Yaicha

Here’s an interesting puzzle: in the rain forest preserve where I spent four days, La Danta Salvaje, in Costa Rica, there are no mosquitos at night. During the day, the little blood-suckers would come around at times, like when you’re relaxing in the hammock on the porch enjoying the gorgeous view and the birds flitting around from tree to tree, so they certainly are present in the rain forest and they know how to bite.

But we slept with the windows open at night in the lodge without any mosquito netting. No problem. I don’t know why it’s essentially the reverse situation there of what we have here in the US, where night-time is the preferred mosquito feeding time. Maybe I’ll research it later, or maybe someone out there knows the reason why and can explain it.

Honestly, I was expecting far more bugs, but overall it was not significantly different than being outdoors in a natural area in the US. The worst insects we dealt with were Tapir flies, which are very much like the large horse flies we have in the US. They buzz around you the same way and their bite is almost as painful. Fortunately, they are quite slow, so if you let them land you have a good chance of killing them with a swat of your hand. Or, if you’re a tad too slow, you can smack your friend in the eye, instead (sorry about that, Mike!).