Just about a week before leaving for Panama, we both received the first Pfizer shot. While that didn’t guarantee us immunity, it gave us a bit more confidence about venturing out. I could see that being both a positive and a negative, because while the vaccine couldn’t have hurt our immunity, it might give us the bravado to take unnecessary risks.

Part of the reason that we chose Guatemala for our winter getaway was the ease of travel. Of course, in the era of COVID – and in the world of the Robbins family generally – there always seem to be complications.

As our trip to Guatemala approached, several family members urged us to postpone the trip, but in the end we decided that our health and risk tolerance weighed in favor of going ahead as planned. Guatemala has required a recent negative COVID test to enter for several months, but only recently did the CDC require one for reentry into the United States. That meant getting our brains swabbed twice, but 10 seconds of discomfort versus 40-plus sailfish seemed like a fair trade.

Despite what some people claimed would happen, the COVID-19 did not abate after election day. In fact, as Hanna and I prepared to leave for Anglers Inn Lake El Salto on the ominous date of Friday the 13th (of November), numbers were surging throughout the United States. Friends and family members expressed concern over our decision to persevere with our planned weeklong vacation, and truth be told we were a bit worried ourselves.