Well, that escalated quickly. The day after we arrived in Lencois, Brazil, they shut down the town and people have been told to stay in their homes for ten days. The road out of town is blocked, and they are only allowing locals to enter or leave. The airport has also been closed. I think we were on the last flight in. They don’t have any cases here, so it’s just a preventative measure.
Supermarkets and other essential businesses are still open, so yesterday we went out to stock up. I’m sure it was a much different scene than in the US since there were only a few people in the store and they had everything in stock. There were also a lot of people outside, which was surprising, but I guess we should have expected people to ignore the warnings like they are everywhere else in the world. But I think they are starting to step up their enforcement after looking at the town’s Facebook page. We didn’t go out today but the next time we do, we might have some issues. I also think people are wary of foreigners, for good reason, so if the police don’t give us a hard time, a local might.
Last night, we found out the airport will be closed until June 30th! So our only options to leave are by bus or have someone drive us. We would go back to Salvador, which is about six hours away. Unfortunately, the buses aren’t running until at least March 31st, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they are suspended for longer. We haven’t found anyone that would drive us yet, but I’m sure it’s going to be too expensive if we do. We’re still trying to figure out what to do after we finally get back to Salvador. At this point, I don’t think we can plan that far ahead since so much can change. We’ve been looking into how we would get back to the US, but who knows if there will be any more international flights in a week.
Luckily, our Airbnb host has been amazing! She’s currently in Salvador, but we have been texting constantly and she is doing all she can to help us, which is in stark contrast to our host in Bolivia during the civil unrest when we had no idea what was going on.
Stay tuned. I’m sure tomorrow will be just as fun as the past couple of days.