Mosquito-born diseases affect millions of people worldwide each year. The bite of a mosquito can result in anything from a skin irritation to contracting malaria, dengue fever, encephalitis, yellow fever, and many other serious diseases. Clearly, mosquitoes are not just a nuisance, but also a major health hazard, making it vital to know how to avoid getting bitten.
One of the most effective ways to avoid mosquito bites is to wear an effective insect repellent, containing DEET (N,N-diethyl meta-toluamide). It is essentially a poison that masks the natural odour and carbon monoxide that is released from the human body. DEET, when combined with permethrin impregnated clothing and mosquito nets will provide the best protection from getting bitten. Backpackers are advised to travel with their own mosquito nets because hotel and hostel mosquito nets are often damaged, rendering them useless. If you don’t want to travel with a mosquito net you should sleep in rooms that are properly screened with gauze over the windows and doors. There should be no holes in the gauze and no unscreened entry points to the room. Air-conditioned rooms are good, too.
Mosquitoes particularly bite at dusk and during the night, so you should take most precautions during this time. You should wear long, baggy clothing after sunset but it may be hard to follow such advice in a hot climate. Keep as much skin and hair covered as practical. Avoid bright, floral coloured clothing as light colours are less attractive to mosquitoes. Khaki, beige, and olive have no particular attraction for mosquitoes. It would be better to avoid being outdoors altogether during peak biting hours (from dusk until dawn) if you are staying close to where mosquitoes dwell such as swamps and dense forests.
Mosquitoes are also attracted by some body odours, and for this reason they choose some individuals over others in a crowd. Avoid fragrances in soaps, shampoos, and lotions. It is a good idea to take shower before dusk to minimise any body odour.
Coca Cola is one of the most iconic brands of both the 20th and 21st centuries. Promoting itself as the drink of freedom, choice and US patriotism, the company’s feel-good factor is recognised worldwide and reflected in its enormous profits.
One thing you should look out for when travelling is how different cultures have an entirely different concept of time. In the European worldview, time exists outside man, exists objectively, and has measurable and linear characteristics. According to Newton, time is absolute: “Absolute, true, mathematical time of itself and from its own nature, it flows equably and without relation to anything external.” The European feels himself to be time’s slave, dependent on it, subject to it. To exist and function, he must observe its ironclad, inviolate laws, its inflexible principles, and rules. He must heed deadlines, dates, days, and hours. He moves within the rigors of time and cannot exist outside them. They impose upon him their requirements and quotas. An unresolvable conflict exists between man and time, one that always ends with man’s defeat – time annihilates him. 
There are other countries in the world that enjoy divinely inspired natural landscapes, but Costa Rica boasts a higher biodiversity than Europe and the United States combined. Its small size also means that travelling from cloud forest to coastline and from summit to savannah is quick, easy and a matter of course. Here are some of its most natural wonders:
Argentine football has been paying tribute to Francisco Varallo, the last survivor from the first World Cup Final in 1930, who has died in his home town of La Plata, aged 100.
Richard Dawkins, in The God Delusion, tells of his exasperation with colleagues who try to play both sides of the street: looking to science for justification of their religious convictions while evading the most difficult implications – the existence of a prime mover sophisticated enough to create and run the universe, “to say nothing of mind reading millions of humans simultaneously.” Such an entity, he argues, would have to be extremely complex, raising the question of how it came into existence, how it communicates – through spiritons! – and where it resides. Dawkins is frequently dismissed as a bully, but he is only putting theological doctrines to the same kind of scrutiny that any scientific theory must withstand. Dawkins systematically peels away at the onion of blind faith by injecting wisdom through a logical and a rational process. A must read.
We received another piece of negative feedback this morning about Foundation Eco-Volunteer UP. A young woman who we won’t name for reasons of privacy has been left high and dry on San Cristobal, Galapagos Islands. We have sent her details of some reputable organizations to find a replacement project at short notice. 
Chile said yesterday it would send anti-depressants down a tiny shaft to 33 miners trapped half a mile underground for 20 days, as it told them it will take at least three more months to dig them out.
The month of September is a jovial time in which Belize commemorates two important national holidays: The Battle of St. George’s Caye (10th September) and Independence Day (21st September). Three weeks of countrywide activities and events celebrating the nation’s people, history, and culture. These include Carnival street parades, Queen of the Bay Pageant, flag raising and official ceremonies, fireworks displays, citizens parade, cultural shows, and the Belize Chamber of Commerce & Industry’s Expo Belize Trade Show.