I Fought the Mosquito and I Won !

As you might remember, Buenos Aires is  at the Bottom of the World ! and the seasons are the Opposite of the seasons back up there in North America where we come from.
Way up there , hours and hours by air, probably a few hours by rocket, weeks by ship and actually, now that I think about it, a World away.
But enough about that, the point is, it is Spring. Or trying to be.
Spring brings rain.
Rain and warmer weather.
Wet Warm Spring = Mosquitoes.

We arrived here , 5 years ago, in April.
We were sitting in a cafe the afternoon of our arrival, chatting with our friend  and the fact that it was mosquito season was noticeable ..
1- the sight of them sitting on his head..
2- me swatting my legs every 5 seconds ...
3- the incessant whine in your ears.
To top it off, they were seen, catching a ride on poor Pups back.
He ignored them, there were too many good smells to sniff out .

So Off became a friend of mine. I might be brain-damaged by the haze of Off mosquito repellent that I breathed in that first  year.

Then we had a drought.
Who knew that a drought could be enjoyable.
No rain, no puddles, no mosquitoes.
Then at the end of the drought, the ranchers were burning off some fields and the dry fields and fire got carried away and there were huge fires out in the countryside.
Which resulted in days of thick heavy smoke in the city.
It looked like a London fog .. You could not see the buildings across the Avenue.
You could not see the sky.
Of course, we had to be at the Embassy.. the taxi driver got us there, the Embassy was having to run the a/c to try to keep everyone inside from choking, then everyones eyes were burning and we were freezing in the air conditioning.
Those were the interesting times, our first days in a new country.

The year after that, I was hopeful that the mosquitoes had not been able to breed and we would be safe in the park.
I walked one morning , watching Pup, enjoying the flowers and the parrots.
I looked down at my leg, it was covered with mosquitoes.
Like I was fly paper and they were all trapped on my leg.
I started slapping my legs, hopping around, making those little noises a person will make when horrified, itching and irritated .. ( to put it mildly).
One of the men who parks cars for people in the street came over and said ... Mo kee toes.
I was hopping around, slapping myself, I didn't catch that , what ? Mo Kee Toes !
Ah yes, mokeetoes are eating me alive.
So he reached over as if to slap my legs too.
I thanked him , called Pup and got out of there.

I have , thanks to my sweet family who bring care packages on visits, a lifetime supply of Off Towelettes and spray and lotion.

Tonight I was roasting a bit of salmon.
Salmon, lemons, chives and sesame oil.
Well scented kitchen.
Warm kitchen.
I opened the windows.
As my husband and I finished dinner, sitting and chatting about the world and how it is going to Hell in a Hand Basket .. I saw something on the wall.
A Mokeeto.

Dinner ended with the two of us trying to catch/kill the wily thing, he disappeared finally and I cleaned up the kitchen.
We searched, there was no sign of him, I figured he was in our bedroom, waiting until we were asleep to drink us dry.

As I tossed a paper into the trash bin, there was the mosquito, hopping up the wall.
I slammed my hand on him.
I think I dented the wall.
I think I broke my hand.
I know I killed the mosquito.

We will have a moment of silence for the Mosquito. He tried his best.

But I got him !