Witnessing the effects of virus on world travel

Making sure the gate was closed so the donkeys didn’t get in and eat the landscape had been a major preventive measure for me in recent weeks.

I’d been in the southern Caribbean, visiting a friend on Bonaire, a desert island just 50 miles from the coast of Venezuela.

Feral donkeys — there since the 1600s, when the Spanish brought them to use for transportation — roam the island. When they no longer could be used by humans, the donkeys were turned loose to survive on their own.

A kindly Dutch woman has established a donkey sanctuary to neuter and protect them, but many roam freely around the 24-mile long, 5-mile-wide island.

Streetlights, like traffic lights, are nonexistent on Bonaire, so driving the coast road means keeping a careful eye out for donkeys. They seem wiser to traffic, but like deer in Ohio, they usually travel in numbers, so if you dodge one you need to slow down and watch for its companions. Their braying at night becomes a lullaby of sorts while sleeping with open windows on breezy Bonaire.

But something far more ominous had inspired preventive measures throughout this country while I was gone.

The coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, had begun to capture attention when I left Ohio about two weeks ago. At the airport, some of my fellow travelers were wearing masks, either to protect themselves or to protect others from them. I didn’t get close enough to them to ask.

But when I stopped at the Mentor Discount Drug Mart the day before I left, surgical masks were sold out and supplies of hand sanitizer were diminishing.

I’m not as steady on my feet as I once was, so I rely on hand railings to negotiate stairs and to help me keep my balance on moving walkways in airports.

Because I’m touching places used by thousands of others, I use hand sanitizer frequently when I move around in public. I also take advantage of the airlines’ wheelchair service when I need to make tight connections or go long distances between gates.

My personal efforts to not become sick when I travel include designating my left hand as my “public” hand, for lowering tray tables and grasping railings, and using my right hand as my “private” hand, for eating a meal and blowing my nose. I wash my hands as often as I can.

On this trip, which took me to busy Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, I observed many changes prompted by what seems quickly to becoming a pandemic.

Many of my fellow travelers carried disinfectant wipes in plastic bags, whipping them out to wipe down seats, armrests, tray tables, and other public surfaces on the aircraft and in airports.

Airlines have cancelled flights to China and Italy, and although terms and dates vary widely, many have waived the change fees they charge to cancel or alter flights. Meanwhile, the stock market is swinging ever downward.

Italy is on lockdown and the April meeting of the Midwest Travel Journalists Association has been canceled. It was to have been on a cruise between San Diego and Vancouver with a stop in Seattle, one of the cities hardest hit by COVID-19. I hope I can get a refund for the airfare I’d arranged.

Both Delta and United, airlines I fly most frequently, have emailed reassurances outlining the sanitizing procedures they employ for their aircrafts.

Those who are elderly and frail have been advised to stay home, folks have been told to avoid cruises and “self quarantine” has become a new description for a preventive measure.

I’ll turn 78 next week and need to figure out if I’m elderly and frail yet because I’m still traveling. I have a conference to attend in Mexico this month.

By the time my visit to Cambodia takes place in autumn, I hope this will all be over.

Closing the gate in Bonaire seemed a much simpler preventive measure, but for now I’ll just wait and see — while diligently washing my hands.