Buzz ... Infected by the Travel Bug

Roberta, our Bayfield librarian, knows a bit about virtually every library patron's life and dreams and, in her infinite wisdom, introduced us to Kate as we planned our trip to Latin America. Kate was the first of several people who inspired us to leap into our adventure. Having traveled extensively in Mexico and Central America herself Kate assured us that we were embarking on one of life's great journeys.

Kate greeted me with excitement yesterday as I climbed the steps to the library. "Oh, I read parts of your blog while you were on the road," she said, "And I was so inspired. My mom has diabetes and tells me she can't travel so I told her about you. Here, I said, this is someone with diabetes who is traveling. So there."

"Kate," I replied, "You have no idea how much you helped us through our own pre-trip fears and anxieties."

For the next 10 minutes Kate and I were like two kids in a candy store. Though the treats we salivated over were merely pictures in our minds, we shared some of the tastes and sensations from each of our trips and hungrily longed for more. Once the travel bug bites you, I've concluded, you're infected for life. There's no remedy except to travel and experience new people, cultures, and lands 'til you can travel again. That's one communicable disease I'll gladly pass on to others.

Speaking of diseases, I overheard a tourist on Roatan Island, Honduras, mention that Bill Gates owns a beach house a short distance from West Bay. Our "Lonely Planet" guidebook warned us to take anti-malarial medication while visiting this area since there are five different strains of malaria identified on Roatan. Suddenly Bill Gates' anti-malarial activism made perfect sense. If you own a vacation home or travel in an area inhabited by these mosquitoes, the fear of malaria is no longer an abstract concept.

My brother, Brett, mentioned that news reports about Bill Gates' speech at the Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) Conference circulated the day I returned from Central America. Gates evidentally hoped to make an infecting point about malaria by releasing mosquitoes into the audience. As he opened the jar of mosquitoes Gates said, "Here I'll let them roam around. There is no reason only poor people should be infected."

Gates waited several minutes before he reassured his elite audience that the mosquitoes he'd released were malaria-free. He went on to say that there's more money put into drugs for baldness than drugs for malaria. I believe Gates chose a potent way to drop audience members into a real-life fear-of-malaria-free-fall. Frances and I certainly couldn't escape that fear while traveling in Central America and we finish our weekly dose of malaria meds in two more weeks.