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The Lockdown Diaries - Day 37 #lockdowndiaries Today's tale of the great outdoors comes straight from one of our favorite countries in the world: Nepal. - How much is left to finish today's trekking? - I asked the guide after several hours of climbing steps up the mountain, breathless. - Just twenty minutes, half an hour. - He answered. Two hours later, exhausted, I finally arrived at our eco-community lodge, the first of several where we would sleep while undertaking the Mohare Hill (Mohare Danda) trek, at the Annapurnas' footsteps. For the extra hour and a half, mixed thoughts crossed my mind: How could I lie to myself? Wasn't he able to see that I was on the verge of fainting? I miss that trip so much. After the first day of adjustment to what was to come, things were only upwards and onwards on the following ones - with their ups and downs that I'll tell you about another day. It was one of the biggest challenges I have faced so far. I kid you not, I was this close to abandon the trek that day. The funniest thing is to think that the uncertainty of not knowing when that endless day would end almost drives me crazy. Little did I know that three years later the uncertainty would be when we would be able to leave the house after a month and a half locked up, knowing that at least another one is ahead of us. How right is he who said that life puts us in our place. #NepalTales #Annapurnas #MohareTrek #MohareDanda

The Lockdown Diaries - Day 36 #lockdowndiaries Cosmetic surgeon Dr. Maxwell Maltz seems to be the father of the '21 days to form a habit idea 'as published in a 1960 self-help book called' Psycho-Cybernetics, A New Way to Get More Living Out of Life '. The truth is that after 36 days locked up, the habit of confinement has taken over us. The idea of going outside crosses our minds a little less every day, and we have even created new routines in our lives adjusted to this new reality. I wonder if this has anything to do with the confinement that inmates experience in jail. And although I doubt that, it is increasingly clear that this period of our lives will be remembered as our particular period in prison, freedom deprived. #quarantinethoughts #SpainLockdown #prison #freedom

The Lockdown Diaries - Day 35 #lockdowndiaries As it happens, it looks like we've just had one too many tonight to write something compelling. This is what lockdown does to us :) Happy Saturday, everyone. Stay safe. #staysafe #Saturdaynight #onetoomany #quarantine

The Lockdown Diaries - Day 34 #lockdowndiaries Every time I get asked which destinations I'd love to go back and which ones I'd absolutely avoid in the future, my answer is usually along the lines of 'all places in the world have something, so anywhere and everywhere'. I know, it's ridiculous. The answer couldn't be vaguer. I guess I do not want to hurt anyone, but the truth is that there are some places I would never go back to. This morning I saw it crystal clear. One of them is Chernobyl. I was invited there three years ago and I do not regret visiting, but after having done so, I can't help it to hate myself for putting my own life at risk - just a tiny bit - and especially the lives of those who work there day in and day out for the sake of dark tourism. From the perimeter security guards to the canteen cooks and guides who day after day bring the Geiger counter to places where it shouldn't be for the joys of tourists (these eyes saw it marking 273 cm away from the infamous yellow Ferris wheel of Pryp'yat '), it's plain stupid. And dangerous. But why do I bring this issue up today? Bear with me just a bit more, please. The media in Spain has been exclusively talking about the C * virus since the countrywide status alert was established five weeks ago. Thus television went from being trash to being a C*virus trash pretty much overnight. And it was filled with so-called experts discussing 'groundbreaking' stuff that had already done the rounds in Asia a couple of months ago. Almost the same old sh*t on TV we were used to. Until this week, when other disasters began to unsettle the media - of course, catastrophes sell! - like the wildfires in the vicinity of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, an already dated problem that started on April 4. As a result, it has been a long time since we limited our consumption of news to global, online and on-demand stuff for 5 minutes. And, on the other hand, questions are changing. Would you like to go back to how you were before? Well, yes and no. As a society, we could as well start changing some things. Ah, the C*virus joys and silver linings. #Spainlockdown #televisionrulesthenation #inquarantine #5weeks

The Lockdown Diaries - Day 33 #lockdowndiaries Our last proper hike in nature - in mid-February - keeps coming to my mind lately. It took place the same day as our first-ever picnic. Jose made a delicious and slightly undercooked potato omelet, we bought some fresh bread and added some cured loin, scallops and a can of foie that the company I worked for had sent me as part of the Christmas basket. What a feast we had! The fact is that, as sometimes happens to us, we stopped too many times on the way to take photos and aware the night was coming, we decided to call a taxi before finishing it when we were about three-quarters of the way. How little did we know back then that only a couple of months later, we wish we could walk that remaining quarter of the way madly. Even if it was pitch black. I have just walked through our apartment from end to end over three hundred times to walk 6000 steps and break the starvation that has been trapping me for more than a month. We had it all. #memories #throwbackthursday #talesofquarantine #6000steps

The Lockdown Diaries - Day 32 #lockdowndiaries While France instills fear in its population - and in neighboring countries - with rumors of an extension of almost half a year of the containment measures, South Korea continues to report reinfections everywhere, there are numerous infections that cast doubt on the effectiveness from the heat to kill this virus in Africa, and the USA remains the world leader in infections; Our country (Spain) gives a pass by default to all schoolchildren this school year. The world is crazy right now. Or has it been too many days since I left home? #crazyworld #COVIDmadness #notToday #quarantine

The Lockdown Diaries - Day 31 #lockdowndiaries What's on your to-do list for when you can go outside freely? Maybe in your country you can still roam free, but this question is directed especially to all inhabitants of countries enduring a full lockdown such as Spain, where unless you go grocery shopping (preferably once a week maximum), to the pharmacy , to work or to walk the dog if you have one; you cannot leave your home. Here are some of the things on our list: * Going to the beach. The closest one is less than a couple of kilometers away, but we are surrounded by dozens of stunning beaches that we used to visit almost daily. Especially in spring and autumn, since the sunset coincides with the end of the working day and timing was perfect. * Visiting our closest relatives. Both of them. It is one of the things we miss the most. There is nothing to supply the warmth of the family, if you get along with them. * Go to a music festival and go crazy, like it's the end of the world kind of crazy. This is one of the things on the list that will definitely take the longest. Some sources already place them in 2021 at the earliest, and some that we were going to attend this summer have already postponed the appointment for a year. So in the meantime, we settle for a local party with music. * Hanging out with a lot of people - friends! - that we miss on a daily basis since this started. Those we used to see during the week in the bars, and those we were lucky to meet on the weekends. Also those we see only a bunch of times a year. All of them. * Walking, walking and walking a little more. From one end of our house to the other there are 20 steps, insufficient to avoid atrophy. * Playing with Rufo, our dog. These weeks he is staying in another house as having him in an apartment would be kind of cruel. He's pure joy and we cannot wait! * Witnessing how everything returns to a relative new normality. Traveling to distant countries is not on the list. Travel is part of our DNA after 20 years at it, but it is not a priority in our lives right now. Now it's your turn, what will you do once we can get out of the hole? #todolist #storiesfromhome #quarantine

The Lockdown Diaries - Day 30 #lockdowndiaries Today we 'celebrate' a month of confinement. If there is something to celebrate, it is that we are alive. We hope you are all well, or otherwise, a speedy recovery. A big hug and here's to the next 30. #quarantine # 30days #Spanishlockdown

The Lockdown Diaries - Day 29 #lockdowndiaries It doesn't matter where this pandemic caught you. Or does it? Having a roof and food, in addition to health, has become a real privilege. Even if your home does not have a balcony, terrace, patio or garden, you can feel lucky to have a place where you can take shelter until the storm passes. And that's not a small thing. In case of doubt, see what happened with the massive exodus of day laborers and their families in the largest cities in India without going any further. Overnight, they were deprived of home, food, and income; something that made them flee to their home villages, where they could at least be with the rest of their family on arrival. A humanitarian catastrophe that is still unfolding as we write. We wanted to wish you a happy Easter - Passover, but we have settled for wishing you a home, enough food and good health. Have a great week, #Almere #architecture #TheNetherlands #AmsterdamArea #happyEaster #happyPassover

The Lockdown Diaries - Day 28 #lockdowndiaries If a few days ago google animals went viral and, locally, the creation of projections with messages on a Concheiros façade in Santiago de Compostela; Today it was the turn of 'What did Hubble see on your birthday?' by Nasa. After entering your month and date, you may admire a fascinating cosmic wonder Hubble cosmic telescope took on that day at some point during the last 30 years. And so we got the Triangulum Galaxy and Saturn. If anything, both are a reminder of how tiny our issues are if we have a look at the big picture. And that this too will pass in a whim. What did you get? #Hubble30 #quarantine #lockdown #oldiebutgoldie #aveiga #trevinca #starlight #stargazing

The Lockdown Diaries - Day 27 #lockdowndiaries Since yesterday, it seems that there will be at least a third extension of the state of alarm in Spain. Therefore, if approved, we would be confined until mid-May. On the other hand, the changes in the criteria of the Ministry of Health are hurtful. Late and poorly implemented, they are taking measures and recommendations that are vox populi in other latitudes since January, such as: · Leave the shoes worn on the street near the front door of the house, along with other objects you won't need at home such as keys and wallet · Disinfect the mobile phone appropriately · Store your outdoors clothing in a separate place until it can be washed at high temperature · Maintain a significant social distance (way more than 1 meter as they said for weeks) But if there is a measure that has been, unnecessarily, postponed it is the necessary use of masks. To have denied the need for its use to help curb contagions, and to have hidden the benefits of its use from the population due to not having enough units, is plain and simple to LIE us. Leaving our borders, today (Easter, Passover, almost Ramadan) we go to bed thinking about the more than 100K victims that the pandemic has claimed, how everything is developing in the USA and, above all, the chaos that must be in New York City if the media is right. Both are suffering from the exponential scourge of the virus. Much encouragement to those affected and those around the world who face the first days of confinement with fear and anxiety - among many other emotions - that such a fact entails. You are stronger than you think. #strongertogether #stayathome #Easter #2020