Reclaiming territory

Not a post about Mexico’s intentions toward the western United States, but about the more mundane topic of reclaiming my dining room from mosquitoes.

Readers may recall that we have a terraza adjacent to our living room, which we intended to use–and outfitted as–our dining room. It counts as living space in Mexico, because it has a roof, even if it does not have walls (the concept known as outdoor living). I recall a comment on a local internet board mentioning the problem of mosquitoes, but I also recall responding “we haven’t seen any yet.”

As time passed and the rainy season commenced, los mosquitos arrived. They didn’t really bother me that much, since apparently I don’t taste good to them. Still, we live in the tropics, so any sudden urge to scratch an itch makes one wonder “does this one signal the start of (insert tropical disease here)?” Unfortunately, my dear wife is considered a delicacy in Mosquitoland, so very quickly our dining room (and our famous hanging couch) became terra incognita.  “Here bee Dragons”- or at least mosquitoes.

Getting ready for another rainy season, we committed to reclaiming the terraza. We hired a local firm (ViLuMa) that does screens/doors/etc. to screen in our terraza, using a screen which should withstand my dog’s attempts to hurl himself outside at birds, or claw his was back in when we don’t respond quickly enough.

We had an estimate of $1,500 USD and two days of labor. The price held fast, but of course, it took seven days. The team did precise, quality work, so I am not complaining. Here are the before/after shots.

Here are the money shots:

Breakfast:

Siesta: