Despite the warnings people traveled to XYZ and are now stuck. Who is responsible?

[BoundForElsewhere]

Maybe not in Roatan given the situation there now. No diving in most places. No going to the beach. Restaurants are shut down. And apparently so are the grocery stores now. Patrols with guns on the streets and in the water.

Nevermind. I take that back. yikes.

 

[Doc]

In 1998 (during Hurricane Mitch) I myself was acting as a piece of the Bay Islands “Martial Law” Proclamation.

it is not what you have been instructed to believe by the movies.

There are ALWAYS armed uniformed men visible on Roatan. @KatieMac, there simply can not be any increase this week due to their manpower need on the mainland. Their government is slowly reactive, nowhere close to pro-active. Island life plods along.

I honestly can not tell you the difference between the very scary sounding Martial Rule or Martial Law or whatever the next step is, but... when the Governor hung such credentials on me 22 years ago, he simply said, “go help people, get obstinate people’s heads straight, make sure everybody gets what they need if you can get it”. Yes, I carried my HK pistol, but was given no instruction as to rules.

The Director of RTB Airport Security got upset when I walked on the taxiway fully armed, but after our task, in 20 minutes we were having coffee. For years until he moved on, he would see me in the Customs line and grab me out and give me the process for Diplomatic Entry. A lot more fun stories.

Typical of Honduras, but don’t get your undies in a bunch over nomenclature we really do not understand.

Life will go on, just as it did after Hurricane Mitch.This is an amaz8ngly resilient populace.

Admirable, adaptable people.

 

[HKGuns]

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. The stupidity of people never ceases to amaze me.

Why should my tax dollars be spent fixing their special version of stupid?

 

[KatieMac]

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. The stupidity of people never ceases to amaze me.

Why should my tax dollars be spent fixing their special version of stupid?

I tend to agree with you wrt the people who left despite warnings. For those who have been traveling for a while, I don't share that sentiment. But I would rather see the airlines deadheading flights rather than tax dollars spend on retrieving them. But who's kidding who? Even if the airlines incur losses with deadheaded flights, they will apply for bailouts and will get them. And that's still tax dollars.

 

[HKGuns]

For those who have been traveling for a while, I don't share that sentiment.

We are fully aligned.

 

[Joneill]

All in all, I think I'd rather be with my family in Roatan, Bonaire, tropical island, etc. than NYC right now. Food, water, roof, and scuba. What else do we need?

It's kind of depressing here.

The question is would you really want to be there if you got seriously ill?

 

[mi000ke]

The question is would you really want to be there if you got seriously ill?

Good point. Healthcare is a big issue for us. That's why we were OK with staying in Cayman where the medical community is world-class. My wife and I have received excellent treatment here for various things that crop up (like a few months ago when I missed the dock getting off the dive boat and ripped my shin to the bone). And they seem to be way on top of the virus thing here.

So when things settle down a bit, y'all should come down here to dive knowing that you'll be taken good care of, if needed.

 

[Joneill]

Good point. Healthcare is a big issue for us. That's why we were OK with staying in Cayman where the medical community is world-class. My wife and I have received excellent treatment here for various things that crop up (like a few months ago when I missed the dock getting off the dive boat and ripped my shin to the bone). And they seem to be way on top of the virus thing here.

So when things settle down a bit, y'all should come down here to dive knowing that you'll be taken good care of, if needed.

Thanks, I plan to be back as soon as the coast is clear - stay safe and enjoy the great GC diving. Post pics so we can live vicariously through you for the time being!

 

[martincohn]

If you want to travel internationally and don't want to keep track of world events you will get burned eventually.

We cancelled our annual trip to Pensacola Beach (live in Texas) back in late Feb scheduled for March 16th. Why? Because we saw what was happening in the world and didn't want to be traveling during all this ****. And that was just a road trip.

Because the beach will be there after all this is over. And NO vacation is worth risking your life or the life of a loved one.

 

[Pearlman]

We came down to Caymans in early January, expecting to return home end of April. Caymans decided to ban all flights in and out for at least three weeks with a few days notice. We decided to stay, figuring it's much safer here (only 2 active cases both under quarantine), and we're still diving (with everyone keeping appropriate social distance, except underwater, of course), and it's a lot warmer here than at home. There are worse places to be stranded..

Quick question on the side - does the virus not spread through water? If one can get it from a swimming pool swimming with an infected person, one could possibly get it in the Ocean as well?

P