A young woman takes a picture at the Congo nightclub in Cancun, on April 1st.Teresa de Miguel
If an alien were to step on Cancun on these holidays, he would think that we have no remedy.
That the folly of the human being is more powerful than a world pandemic.
The need to get together with each other, to mix sweat in a dark den, to rub each other on a stage with strangers drunk up to their eyebrows with tequila, to spit loudly at the waiter - of course without any mask in sight - who want two bottles more, of living as one lived before 2020. For others, health is also measured in bringing money home after a difficult year for tourism.
But it is 2021 and the coronavirus has already killed almost three million people in the world.
And in this corner of the Mexican Caribbean, life is celebrated as if the dead were not counted: who said covid?
The entrance to this parallel dimension begins on Kukulcan Avenue.
A point in the hotel zone of Cancun reminiscent of Las Vegas, or an amusement park for adults.
Before reaching a corner filled with colored lights, which are also projected towards the sky, rivers of people, discos open until dawn and decibels not suitable for sensitive eardrums, a sign welcomes the tourist: “Zone of bubble of sanitary protection ”.
At this point, a team of workers from the State Government, Quintana Roo, quickly take the temperature of all those who are going to enter one of these discos where it will be impossible not to breathe the air that others have breathed, inevitably not to push each other, dance stuck, get infected.
Entrance to the "sanitary protection bubble zone" of Cancun.Teresa de Miguel
-
Wey
, if you agree that this is a
blowjob
, right?
A boy in shorts and a shirt close to his chest says to one of the workers who just took his temperature.
Everyone knows what happens behind the promised "health protection bubble".
And they all know what they have come for.
The temple of bachelor parties and American student parties in the spring announces in English that this is better than Las Vegas.
Coco Bongo or Mandala are ready to welcome new customers for a ticket that costs from $ 100 to $ 5,000 for a VIP table.
On one side of the entrance booth, a couple of nurses wait bored for one of these tourists to dare to take a free antigen test.
“Only five people have come tonight.
But they are from the people, they know that we are here and that it is free and that is why they come.
Of tourists, none, ”he says resigned.
The idea that seeks health prevention collides with the objective of those who want to cross that border, get drunk and
party
as if there were no pandemic.
A goal that can be easily truncated if the test is positive and they also notify the hotel and the state government so that the patient initiates a quarantine.
When crossing the health line, the last thing you feel is protection against the coronavirus.
Some men disguised as the Mask and Beetlejuice chase a man, pick him up by the shoulders and legs and his girlfriend takes a picture of them.
In a joint across the street, a waiter trudges across the dance floor with a tray laden with glasses and a sparkler lit on a bottle of vodka.
Everyone celebrates it.
Hands up, hugs, dance,
kuduro
dance sounds
.
A man takes a picture with two workers at the Coco Bongo nightclub.Teresa de Miguel
A few venues down the road, in a rocker-style brewery with live music, a bartender prepares a
hookah
or
shisha
for a table.
Fill the pipe with water and put a new charcoal on top.
Then blow through the hose to ignite the charcoal so customers don't have to strain to light it.
But customers will smoke through the same mouthpiece that the waiter sucked before and vice versa.
No one seems to perceive this pandemic detail.
The only people with masks that inhabit this party corner of Cancun are hotel workers, waiters,
bartenders
and girls who offer discounted discounts.
They wear a mask, plastic screen and try to hold the virus every night.
Well, few can afford another downturn in an area that lives practically from this: 87% of the State's GDP comes from tourism.
Hotel occupancy was around 70% these days of Easter in the midst of a pandemic, according to figures from the Cancun Hoteliers Association.
And the state government expected to receive 665,000 visits.
Two employees of the Mandalay nightclub await the arrival of customers.
Teresa de Miguel
"Put on your mask, please."
The waitress at the beach restaurant reminded him of a tourist who had come to order his food.
Both in Cancun and in the rest of the Riviera Maya, especially Tulum, tourists walk carefree from a latent threat to a new wave of infections in this area.
Most will return home.
Some did so infected, such as the group of 44 Argentines who boarded a plane to their country without problems and who tested positive for coronavirus when landing in mid-March.
The pandemic strikes again when the party is over.
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