Episode 9: Locked Down in Nairobi During COVID

Face masks were quickly made mandatory throughout Kenya, even while in the car. Photograph by Kathryn Romeyn.

It’s time for a flashback. In April 2020, sensing something unprecedented was on the horizon, we recorded our first episode (chronologically speaking) when Kathryn was in stuck in Nairobi, Kenya, and Eric was quarantining at home in Los Angeles. Then, COVID-19, social distancing and quarantine were still novel concepts. This episode represents our first conversation about we can be travel writers who are unable to travel in the typical sense, and how we can all take advantage of the places in our own backyards to keep our curiosity and wanderlust alive.

Kathryn’s COVID lockdown in Nairobi involved a lot of backyard wildlife watching, made more exciting by the neighborhood troop of cheeky vervet monkeys. Photograph by Kathryn Romeyn.

We recorded an episode back in April, when Kathryn was locked down in Kenya, and coronavirus, social distancing and quarantine were still new. We asked how to be travel writers while not being able to travel, and how to take advantage of the places right in our own backyards to keep our curiosity and passion alive.