for rioting on January 6 got permission to continue with her plans to have a bonding with employees trip to Cancun, too.  I wonder if all of her employees have been vaccinated.   I think the last place I'd go to now in any country would be a tourist destination.

 

 

 

What the heck. And here I've been living alone in a one room loft apartment for a year, seeing nobody except one indoor guest, three times only, after careful consideration. For a year. Less than ten purchases of restaurant food. One afternoon hike in nearby hills plus local bike rides and that's IT. Must be nice. The alternative realities blow my mind. My good friend's uncle died yesterday afternoon from COVID.

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4 minutes ago, The Blinking Eye said:

What the heck. And here I've been living alone in a one room loft apartment for a year, seeing nobody except one indoor guest, three times only, after careful consideration. For a year. Less than ten purchases of restaurant food. One afternoon hike in nearby hills plus local bike rides and that's IT. Must be nice. The alternative realities blow my mind. My good friend's uncle died yesterday afternoon from COVID.

 

My friend's closest Nicaragua friend lost her mother and one of her brothers, and had one brother recover, but with possible complications.  Early days for it here -- April.

 

 

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1 hour ago, The Blinking Eye said:

 

Oh I can talk politics forever, and if I see a comment about it, I will naturally react. I just hadn't seen Paulette's comment so wasn't aware that was a taboo thing here, just like when I went on to talk about Stockimo and got shushed. In general, I don't censor myself, even if that's called for. I don't really believe in approving or disproving certain topics and controlling speech. But at the same, I come here mostly for photo talk and ignore the chatty personal threads.

 

 

i am confused about claims it is forbidden, there was a few comments of political nature that were too confrontational in my view, and flags to Alamy did not result in removal, so i assume they are fine to a certain limits, whereas single mention of st*ck*mo will bet a thread locked out immediately. 

 

issue i think with the forum, is that so many of our subjects are, or get used, in political ways.   Even Paulette's wonderful polar bear images often get a political subtext when then are in the image sold thread, not sure we want to stop these.  

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1 hour ago, The Blinking Eye said:

 

What I didn't understand was I thought we weren't supposed to fly during a pandemic. So the whole thing confused me and seems really bad modeling for public health standards. It didn't occur to me that the whole family would have been vaccinated. That also seems really poor form since most places only have enough vaccines for 75 and older.

 

 

but own vaccination is not enough.  You can likely still be a carrier even vaccinated.  Coming from a place that did not elect a CovidZero strategy and Going to a country that is struggling with the Pandemic, with a bare bone health system, forcing locals to have more interactions, is in itself selfish, and likely will ensure the pandemic will drag on even further.   As a (former) nomad this is something I have a feeling i will struggle for a long time, can't see myself doing what i was doing at anytime soon (to be reassessed in 2023) .  

 

 

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7 minutes ago, meanderingemu said:

 

 

i am confused about claims it is forbidden, there was a few comments of political nature that were too confrontational in my view, and flags to Alamy did not result in removal, so i assume they are fine to a certain limits, whereas single mention of st*ck*mo will bet a thread locked out immediately. 

 

issue i think with the forum, is that so many of our subjects are, or get used, in political ways.   Even Paulette's wonderful polar bear images often get a political subtext when then are in the image sold thread, not sure we want to stop these.  

 

My missteps on this forum continue. I spelled out the S word.

 

 

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1 minute ago, meanderingemu said:

 

 

but own vaccination is not enough.  You can likely still be a carrier even vaccinated.  Coming from a place that did not elect a CovidZero strategy and Going to a country that is struggling with the Pandemic, with a bare bone health system, forcing locals to have more interactions, is in itself selfish, and likely will ensure the pandemic will drag on even further.   As a (former) nomad this is something I have a feeling i will struggle for a long time, can't see myself doing what i was doing at anytime soon (to be reassessed in 2023) .  

 

 

 

Interesting. I didn't think so much about the effect travel had on the receiving country. I have a subconsciously embedded colonialist mindset.

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Here in the UK we hear a great deal about which countries are on our 'Red list' so that travellers would need to quarantine in hugely expensive and poorly organized airport hotels. We don't hear much about which countries don't want us to go there which, given that we've had the highest death rate per capita in Europe, and I think the world, might also come into it.

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12 hours ago, meanderingemu said:

 

 

but own vaccination is not enough.  You can likely still be a carrier even vaccinated.  Coming from a place that did not elect a CovidZero strategy and Going to a country that is struggling with the Pandemic, with a bare bone health system, forcing locals to have more interactions, is in itself selfish, and likely will ensure the pandemic will drag on even further.   As a (former) nomad this is something I have a feeling i will struggle for a long time, can't see myself doing what i was doing at anytime soon (to be reassessed in 2023) .  

 

 

 

Also the more desperate poverty is and the more a country depends on tourism, the more people will work through being sick on the job and the less screening a country will do to keep cases out.  Mexico has nothing keeping people from flying in without tests now though tests are required before flying back to the US unless you have been vaccinated or have recently recovered from Covid 19 and have a doctor's permission to fly. 

 

People who want to come to Nicaragua will fly into Costa Rica, get a Covid 19 test, and cross by land into Nicaragua and then have to fly back by charter to Costa Rica, get tested again for flights out or fly charter to Miami and pay $150 for the Covid 19 test here.  A number of Nicaraguans who'd been working in Costa Rica returned to Nicaragua when Costa Rica reopened for tourism because they knew that Costa Rica wouldn't be enforcing testing before landing for long (and they haven't).   Cuba reopened for tourism and cases went up. 

 

Mexico has possibly worse rural poverty than Nicaragua has, thanks to coffee and cacao which the US can't grow outside Puerto Rico and Hawaii.   US surplus corn hasn't helped Mexico.

 

It's obscene to be going to Mexico on vacation from any place with a high infection rate -- both the US and UK qualify for that.  Mexico's health system is decent, but not really prepared for a pandemic.   Some communities closed themselves off from all outsiders at one point as one indigenous community did in Nicaragua.   Recently one church group decide to come from the US to Nicaragua anyway, to a community where earlier a preacher and his wife brought back Covid 19 after a required meeting in the US.   They survived; not everyone who caught it from them did.

 

We had one pair of idiots come here to look for retirement property.  He developed pneumonia and they went to Vivian Pellas, a private hospital that compared his x-rays to  examples of Chinese x-rays and told them he probably had Covid 19 but the public health service controlled the tests and they didn't have beds for a Covid 19 case so he should go to a public hospital.  She refused to believe it was Covid, moved him to a hotel and had a doctor scheduled to come into see him.  He died in the hotel room.   Of Covid 19.

 

The wishful thinking is strong both with the Anglos and with countries desperate for tourism.  Despite having documented the first case in Costa Rica coming in from another tourist couple there, they have a fantasy that people rich enough to fly in won't be a problem.  Mexico has the same fantasy.  

 

Here tends to do the right thing as much as they can afford to, and does require testing before landing but doesn't quarantine visitors for two weeks.  

 

A friend is hurting very badly, but she does have a pension from her years in Sweden and inherited the hotel.

 

Because of 2018, the government couldn't use cops to enforce masking, so they left it to private businesses which are doing quite a good job of enforcing masking in their premises and who can have armed people enforcing it.   I've heard of only one Nicaraguan making a fuss about it, not in my town.

 

We have more street vendors than before, more garbage pickers.  I bought sweet lemons from a young man who I hadn't seen before this week.  Nobody knows when Nicaragua will get vaccines, but Nicaragua isn't doing as badly as some other countries in the region.

 

I look every day at this site:  https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

 

 

 

 

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8 hours ago, Harry Harrison said:

Here in the UK we hear a great deal about which countries are on our 'Red list' so that travellers would need to quarantine in hugely expensive and poorly organized airport hotels. We don't hear much about which countries don't want us to go there which, given that we've had the highest death rate per capita in Europe, and I think the world, might also come into it.

Spain has extended the UK ban till 16th March. It's hurting tourism big time but I think it's the right thing to do...

Phil

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20 minutes ago, Phil Crean said:

Spain has extended the UK ban till 16th March. It's hurting tourism big time but I think it's the right thing to do...

Phil

With very few exceptions we can't lawfully leave the country anyway.

There are plenty of us who would prefer to put a very large distance between ourselves and those who dictate to us.

Edited by spacecadet
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10 hours ago, Harry Harrison said:

We don't hear much about which countries don't want us to go there which, given that we've had the highest death rate per capita in Europe, and I think the world, might also come into it.

 

Not the highest death rate in Europe, about third place of the larger countries -- Belgium, Czechia, and Slovenia are ahead of you.

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1 hour ago, Phil Crean said:

Spain has extended the UK ban till 16th March. It's hurting tourism big time but I think it's the right thing to do...

Phil

No way to travel there before 17th May, at the earliest. Just in case I book one for that day😀. Spain will remove that ban before that date.

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1 hour ago, MizBrown said:

 

Also the more desperate poverty is and the more a country depends on tourism, the more people will work through being sick on the job and the less screening a country will do to keep cases out.  Mexico has nothing keeping people from flying in without tests now though tests are required before flying back to the US unless you have been vaccinated or have recently recovered from Covid 19 and have a doctor's permission to fly. 

 

People who want to come to Nicaragua will fly into Costa Rica, get a Covid 19 test, and cross by land into Nicaragua and then have to fly back by charter to Costa Rica, get tested again for flights out or fly charter to Miami and pay $150 for the Covid 19 test here.  A number of Nicaraguans who'd been working in Costa Rica returned to Nicaragua when Costa Rica reopened for tourism because they knew that Costa Rica wouldn't be enforcing testing before landing for long (and they haven't).   Cuba reopened for tourism and cases went up. 

 

Mexico has possibly worse rural poverty than Nicaragua has, thanks to coffee and cacao which the US can't grow outside Puerto Rico and Hawaii.   US surplus corn hasn't helped Mexico.

 

It's obscene to be going to Mexico on vacation from any place with a high infection rate -- both the US and UK qualify for that.  Mexico's health system is decent, but not really prepared for a pandemic.   Some communities closed themselves off from all outsiders at one point as one indigenous community did in Nicaragua.   Recently one church group decide to come from the US to Nicaragua anyway, to a community where earlier a preacher and his wife brought back Covid 19 after a required meeting in the US.   They survived; not everyone who caught it from them did.

 

We had one pair of idiots come here to look for retirement property.  He developed pneumonia and they went to Vivian Pellas, a private hospital that compared his x-rays to  examples of Chinese x-rays and told them he probably had Covid 19 but the public health service controlled the tests and they didn't have beds for a Covid 19 case so he should go to a public hospital.  She refused to believe it was Covid, moved him to a hotel and had a doctor scheduled to come into see him.  He died in the hotel room.   Of Covid 19.

 

The wishful thinking is strong both with the Anglos and with countries desperate for tourism.  Despite having documented the first case in Costa Rica coming in from another tourist couple there, they have a fantasy that people rich enough to fly in won't be a problem.  Mexico has the same fantasy.  

 

Here tends to do the right thing as much as they can afford to, and does require testing before landing but doesn't quarantine visitors for two weeks.  

 

A friend is hurting very badly, but she does have a pension from her years in Sweden and inherited the hotel.

 

Because of 2018, the government couldn't use cops to enforce masking, so they left it to private businesses which are doing quite a good job of enforcing masking in their premises and who can have armed people enforcing it.   I've heard of only one Nicaraguan making a fuss about it, not in my town.

 

We have more street vendors than before, more garbage pickers.  I bought sweet lemons from a young man who I hadn't seen before this week.  Nobody knows when Nicaragua will get vaccines, but Nicaragua isn't doing as badly as some other countries in the region.

 

I look every day at this site:  https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

 

 

 

 

 

Even Mexico's president got COVID-19. Not surprising since he went around without wearing a mask and peddled all sorts of weird advice about how to avoid getting the virus, which he claimed was a hoax. Hmmm...  sounds somewhat familiar. 🤐

 

 

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4 minutes ago, John Mitchell said:

 

Even Mexico's president got COVID-19. Not surprising since he went around without wearing a mask and peddled all sorts of weird advice about how to avoid getting the virus, which he claimed was a hoax. Hmmm...  sounds somewhat familiar. 🤐

 

 

Yeah, and Bolsanaro in Brazil is also similar.

 

My suspicion is that mask wearing and staying out of bars, churches with loud singing, and restaurants is critical, and total prohibition of travel early would have been useful, with really strict quarantine for returning nationals (Nicaragua's first cases came from returning nationals).  Not as sure about lockdowns -- Japan seems to have controlled thing well without that.

 

 

 

 

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32 minutes ago, MizBrown said:

Yeah, and Bolsanaro in Brazil is also similar.

 

My suspicion is that mask wearing and staying out of bars, churches with loud singing, and restaurants is critical, and total prohibition of travel early would have been useful, with really strict quarantine for returning nationals (Nicaragua's first cases came from returning nationals).  Not as sure about lockdowns -- Japan seems to have controlled thing well without that.

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, travel is a major vector of the virus. It is thought to have originally gotten into BC from Washington state, our next door neighbour, but who knows. BC never went into total lockdown. For instance, restaurants and hair salons never closed. However, the situation here is not nearly as bad here as in many other places.

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On 24/02/2021 at 23:28, Harry Harrison said:

Here in the UK we hear a great deal about which countries are on our 'Red list' so that travellers would need to quarantine in hugely expensive and poorly organized airport hotels. We don't hear much about which countries don't want us to go there which, given that we've had the highest death rate per capita in Europe, and I think the world, might also come into it.

 

I found this: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1104709/coronavirus-deaths-worldwide-per-million-inhabitants/

 

I actually thought the USA had the highest death rate. It's all so terribly tragic and frustrating.

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13 hours ago, MizBrown said:

Yeah, and Bolsanaro in Brazil is also similar.

 

My suspicion is that mask wearing and staying out of bars, churches with loud singing, and restaurants is critical, and total prohibition of travel early would have been useful, with really strict quarantine for returning nationals (Nicaragua's first cases came from returning nationals).  Not as sure about lockdowns -- Japan seems to have controlled thing well without that.

 

 

 

 

 

I broke down today and got take out food at an indoor mall court. I have had restaurant food fewer than ten times in the past year. Anyway I was at this place a couple months ago and did NOT feel safe. People sitting indoors eating and drinking. Lots of talking. I went today and noticed they completely removed all the chairs and tables and forbid anyone from eating inside. Why has it taken them almost a year to implement this? I guess it's because we recently had a couple months of lockdown, and the law dictated curbside pickup only at all establishments. So now it seems to be permanent. Tables outside. Why did it take so long to understand and respond to science?

 

I also noticed the Apple Store entirely restructured their layout. No more open space. No more products on display. No more roaming and testing out iPads. Just a series of booths or kiosks where the employees stand inside these tiny rooms at a window.

 

Also, to your other points. I read that a lot of essential workers etc, especially people in the Latino community in the USA, just go to work with COVID because they can't afford not to. Capitalist economics are a driving factor in the spread.

 

Also, people in the USA do not have dental care. Dental procedures in old age cost enough to bankrupt people. My mom says she spent her life paying off her house and now has to pay more than what the house was worth when she bought it, all for dental care. More and more, Americans go to Mexico for affordable dental. They call it "dental tourism".

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7 hours ago, The Blinking Eye said:

More and more, Americans go to Mexico for affordable dental. They call it "dental tourism".

 

Basically, the problem with medical and dental tourism is often no after care.  A woman who visited here wanted to get my dentists to treat her and a friend.  They explained that the whole process would take at least two weeks (permanent bridges come from Managua) and seemed to be reluctant to treat people who were going to be in and out.  My work here was $900 US in 2011, which seemed steep at the time, but my dad said just my root canal and bridge would have cost several thousand in the US.

 

Lots of people just have everything pulled and get dentures -- here, too. 

 

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, MizBrown said:

 

Basically, the problem with medical and dental tourism is often no after care.  A woman who visited here wanted to get my dentists to treat her and a friend.  They explained that the whole process would take at least two weeks (permanent bridges come from Managua) and seemed to be reluctant to treat people who were going to be in and out.  My work here was $900 US in 2011, which seemed steep at the time, but my dad said just my root canal and bridge would have cost several thousand in the US.

 

Lots of people just have everything pulled and get dentures -- here, too. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dental work costs a fortune in Canada as well. I currently need two crowns, which I can't afford. I've thought about having them done in Mexico or Central America for a fraction of the cost. However, my dentist has warned me that he has seen some really botched "dental tourism" jobs with inferior materials that don't fit properly and fall apart. Sometimes people return home and have to have everything redone. Ten cuidado.

 

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43 minutes ago, John Mitchell said:

 

 

Dental work costs a fortune in Canada as well. I currently need two crowns, which I can't afford. I've thought about having them done in Mexico or Central America for a fraction of the cost. However, my dentist has warned me that he has seen some really botched "dental tourism" jobs with inferior materials that don't fit properly and fall apart. Sometimes people return home and have to have everything redone. Ten cuidado.

 

 

The scrupulous dentists want to be able to see you again if anything needs further work.  The less scrupulous ones don't care.   My dentists (a couple in partnership at their clinic) didn't seem interested at all in dental tourism.  My bridge is still okay (four tooth bridge).  Most of the work here by the clinics involves metal teeth. My bridge is white material.  Friend of mine goes to a dentist about an hour and a half way who makes what he puts in people's mouths.  My dentists had things made in Managua.

 

What is charming about my dentists is that the family lives behind the clinic and the kids stick their heads out periodically to see what Mamma and Papa are doing.   I should get a photo of the clinic now that I have a 18mm lens.  It's rather impressive.

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On 26/02/2021 at 10:03, John Mitchell said:

 

 

Dental work costs a fortune in Canada as well. I currently need two crowns, which I can't afford. I've thought about having them done in Mexico or Central America for a fraction of the cost. However, my dentist has warned me that he has seen some really botched "dental tourism" jobs with inferior materials that don't fit properly and fall apart. Sometimes people return home and have to have everything redone. Ten cuidado.

 

 

For price tags like $60,000, it seems you could do your research, find a reputable dentist, take a month-long vacation in Mexico to get the work done and recover, and fly back multiple times for follow up work... for a fraction of the price it would cost in the USA.

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