I’ve been traveling for most of my adult life. When I first started traveling, I mostly went to the Caribbean. However, I eventually ventured to new destinations like Europe, South America, Asia and Africa. It was while I was in West Africa that I heard, from my tour guide, to not drink the tap water. When one hears that, they assume automatically that the water isn’t clean. That’s not actually the case in most cases. It is clean. However, the water may have some bacteria or other microbes that our bodies are not used to. These microbes can make you very, very sick. Here were some of her suggestions:

• Don’t drink the water – Unless the water was purified, bottled and sealed, she recommended that we didn’t drink the water.
• When ordering a drink, skip the ice cubes – Yep! Ice cubes….because guess what?!? Those ice cubes are made from the same water that I was told not to drink.
• Don’t eat raw fruits and vegetables – This seems like an odd request, right? Well it isn’t. Why? Well the same water that I was told not to drink is the same water that they are washing your fruits and veggies with. See a pattern? Eat fruits and veggies that have either been cooked or can be peeled.
• When brushing your teeth, use bottled water – Again, the goal is to stay away from the tap water.
• When showering keep your mouth closed – This is pretty self explanatory.
• Don’t eat food from street vendors – Because one cannot be sure how the food has been cleaned and prepared, or where it’s sourced, it’s better to eat at restaurants at your hotel or restaurants that they (hotel) recommends.

Now these are not rules that you have to follow everywhere. Europe, parts of Asia and the Caribbean are pretty developed. So typically, the tap water is fine…for the most part. Your best bet when traveling anywhere is to check to see what the CDC says about the water. They have guidelines in place to keep everyone healthy.

Want to hear a story of what happens when you get lazy and don’t follow the above rules? Unfortunately, it’s my own personal story. After traveling to all of these places all over the world and never getting sick, we decided to be less than careful in Mexico of all places. As I share this story, notice all of the rules that we broke.

We were visiting Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. We stayed in a nice resort, had our rental car, and we were all set for our vacation. We aren’t the type of people who like to stay at the hotel or all inclusive resort. We like to explore and love the adventure. So we asked a few locals about some good restaurants, places to hang out, and we headed there.

I love chips and salsa. So I couldn’t wait to eat some while in Mexico. Every restaurant we went to, I always had a nice big bowl of chips and salsa with a Margarita on the side. It was super hot in Puerto Vallarta. Even though the waiter would ask if we wanted ice, “yes” of course we want ice. It was hot! We visited local plazas and would see the locals eating mangos on a stick dipped in a spicy sauce. We’re foodies…So yep, had one of those too. It was so good! It was the perfect combination of sweet and spicy. One day while we were driving, we smelled something awesome and stopped at this little shack. It was literally a shack. We told the guy that we wanted what we smelled. He killed a chicken in front of us, plucked it, and tossed it on the grill. While we waited, we had more salsa and chips with a Margarita (with ice) to wash it all down.

About half-way through my vacation, I am starting to feel ill to the point that I decided to just stay back in the room. My husband left for our scheduled tour. He wanted to stay with me, but I encouraged him to go. I wanted at least one of us to enjoy our trip. Plus, I really thought whatever I had would pass quickly….I was wrong. By the time he came back, it was coming out of both ends. Some times at the same time. Yes this is gross, but my point is that I violated all of the above rules. I want you to understand what can happen when you don’t follow the rules. For several days, I am throwing up almost non-stop with very bad diarrhea. I would break out in a sweat then I would be freezing cold. My husband wanted to take me to the doctor, but I convinced him that I would be ok. Plus I knew that I had a physical scheduled the day after I got back from our vacation. I would just see the doctor when I got back home…if I was still sick.

For a while, my husband was ok. But the day we flew home, he, too, was starting to feel bad. As soon as we landed, we went straight to the doctor. The doctor ran some tests on both of us, gave us some antibiotics, and sent us home. The next day, the doctor called to inform us that our tests came back. He sounded really worried. He says, “please tell me that neither of you work in a restaurant, or a school or have been on a plane recently.” I reminded him that we had just come back from Mexico. He then told us that he was putting us on a new medication, because the original antibiotic wouldn’t work. He also told us that we were quarantined for the next 2 weeks and that he would need to inform the CDC about our illness. He asked us for the airline and flight number because the CDC would need to inform the airline….WTF?!? What in the world did we have? Shigella.

The doctor explained that this bacteria, Shigella, is found in water contaminated with FECES. Yuck! Farmers use this contaminated water to water their vegetables and some times the same water is used to clean the vegetables.

Remember all of that salsa that we ate? What about the mango? Well the bacteria probably came from one of those sources. I’ll never know the source. What I do know is that our laziness, caused us to get really sick and possibly cause those around us (on the plane) to get really sick too.

What’s the lesson? Don’t drink the water.