The perfect time

As early as now, we may have to cancel travel plans again, for October. And in certain cases we need to give the travel company fair notice so we can get back in full the reservation fee we paid to take advantage of the promo.

It’s the second time we’re canceling during the pandemic.

We, of course, didn’t see Omicron coming—but who did? It may be less virulent, but it’s more transmissible and it chooses no vaccines, although the less efficacious yet more expensive and most used Sinovac is presumably the least resistant.

Anyway, at our age, we’re not taking any chances.

Risks

There’s simply no such thing as a mild or moderate virus for seniors, and I speak from experience. The Delta variant hit me, although I was already fully vaccinated, in September. I was diagnosed as a moderate case, but I’m scarcely my old self, and getting even older by the day doesn’t help. Indeed, I felt the sickest I’d ever been.

Full recovery, if it ever happens to seniors, takes longer, other similarly stricken seniors swear. How then could seniors like me take today’s risks of travel? Age alone constitutes an underlying condition for us, and travel preparations themselves involve effort that take from our residual energies— visas, flights, land travel, hotel bookings, etc.; then there are those anxious hours in flight.

The saddest part was the thought of Vibering with finality friends, fellow seniors, we had planned to travel with, dear friends with whom travel is sweet reunion.

Vergel and I weren’t young anymore when we discovered the joy of traveling in kindred company. It seemed the right time, age-wise and resources-wise—this seemed just what we had saved for—with only ourselves to worry about now. Indeed, we thought there was just us, until the coronavirus infilled serted itself in our fragile lives.

Domestic holidays

But we’re making up where we can. We’ve been taking off for domestic holidaymaking with friends whenever and wherever the risks would allow it. We had been in fact at it, with fellow Aquabelles (pool exercisers, that is) and husbands, when the warning came of the first lockdown, in March 2020. We had thought of returning on that very night, but decided to stay the night and linger a bit, ignorant of the risks. Thankfully, we were home safe—for the moment.

Just before Metro Manila was put on a level 3 alert because of the fast-spreading Omicron, we had been on a fiveday New Year’s holiday in Boracay. One in our group—she didn’t fly home with us—tested positive the day after our arrival. The rest of us tested negative, beating the odds again. I don’t know when we will ever have such a restful and funagent, vacation again.

Last weekend we didn’t miss out on an overnight stay with journalist friends at Casa San Pablo. We couldn’t join them on the first day, because my passport-renewal appointment had been set for that day, and Vergel had an interview scheduled in the evening. He had another early the next morning. But we were off at 10 a.m., in time for a great lunch and conversations for the rest of day, and over breakfast the next day. We were back home for lunch.

Relying on projections

So why am I even thinking of canceling foreign travel, for the second time? Our timing for holidays has been almost good after all, so far. We’ve never regretted our decisions, and we’ve been in fact warned we may well be sorry for passing up the chance this time. But, as I’ve said, the risks involved are not for seniors like us to take.

In any case, the others in the group, including our travel* are going through, relying on projections that the situation would have improved by then. I’m having second thoughts again because of the uncertainties of the times.

My cousins and I have ourselves kept postponing our sentimental journey back to Spain, which we had promised ourselves when we were only 16. We had kept putting it off and only made it in our late 60s. By then, my mom had already died, and close to the end of our trip, my father suffered a stroke. I didn’t cut my trip short, and Dad lived on for a year.

This time, playing safe and canceling would seem like nothing to regret whatever the result. There are far safer alternatives open to us—we could go on traveling locally. Others might say that the perfect time to do anything is when you do it, whenever that might be. Well, I myself can be pragmatic, even fatalistic sometimes, but this just doesn’t feel like the time.

Playing safe and canceling would seem like nothing to regret, whatever the result