Helene wears pantyhose under leggings for her fishing trip.

by Helene, Mexico

Summer heat. I love water… any water, even if it is just a puddle after rain.

So, you can imagine how happy I was when my friends announced that they are going fishing. Tomorrow. Early in the morning, before the dawn. I am a night-owl, getting up in the morning for me is a torture, but…  fishing equals being near water, probably, a large body of water, like a river or a lake.

Have I mentioned by the way that I have a fishing rod? That’s a funny story; no, am not into fishing. I was coming home from a small trip in my car, when I saw something strange – many people, maybe a hundred of them, like ants, are crowding on a small bridge. I thought something happened, stopped and went to check if I can be somehow useful. And yes, something was happening there, right at the moment – they had a fishing tournament, in a small stream. I even asked to take a photo with them, and the organizers presented me a fishing rod.

So, I have a fishing rod. I unburied it from piles of things that are still loaded in the corner after moving, found my backpack that I was using for hiking in Norway – and am ready to the trip! Though…  Mexico is famous for its mosquitoes, those small ugly creatures that are able to spoil all the pleasure. But I had a solution! Sheer tights, I had read that they protect from insects, and I wanted to believe in that, as I did not have time to buy repellent.

After some hours, when we arrived to a sleepy yet mountain lake, I regretted that I had tights on instead of jeans as well as that I went to that trip at all. Mosquitoes were happy to see me, I had never seen so many of them before. They were flying around me trying to bite, and I was trying to remember what I know about malaria, zika and other illnesses that mosquitoes transfer: I was sure that I will get at least one of them. That lasted several minutes, though it felt like a year for me…

Then I noticed it.

Mosquitoes, they were coming, checking and… flying away. I thought that tights were helping till I noticed that those insects ignore me – I did not get a single bite: hands, arms, legs – nowhere! While my friends (none of them came to an idea to put on tights of even thin socks, all were wearing jeans or thick clothes to protect themselves from insects) were suffering badly. Mosquitoes were practically eating them up.

So, what`s wrong with me? Maybe because am not a Mexican, a “strange blood”? Do not know, but after the trip one thing became evident: local needle-nosed pests dislike me. The trip was good, the amazing mountain lake was worth writing poems about. But I am feeling offended.