The Ebola Monkey Issue . . . or Non-Issue

Dallas, Texas. The first city in the United States with a confirmed case of Ebola. Tragic. Heartbreaking for the victim's family and friends. Almost equally sad, a classic overblown frenzy created by the media. And the two of us, Rusty & Kathy, holding tickets from Dallas to Liberia. My darling friend, Ebben, remarked, "You're going where?!?" "Liberia, Costa Rica, Ebben. The city, not the country." But for anyone who knows me, it really wouldn't be that surprising to find me flying off to the West African nation of Liberia. After all, I've spent the past two years trying to figure out how to get back to Burkina Faso in West Africa. In any event, as we changed planes in Houston heading for San Jose, we agreed that telling anyone in Costa Rica that we were from Dallas might not be the best idea . . . poor timing to be traveling internationally from Dallas. And so our patent reply to any inquiry would be, "We're from the U.S. . . . the Southern United States."  And we'd leave it at that.

But on October 20th we returned home to Texas with me raving about monkeys . . . and oddly enough my friends and neighbors couldn't believe that we were moving to any country with monkeys! Wake-up, people. This isn't Outbreak . . . though we've begun calling our dog in high-pitched child-like voices saying, "Heeere girrrrl!" Jill doesn't quite understand because she's a dog! But Rusty gets it . . . I speak in movie lines, he speaks in P1 drops.

OK, so indeed we are moving to a country with monkeys. And spiders, and scorpions, and ants, and coatimundis, and even a few big cats. And did I mention bats? We'll have bats! I'm so thirlled! What I won't have is young Martin to catch-and-release a bat. On the it's-so-pretty side of the spectrum, we get brightly colored parrots, scarlet macaws, and toucans . . . not to mention the great pelagic scuba diving on the Pacific coast. Animal lover that I am, fawning over fauna, I realize that I've failed to even mention the home we're buying, where it is, how we found it . . . nor the 30-plus homes that we saw and ruled out (including Finca Los Mangos and The Dutch House). But we'll get to that, soon, I promise.

So, Ebola issues resolved, in Dallas and across the U.S. as I write this, we're moving to Samara, Costa Rica, where the most threatening disease is Dengue Fever (been there, done that). The target move date is March or April of 2015. And between now and then all I have to do is sell two homes, all of our winter clothing, jewelry, art, dog sweaters, vehicles . . . and dream of decorating our new tiny little home atop a mountain overlooking the sea (yes, we're "building!"). And dream, I do. What to take. What patio furniture to buy. Where to place the fruit and nut trees that are included by our builder. It's overwhelming, in a most delicious way!

Raise your hand if you know how much I hate exclamation marks. Nevertheless, there are times when . . . lo que hay!