pandemic

It was only supposed to be two weeks; that was what Melina Galvez said to herself as she packed all her belongings and flew to Peru to go visit her parents. It was March, and although COVID-19 had come to the United States and other countries, most people expected the virus to be gone in a couple of weeks. Yet something was telling Melina that she needed to go home. “My mind went like…BOOM! ‘You need to leave now,’” Melina said. Following her gut instinct, she left behind her apartment, her classes, and her boyfriend to fly to Peru. The flight took only a few hours, and down in the Southern Hemisphere it was still the middle of summer.

The year was 1919, and the world had begun to recover from the haunting shadow of the Spanish flu. Fifty million people across the globe had died from this invisible disease, and the one question on everyone’s mind was “Where do we go from here?” After staring death in the face and surviving, people began to explore the world around them in an affirmation of life and health. Travel boomed for commercial flights and voyages. Many were desperate to escape the confines of home for bigger and brighter places.