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An interesting and informative read.
Telegraph.co.uk
Jim Lander from Cancun
In Cancun – where a number of the flu's foreign victims, including a Scottish couple, were staying while in Mexico – the 90 huge hotels are emptier than usual. Hotel occupancy has reportedly fallen by 36 per cent as tourists stay away, but those who come are not fazed by health concerns.
At the Oasis Cancun, the hotel where a group of New York high school students were staying just days before coming down with the virus, the party is still in full swing. A young American woman showed little interest in the link as she slugged down a cocktail at the bar. She was breaking all the Mexican government's warnings about not gathering in crowded places, avoiding physical contact and regular handwashing, and she clearly didn't even know it.
Away from the resorts where the locals are doing their level best not to alarm the gringos, [strange word to use?]there have been widespread signs of a worried population. Mexican hospitals report being inundated by thousands of people worried they may have caught the virus.
In the capital, the mood has swung up and down like a pendulum during the week, the vigilance of people's precautions varying considerably from neighbourhood to neighbourhood. In the fashionable middle-class Condesa, almost everyone on the streets has been carefully sporting their paper blue surgical facemasks.
"I basically stay in my house almost all the time. I don't want to see any of my friends in case they infect me or my son or daughter," said Alejandra Peralta, a 37-year-old single mother who works for the government. "A friend yesterday said he was going to pop by. I told him that I didn't want him in my home spreading his germs."
But in many working class barrios, teenagers and young men massed carelessly on the street, laughing, chatting and kicking footballs around.
"I'm not scared of the flu. If it gets me, then it gets me," said Hector Quiros, 27, shrugging.
Bizarre conspiracy theories - blaming America, drug cartels or their own government - are circulating to explain why the virus – whose confirmed flu-related death toll in Mexico now stands at 15 dead and 328 people infected - has been hit so much harder than anywhere else.
Mexico's poor health care system and rudimentary scientific testing facilities have been blamed for delaying for crucial weeks identification of the virus as a new, mutant strain. The 39-year-old woman who was the first to die in the epidemic spent the last eight days of her life going from clinic to clinic to find out what was wrong with her but doctors were baffled.
Misinformation continues to be rife. Hotel management in Caribbean resorts such as Cancun claim - misleadingly given the evidence from abroad - that the virus hasn't affected their regions but at the same time some have been issuing kitchen staff with masks.
Hotel staff have clearly been under orders to play down the crisis, ignoring searching questions with a smile. At the Dreams Cancun resort, an Irish honeymooner asked a concierge about the bag of surgical masks on his desk. The hotel worker mumbled that they were for staff and quickly moved them out of sight, said the tourist.
The hotels are not alone. According to some British holiday makers, local travel company representatives were dismissing fears over the virus as "hype" earlier this week. Among hundreds of tourists who queued on Wednesday for a specially-arranged plane to take them home, there were angry accusations that travel companies had downplayed the health risks.
Telegraph.co.uk
Jim Lander from Cancun
In Cancun – where a number of the flu's foreign victims, including a Scottish couple, were staying while in Mexico – the 90 huge hotels are emptier than usual. Hotel occupancy has reportedly fallen by 36 per cent as tourists stay away, but those who come are not fazed by health concerns.
At the Oasis Cancun, the hotel where a group of New York high school students were staying just days before coming down with the virus, the party is still in full swing. A young American woman showed little interest in the link as she slugged down a cocktail at the bar. She was breaking all the Mexican government's warnings about not gathering in crowded places, avoiding physical contact and regular handwashing, and she clearly didn't even know it.
Away from the resorts where the locals are doing their level best not to alarm the gringos, [strange word to use?]there have been widespread signs of a worried population. Mexican hospitals report being inundated by thousands of people worried they may have caught the virus.
In the capital, the mood has swung up and down like a pendulum during the week, the vigilance of people's precautions varying considerably from neighbourhood to neighbourhood. In the fashionable middle-class Condesa, almost everyone on the streets has been carefully sporting their paper blue surgical facemasks.
"I basically stay in my house almost all the time. I don't want to see any of my friends in case they infect me or my son or daughter," said Alejandra Peralta, a 37-year-old single mother who works for the government. "A friend yesterday said he was going to pop by. I told him that I didn't want him in my home spreading his germs."
But in many working class barrios, teenagers and young men massed carelessly on the street, laughing, chatting and kicking footballs around.
"I'm not scared of the flu. If it gets me, then it gets me," said Hector Quiros, 27, shrugging.
Bizarre conspiracy theories - blaming America, drug cartels or their own government - are circulating to explain why the virus – whose confirmed flu-related death toll in Mexico now stands at 15 dead and 328 people infected - has been hit so much harder than anywhere else.
Mexico's poor health care system and rudimentary scientific testing facilities have been blamed for delaying for crucial weeks identification of the virus as a new, mutant strain. The 39-year-old woman who was the first to die in the epidemic spent the last eight days of her life going from clinic to clinic to find out what was wrong with her but doctors were baffled.
Misinformation continues to be rife. Hotel management in Caribbean resorts such as Cancun claim - misleadingly given the evidence from abroad - that the virus hasn't affected their regions but at the same time some have been issuing kitchen staff with masks.
Hotel staff have clearly been under orders to play down the crisis, ignoring searching questions with a smile. At the Dreams Cancun resort, an Irish honeymooner asked a concierge about the bag of surgical masks on his desk. The hotel worker mumbled that they were for staff and quickly moved them out of sight, said the tourist.
The hotels are not alone. According to some British holiday makers, local travel company representatives were dismissing fears over the virus as "hype" earlier this week. Among hundreds of tourists who queued on Wednesday for a specially-arranged plane to take them home, there were angry accusations that travel companies had downplayed the health risks.
Never been checked for Kahlua content either.
I just do not have any selfish interests in the discussion here at all; just discussing.
"Come on down; the water's fine! Yeah, right. While employees are ordered to keep quiet, and who knows what's happening out of site. I do like that most cafes in Cozumel seem to do their cooking in view of the customers.
