Week 3 of My Shelter in Place Travels

Let me start out by saying that wherever you are, I hope that you are safe and healthy. I can report that my family and I are safe and healthy in San Francisco as we continue to shelter in place. It’s been three long weeks since we’ve been staying home as advised by the city government in an effort to slow the spread of coronavirus/COVID-19. I’m not going to lie, it’s getting harder and harder in terms of my mental health. One of the ways that I’ve been coping since the very beginning is by going on what I call “shelter in place travels.”

The idea is that even though I can’t leave my home, I travel somewhere virtually. It’s fun because I get to be creative and I always end up learning a little something about the places that I visit in my imagination. Not to mention, my photo editing skills are getting a workout.

Anygüeys, here are the places I visited this week …

On days 12-14, I went to China.

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Days 12-14 of shelter in place in San Francisco: For the last few days my imaginary travels have taken me to the Great Wall of China, where I’ve been riding my bike across all 13,170 miles of it and reflecting on blame. Blame as it applies to coronavirus (COVID-19). As humans, we seem to want to assign blame whenever we can. Maybe it’s so we can point to ourselves and say, “Not it! It’s not my fault. I’m better than that.” There are a lot of people who want to blame China and the Chinese people for the coronavirus pandemic, but is that fair? No, I don’t think so. Did it start in China? Sure, as far as we know, but vilifying an entire country and its people doesn’t do anyone any damn good. Still, so many powerful people are so adamant about blaming China that they won’t even say “coronavirus” or “COVID-19.” Instead they refer to the virus and disease by terms that are straight up racist and ignorant. Racist terms that they want to normalize and infect us all with so that we become carriers of that racism. Don’t become a carrier. ⠀ COVID-19 is killing many people and the only way we can combat it is together. Hopefully, some day soon coronavirus will be erradicated. Hopefully, some day soon racism will be eradicated as well because it’s been killing people since time immemorial. ⠀ If you missed my "travel in place" visits to Peru, Antartica, Thailand, India, Japan, Mexico, Italy, England, France and Egypt, visit my profile to check 'em out. And stay tuned for my continuing imaginary travels while we all cope with this pandemic and shelter in place. ⠀ ⠀ Also, I'm taking requests. Where would you like to see me travel while I shelter in place? Let me know in the comments and I'll see if I can make it happen. #shelterinplacetravels

A post shared by Claudya Martinez (@byclaudya) on Mar 30, 2020 at 5:54pm PDT

On days 15 and 16, I went to Greece.

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Days 15-16 of shelter in place in San Francisco: For the last couple of days my imaginary travels have taken me to Greece where I stopped by the Acropolis of Athens. It seems to me that this place knows a thing or two about survival. My hope is that moving forward the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that we are experiencing teaches us all about survival and how to better take care of each other. If you missed my "travel in place" visits to China, Peru, Antartica, Thailand, India, Japan, Mexico, Italy, England, France and Egypt, visit my profile to check 'em out. And stay tuned for my continuing imaginary travels while we all cope with this pandemic and shelter in place. ⠀ ⠀ Also, I'm taking requests. Where would you like to see me travel while I shelter in place? Let me know in the comments and I'll see if I can make it happen. #shelterinplacetravels

A post shared by Claudya Martinez (@byclaudya) on Apr 1, 2020 at 11:32am PDT

On days 17 and 18, I went to Cuba and brought a friend along.

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Days 17 and 18 of shelter in place in San Francisco: Today's imaginary travels take me to Cuba, with my fried @noodial. I haven’t seen her since we were teens in high school. Thanks to the magic of the internet, we reconnected. Thanks to the magic of our imaginations, stock photos and editing, we can go on a virtual trip together when we are actually sheltering in place. ⠀⠀ If you missed my "travel in place" visits to Greece, China, Colombia, Antartica, Thailand, India, Japan, Mexico, Italy, England, France and Egypt, visit my profile to check 'em out. And stay tuned for my continuing imaginary travels while we all cope with this pandemic and shelter in place. ⠀ ⠀ Also, I'm taking requests. Where would you like to see me travel while I shelter in place? Let me know in the comments and I'll see if I can make it happen. #shelterinplacetravels

A post shared by Claudya Martinez (@byclaudya) on Apr 3, 2020 at 6:12pm PDT

You can see where I went on week 1 of sheltering in place here:

And you can check out week 2 here:

Shelter in Place Travels

San Francisco, CA

ALSO READ: Managing My Anxiety During the Coronavirus Pandemic

I showed you mine, now show me yours.

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