There is a particularly annoying form of flea present in the mountains of Colombia, and, I presume, elsewhere in the Andes. It jumps onto you from the surrounding brush and burrows just under the outer layer of your skin. None of my guidebooks make any mention of it.

I take my exercise walking to the Three Crosses here in Cali, and find myself the frequent host to this annoying parasite.

You’ll first notice such a flea by a small, red sore that won’t go away. The sore will look like a pimple you’ve scratched, red and small and exposed. After a couple of weeks to a month you’re going to be wondering what it is. Probably one of these mountain fleas.

Tea tree oil is effective. If you spread a dab of tea tree oil on the spot it will kill the flea and the bite will heal in a day or two.

More effective seems to be drowning your fleas. Go swimming for ten minutes. Be sure to submerse your entire body, including your head in the water for as long as you can. This will kill the fleas.

I used this technique to kill off my fleas last week, only to discover one living in my ear — there was just enough air trapped in my ear canal to keep it alive. So I stood in the shower holding my ear open for several minutes and that seemed to do the trick.

Half an hour ago at around 21:10 local time a tremor shook, or rather gently wiggled, most of Cali for twenty seconds or so. Can’t find any news reports about it yet, but I expect it’s a continued regional aftershock of the much larger earthquake last month in Peru.

Today’s word for the day is “zancudo.”

Zancudo is the Spanish word for the stripey tiger mosquito, the one that carries dengue. The news today here in Cali is that the dengue previously confined to the fringes of the metropolitian area is now making serious inroads into the city itself. The health department has trucks spraying in the streets against zancudos and is conducting house-to-house inspections.

Will it make any difference? Some, probably. It’s another reminder, though, that Cali sits lower in the mountains than Medellín and Bogotá, which are spared at least this particular plague.

I’m a fan of macadamia nuts. Living in Australia, they were plentiful, if not especially cheap.

Colombia also produces a fair quantity of the Australian Nut. The unshelled variety is ridiculously cheap (COP$3,000 for half a kilo), but shelled macadamias are equally as expensive as anywhere else. So imagine my surprise when I came across macadamia oil in the supermarket yesterday, next to imported olive oil, and at half the price as in Oz.

Let me think. Locally grown and processed macadamia oil — right here in Cali — or the two year old dregs of whatever the Spanish and Italian olive groves decide to throw Latin America’s way. Hmm. I’m going with the macadamia oil from now on.

Also nifty is De Alba’s Aceite de Macadamia Con Ají, macadamia oil with a chile in it, turning the light yellow oil a deep pink. Spicey popcorn, anyone?

Check out Del Alba’s web site here.

It’s not fair. How come I never hear the bombs when they go off?

Yesterday the talk of the town was the bomb Sunday night that ripped the face off the main Cali police station, less than a kilometer from my house. The car bomb destroyed many surrounding businesses and killed a bunch of cops and an unlucky taxi driver who happened to be driving by.

Of course, the bombers were obviously FARC. The question is why they chose Easter Sunday late at night to blow up a bomb in Cali.

Either it’s because they wanted to make the point that they can still blow shit up when they want to, but didn’t want to kill any civilians in the process (you can’t have a revolution without a sympathetic civilian populace); or, it’s because the only time they felt they could get away with it without getting caught was on a quiet off-night like Easter Sunday night.

I’m just bummed I didn’t hear it go off. Everyone was saying the windows were rattling and the plaster was falling from the ceiling. I must have slept right through it.

Update: There’s Spanish language coverage of the event here, also a good photo of the destroyed building here.