Mosquitoes

Argentina has left me a bit speechless. I'm not sure what I expected--I didn't know much about the place, other than watching Evita and hearing a bit of this and that every four years during the World Cup (think "gauchos" and "pampas" and "penguins" and "emerging from military dictatorship"). I guess I had a vague sense that it was some kind of weird mix of Alaska and Mexico, with lots of beef cattle thrown in the middle.

The reality has surprised me in any number of ways. The countryside is spectacularly beautiful, with the Andes creating ice fields and glaciers, lakes and valleys. We go to Iguazu Falls tomorrow and expect it to be spectacular as well. People have been friendly and helpful. The infrastructure is very good--major roads are paved without potholes, we have drunk the water everywhere, transport has been easy to schedule and find. Food is plentiful and--at least for tourists bringing in hard currencies--cheap. After two days marveling at the sights in Buenos Aires I said to Becca, "This place reminds me most of Paris" to which she said, "Well, yeah, they call it the 'Paris of the South'"; I hadn't known that, but Buenos Aires is a very attractive and orderly city. And it has a very low crime rate, overall. Our apartment in Buenos Aires is, perhaps, the nicest we have stayed in during seven months of travel, and it has been one of the most affordable (less than one-third of what we paid in Rome, haha).

I have joked more than once that if we were younger--and didn't have kids eager to get home to their friends--that we might just stay.

But I do have one complaint. We arrived in Buenos Aires a week ago and have walked, biked, bused, and metro-ed all over the city, and we have been eaten alive by mosquitos. There are mosquitos everywhere, and many local people have told us that it is an unusual phenomenon driven by recent rains. We like to eat outside for various reasons, not least to avoid respiratory viruses, but that is impossible here because of the mosquitos. We keep our apartment sealed shut, with all windows and doors closed, and mosquitos still find their way inside. The weather is fairly pleasant with humid highs in the low 80s and lows around 70, but it's hard to enjoy if you are stuck inside due to hordes of insects. We have sprayed and covered up and generally tried to avoid bites--the bites are uncomfortable and, while there is no risk of malaria here, there is some risk of dengue or EE (though experts have said the risks in this infestation are low).

On a long walk through the nature reserve that buffers the city from the Rio de la Plata, we killed dozens of these things, though a few penetrated our defenses and got us. I managed to snap a photo of one in the last moments of its short, miserable life: