After a week and a half of having declared the emergency, everything is slowly going back to normal in Mexico City now that the government has declared that the worst has passed (at least in Mexico itself, as the virus is still being reported in the U.S.). Tomorrow people will go back to work and in a few days schools will reopen. There are a couple of diplomatic incidents still ongoing, and I for one am not planning to go to China nor Argentina anytime soon (both suspended flights, and Mexicans without symptoms are .
I really hope that the Mexican tourism industry recovers once this emergency is over, as the economic cost of this emergency runs in the billions. At least it’s not the main news item in international media anymore at the time of writing.
Even though the name is rather contentious, it is definitely the main news topic worldwide. The rate of new cases seems to be going down in Mexico according to the Health Ministry, but there have been more deaths in Mexico and the first one abroad and the disease has spread to more countries, including a suspected case in Finland. In Mexico City most of my friends and family keep on staying home, and most have already paid a heavy-duty visit to the supermarket. I certainly hope the situation stabilises before other countries besides Argentina and Cuba suspend flights to the country.
In the cultural reaction front, there is plenty of photoshopped images doing the rounds, and others taken from the scene. There is now a second swine flu song, the first has been translated to English, and people keep on usinghumour as a way to cope, especially that now even restaurants in the city are closed (with losses of more than 70 million USD per day).
The WHO has raised its alert status to level 4. There have been over 2,300 cases in Mexico now, 700 still in hospital, 150 deceased. There are confirmed cases in Spain and Scotland, and closer to home suspected cases in Belgium, Sweden, Norway & Denmark. To make matters even worse, there was an earthquake in Mexico City today, although there is no reports of damages.
Although Mexicans are now starting to sound worried, some still cope by joking. Some people commented that the earthquake was basically another way of sneezing, and the influenza song now has a video. People are still staying home, following the instructions of the government, and the school shutdown has been expanded nationwide. If you speak Spanish, the Mexican Presidency has live video coverage of the situation here.
Roman Catholic masses were cancelled throughout the city, museums were closed and football matches were played behind close doors (my team, Chivas, tied) to avoid the creation of crowds. People have been generally very calm from what I understand, stayed home and there is no panic shopping, but the streets are rather empty for a city of over 20 million people (some pictures here). If you understand Spanish, a great chronicle of the past two days can be found here and here. The city is not afraid, and people still make fun of the situation from time to time.
Video rentals and video stores were doing brisk business yesterday, and schools are closed until May 6th (May 1st and 5th are holidays anyway). Military personnel have been handling masks around the city and now everybody is bracing themselves for tomorrow: will people go to work or will they home office (those who can)?
The Finnish media have complained about the slow Mexican response to the outbreak, but they seem to ignore that even the National University (UNAM) doesn’t have the equipment needed to distinguish this new virus from its old, previously known cousins and with the normal flu season just ending, there was no cause for concern. On the other hand the World Health Organisation has praised the Mexican response.
There are confirmed cases in Mexico, the US, Canada and New Zealand, and suspected cases in France, Spain, UK & Israel (map here). Deaths have only happened in Mexico, and even there two thirds of the 1200 cases have already been released from hospital. According to some information in the Mexican media, vaccines don’t work, but antivirals such as Tamiflu do. Airports haven’t been closed, but there is more stringent screening in Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan from passengers coming over from North America.
There are two different hypothesis of the origin of the virus: one points to it having started in a farm in Texas and then crossed over to the border, the other one points to farms in Perote, Veracruz, Mexico. None has been confirmed.
If you want to know more in real time, you can follow @Veratect and @zolliker (in Spanish) on Twitter.
One very interesting consequence of the current situation with swine flu in Mexico (New Yortk Times, BBC, El Universal, Hesari) has been the reaction of the public. While of course the healthcare system is taking all possible measures and people are worried, quite a few have tended to cope with the situation through jokes (some of a very dark nature). People have started joking about zombies, politics, Hollywood disaster movies or the fact that it seems to be a mutation of bird, swine and human flu. There’s even a swine flu song…
A selection of tweets below (mostly in Spanish, sorry):
juanmanuel: acabo de cruzar y me pregunto el migra si tenia algo que declarar… le dijo nomas #influenza
SrBichi: Acabo de ver morir el disco duro que me dieron en el PDC. ¿Habrá muerto de #influenza?
chilangelina: Jajaja, mi mamá está en su casa aburrida y me llama para contarme que se compró una lámpara baratísima. Efectos colaterales de la #influenza
Lots of friends have asked me for tips for going to Mexico. The first thing that comes to mind is the route. Coming from Europe, I would recommend you to take a non-stop flight from Europe rather than transit in the US. All non-stop flights are listed below (recommended transit points from Helsinki in italics).
Air Comet from Madrid
Air France from Paris Charles de Gaulle
British Airways from London Heathrow
Iberia from Madrid
KLM from Amsterdam
Lufthansa from Frankfurt am Main
Mexicana from London Gatwick
Aeroméxico from Barcelona, Madrid, Paris Charles de Gaulle and Rome Fiumicino
Paris Charles de Gaulle is a nightmarish airport where they always lose my luggage, so I wouldn’t go there (which is unfortunate since I like Aeroméxico’s long-distance flights, but they don’t have a Finnish alliance partner yet) .
Finnair unfortunately co-operates with Iberia, whose long-haul flights to Latin America should be avoided like the plague unless of course price becomes an issue. There’s a reason why we nickname Iberia “Siberia”.
What to see
Take into consideration that Mexico is huge in European terms: almost 6 times the land area of Finland, and the largest state is slightly larger than the UK(there’s 31 and a Federal District). Furthermore, large swathes of the country are very abrupt terrain, so no wonder distances are usually measured in hours, not kilometres. That’s why it’s probably a good idea to divide the country in different sections and try to tackle it piece by piece rather than in one gulp like most guidebooks do: Central Mexico, Yucatán Peninsula & Chiapas, Gulf coast, Western Mexico and the North.
Getting around is easier by plane or bus. There’s only a few railroads.
Since you’ve already arrived in Mexico City, that’s the first place you should explore first. Tales of impending Apocalypse due to crime, high-altitude and pollution are highly exaggerated. Although you do have to be careful at night and always take a taxi from the marked “sitios” rather than the street, if you’ve survived New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Paris or Shanghai you’ll definitely do at least the same here. Below a recommended itinerary (if that’s not enough, there’s always Monocle’s recommendations)
1st day: rest, it’s a long way and the high altitude will take its toll if you’re already tired.
2nd day: Turibus in Mexico City, great way to discover downtown and start to get oriented.
A lot of people also want to visit the beach when they go to Mexico, and with coasts in both the Atlantic & the Pacific there’s plenty of places to choose from. I’m only listing the big resorts here, there’s plenty of smaller towns to choose from.
Western Mexico:
Acapulco is the closest from Mexico City and great for the nightlife. The beach is so-so (I’d only stay at a hotel at Revolcadero beach outside of the bay).
Ixtapa is great for relaxing, but there’s not much more there. Two hours away from Acapulco by car.
Manzanillo is also a very beautiful, relaxing place. I haven’t been there in some time so I can’t say really how it is now.
Puerto Vallarta is quite nice as well, but for some reason it has never been one of my favourites.
Oaxaca:
Huatulco has great nature and is the one beach resort in Mexico I think fits European tourists best, but would recommend flying unless you do a tour of Oaxaca as well which happens to be my favourite city in Mexico.
Northern Mexico:
Los Cabos is very scenic. It is also a little bit more expensive than other beach resorts.
Mazatlán is probably the only famous beach town in the country where I have never been, so can’t say much.
Gulf coast:
Some people go to Veracruz for the beach, but I think that’s not a reason to go there. The old city itself is much better than the beach.
Yucatán Peninsula:
Cancún has great nightlife and the beach is beautiful, but it’s like going to the States. I’d rather stay in one of the smaller places in the area.
If you’re interested in history Mexico is the place to be. For starters, there’s plenty of Precolumbian Mesoamerican sites around the country besides Teotihuacán. Some of my favourite include:
Being such a huge and varied country, there is defnitely nice landscapes and natural attractions to be enjoyed. Those that I’ve seen or have been recommended include:
Gulf coast: Texolo waterfall, Jalcomulco rapids near Xalapa.
What to buy
Mexican handcrafts are a must, with varied textiles, pottery, silverware, glass, woodcarvings, and the like (I recommend buying direct from the crafters or at Fonart stores) but with the emergence of modern design in the country there is also some interesting stuff going around. Monocle had a couple of interesting local designers in their Mexico report.
If you speak Spanish (not essential, but it does make life much easier), books are also a good idea. Music, either traditional or modern, might also be interesting.
Wash it down with a good Mexican beer, fruit juice or wine. Or a good tequila (the stuff they sell in Europe is crap, give a good tequila like Don Julio or Maestro Tequilero a chance).
When to go
Any time is a good time as long as you give yourself some slack to do what you want to do. Might be good to check the local festivities. Just take into consideration that the summer is usually rainy and the hurricane season runs from June to November, so check your weather forecast.
If you’re a Finn, I also recommend checking the information provided by the Finnish embassy in Mexico City before going there. It does solve quite a few doubts from the Finnish perspective:
