1. Should I bring a Tent
2. Should I bring a Water Purification Pump
3. Should I take Malaria Pills
4. Should I bring guide books with me
5. Do I need to bring to bring a stove

I will doing a mix of activities including hiking, camping, seeing cities, beaches and want to see what other people think about those questions.


Thanks

1. Probably not. Depending on where you are traveling, the basic hotels generally offer much more security at little cost.

2. Probably not. You can buy water all over the place. If you go to Belize, you can usually drink the tap water in towns.

3. Probably. Why take chances? However, you can probably wait until you get there to pay less for the chloroquine. If it is the dry season or you are in highland areas, the risk is less. Then DEET might be enough.

4. Definitely. Bring one, but annotate info from others. You would miss too much if you rely on locals to tell you about places to go. You would get home and kick yourself if you read about what you missed.

5. Maybe. If you have room for it and it is small, a cup of coffee does wonders for one's attitude before any restaurants are open.

have you heard of people buying antimalarial drugs down in central america,

is it safe?

I presume so. They are always in pharmaceutical packaging when I buy them. It isn't a bad idea to buy an extra two week supply for the next trip.

Technically you are supposed to start one week ahead of leaving, but with careful DEET usage in the evening if there are mosquitoes, you will probably be all right. You also should continue for two weeks afterward, but I usually stop if I haven't even been bitten by any nocturnal mosquitoes by my last week away. The vector is the anopheles mosquito and you don't have to worry about it before dusk.

See travmed.comfor specific country info. Chloroquine is probably still effective in all of CA, but I will be double checking before I head down to Mexico, Guatemala and Belize in early February.

My earlier wording was not precise enough before. In the highland areas, you won't find the anopheles mosquito and in dry seasons, you may not even see or hear any mosquitoes. There must be stagnant water nearby for them to spawn.

Mayaphile is certainly right about the low cost of hotels, but if you really want to get away from it all, then a tent might be a good idea.

We stayed at the incredible Delfin Amor Lodge on Bahia Drake. This place is quite expensive but there was a Canadian guy camping on their beach, but using the lodge's facilities including meals, at a considerable reduction, so if cost is a factor, then a tent might be a good idea. He was having to be VERY disciplined to keep his gear clean and dry, though. If you want to get further off the beaten track than this, then a tent sounds essential.

As for malaria tablets, we certainly took them. I had no problems with them but my g/f had to give up in the 2nd week as she seemed to be having an adverse reaction (these were chloraquine). Some areas will be zero risk, so perhaps a bit of research is worthwhile.

Why would you not take a guidebook? I've been to Greece about 6 or 9 times but I still usually take 2 or 3 different books with me.