HAPPY TO BE HOME
After five months on Spanish island of Ibiza during coronavirus lockdown, Eldorado woman relieved to have returned
The cherry tree at her home in Eldorado greeted Luisa Kolker with a gift: fresh fruit for salads, home-baked cherry crumble and smoothies.
“That felt like the most welcoming homecoming ever,” Kolker said.
The longtime Santa Fean had been away for five months after getting caught up in a COVID-19 lockdown in Spain. She embarked on the trip in February and had planned to return by late March but instead remained stuck in isolation on the island of Ibiza.
She arrived home Thursday and is now self-quarantining under the state’s public health rules.
Kolker is looking forward to the end of her 14-day quarantine so she can move on with her life — even though, she said in a recent phone interview, “there’s nowhere to go.”
Still, she said she had a realization Sunday, as she was picking fresh cherries: She was really home.
It’s better to have nowhere to go in Santa Fe than in an apartment in Ibiza, she said.
Kolker was one of tens of thousands of Americans who had visited foreign countries early this year and became stranded as cases of the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 began to surge.
Spain was one of the hot spots for the respiratory illness, prompting officials to enact a strict lockdown protocol, restricting movement to trips to grocery stores, pharmacies and
hospitals. Face masks and gloves were required most of the time. Violators were met with police encounters and significant fines.
Kolker came to appreciate the measures, however, because they offered a clear and consistent national response to the crisis — something she has not yet seen in the U.S.
“I found that really helpful because I knew what the rules were,” she said. “… There was not all this room for people to make their own decisions. There was not any way people could make creative decisions about whether they were going to wear a mask or not, whether they were going to socially distance or not.”
She believes the strict measures helped curb the spread of the virus in Spain, which has had over 252,000 cases and some 28,300 deaths.
In recent days, media outlets have reported that as Spain eases its pandemic-related restrictions, its coronavirus numbers continue to drop — while states across the U.S. have seen steep spikes.
Kolker said she was lucky to stay in an apartment overlooking the Mediterranean Sea on an island where her son was born. She lived there in the 1980s. But it wasn’t always easy. Other residents of the building tried to boost morale during the lockdown by blasting popular songs, such as Queen’s “We Are The Champions,” around 8 each evening, which got pretty tiresome after a while, she said.
“For the first month, that was incredibly inspiring,” she said. “But by the fifth week, I noticed people were not quite as animated. It was like, ‘Enough, already.’ ”
Larger problems surfaced: Her landlords kept raising her rent; moments of anxiety and depression enveloped her as she wondered whether she would ever get home. Then she got news that a family member in Texas had tested positive for the virus.
Thankfully, Kolker said, the relative is on the road to recovery.
A shamanic psychotherapist, Kolker set up virtual sessions with clients to help provide balance, sanity and a connection with the world she once knew.
On May 2, she said, the Spanish government began allowing people to go out of their homes for strolls. The night before, Kolker had dreamed of taking a long hike away from her temporary home. Instead, when she was out walking, she found herself drawn to the water not far from her apartment.
After spending about 50 days in isolation, she said, she stared at the sea and began to weep. It had been a long time since she felt part of something bigger, she said.
After that day, restrictions began easing up slowly, and near the end of her stay, she rented a car and took a drive to a secluded beach. With no one around, she took a nude swim. The water was cold, she said — about 60 degrees — but “it felt like a baptism.”
Home still seemed far away as Kolker accumulated six canceled plane tickets.
Then, in late June, she finally got a flight from Ibiza to the mainland. Two days later, she left the nearly deserted airport in Madrid for a flight back to the U.S.
Only on the last leg of her journey, from Dallas to Santa Fe, did troubles erupt.
First, the flight was delayed. Then, after everyone had boarded, the pilot announced the plane needed maintenance.
A woman who boasted she had no intention of wearing a mask taunted fellow passengers, Kolker said. Two flight attendants finally convinced the woman to put on a mask or possibly pay the price of never flying on the airline again, Kolker said, describing the woman’s behavior like that of a “rebellious 13-year-old.”
Kolker landed at the Santa Fe Regional Airport, where her son had left her car, and drove home. Friends and neighbors had left a sign — “Welcome Home Luisa!” — as well as bouquets of flowers, goody bags and groceries on her doorstep.
Kolker is overjoyed to be home, but “I feel a little guilty,” she said. “I’m aware that my troubles are just inconveniences compared to the problems of thousands of other people on the planet.
“But I’m home and I have food, and I have friends, and Santa Fe is beautiful — more beautiful than ever,” she added.