Mis piernas pican!

When Scott was here, he witnessed first hand how much mosquitoes love me. I literally cannot leave the house without being bitten at least once, often times more than once. Sometimes I even get bit inside, since the screens here are not designed very well.

During our "breakfast with monkeys" morning, our waiter gave us some anti-insect lotion. It seemed to do the trick, and even smelled kind of nice. We bought a bottle, and I have been using that ever since, but maybe not as much as I should. Its a lotion, and not as easy (or effective) as the spray called OFF!

Today I had had all I can stand, and I can't stands it no more. Over the past few days I have tried to remain indoors, and let my legs heal. Neosporin is pure magic, but even magic wasn't working fast enough. Between this morning & afternoon, I got bit on my calf, ankle, forearm, and back. I know, I know, wearing shoes & a shirt would help... but I'm in Costa Rica.

Simply living inside all day is not an option, and no fun anyways. So, today, I finally broke down and bought a can of OFF! Dear local mosquitoes: bugger off.

Let me explain why it took so long...

First of all, I can be a bit stubborn for the strangest of reasons. I want to be as much of a local as I can, and I don't know any tico that uses OFF! They all seem to use the lotion, if anything at all. Unfortunately, the lotion just isn't doing the trick for me anymore.

Beyond that though, is the smell. When I'm downtown, I can always smell when a tourist walks past me. Of course there is the obvious clothing difference & ubiquitous backpack, but they are always covered in OFF! I'm sure the souvenir hawkers can smell it too, and hone in on it like a guided missile, or like a mosquito to me.

I suppose all the bug bites on my legs give me away anyways, regardless of what I smell like. Perhaps its better to just use the OFF!

You win this round mosquitoes.


This picture was taken after an evening at Pacifico, a beautiful hotel & restaurant next to my house. Scott & I had walked down to the shore to get some late night HDR photos of the sunset.

At first we thought I might have been stung by a jellyfish while swimming in the ocean, after our photography was proving pointless. However, we came to the conclusion that it was just those pesky mosquitoes. A jellyfish would have stung in long, curving lines, not individual bites like this.

You can see the scratch marks where I had made it worst. Take into account that I am extra sensitive to this type of thing. Just yet another reason for me to buy a can of OFF! Told you I was stubborn.

Mom: the bites were mostly healed by the morning, the picture looks much worse than it was...

We did manage to get a great shot of Pacifico though: