Sleeping in the Rainforest

So, you may be asking yourself, "Where does one sleep when one goes to the rainforest?" Well, I'm sure the answer to that question can vary, but for me, the answer was, in a bed! For my trip, we stayed in either cabins or in tourist lodges. In all of these places, we had regular beds. However, these places were all open-air, which meant there were no screens on the windows. Bugs, bats, and critters could come in and out, and they often did. Because of that, we always had mosquito nets over our beds. I had never slept under a mosquito net until this trip.


Here's how a mosquito net works. The net itself it suspended from the ceiling. The ones I slept under all had a wooden frame at the top and the net was attached to the frame at the four corners. To use it, I simply let the net down from the frame to cover the bed. When I got into bed at night, I'd have the check inside the net to make sure there weren't any bugs or other creatures hanging out in there. If there were, I'd just shoo them out. Or, if there was a really big spider on the bed (like one person in the group had), I'd use something to scoop it up and toss it out. Once the net was bug free and I was inside, I'd tuck it under the edge of the mattress. This was not always as easy as it might seem, and I was more than a little paranoid at times thinking that I wouldn't get it tucked in very well, and I'd wake up with a big nasty insect on me. Thankfully, that never happened. Anyway, if the net did its job, then I wouldn't get eaten alive by mosquitoes as I slept. I also enjoyed an added benefit of the net...it kept the bats away from me. I will elaborate more on bats in a future post because I have a lot to say about them.

I always slept with my flashlight inside the net with me. This was really important because the places we stayed didn't have electricity in the rooms. If I wanted to see anything during the night, I had to have the flashlight. We had to get up many times before dawn to get ready for the day, so I also needed it in the mornings. When I woke up in the mornings, the first thing I always did was turn on my flashlight and shine it all around inside my net. Then, I would shine it outside the net onto the floor. This was vital. We were told on the first day to never step out of bed without checking the floor first. You never knew what was going to be down there waiting for you.

So, my nightly routine was to get ready for bed, check the mosquito net, and get into bed. Before I tucked in the net, I always put my flashlight and alarm clock in there with me right next to my pillow. After I was sure I had everything I needed, then I would tuck in the net. It was very hot, and the worst thing about the mosquito net was that it allowed very little air circulation. Not that any air was circualting anyway...we had no fans (no electricity), and there typically wasn't a breeze. So, I would just lie there and sweat away in my little safety mosquito net in the middle of the rainforest and try to sleep. Ah, the joys of high adventure in the Amazon rainforest! It was all part of the experience.