When I traveled on business I would occasionally go to Mexico City. Most of the time I wouldn’t get sick, but sometimes I would get what was commonly referred to at the time as ‘Montezuma’s Revenge’, which consisted of terrible stomach cramps and diarrhea.
I was always careful not to intentionally drink tap water, but it’s likely I encountered the bacteria that caused the problem either taking a shower or eating food that had been washed in tap water. You feel really sick for a few days, but after a while you get better with or without taking an antibacterial medicine like Cipro.
My question is, if I lived in Mexico and drank the local water would I get a bad case of Montezuma’s Revenge and then my body would adapt to it, or would I continue to have issues months after I started drinking their water?
I have lived in the Yucatan for nine years. Here nobody drinks the tap water. Everyone drinks bottled water. I brush my teeth with tap water. Clean vegetables with tap water.
Occasionally I get loose stools. But no stomach cramps.
Maybe my intestinal flora has adapted to life here.
Thank you for coming to this great country. Please come back.
When I was a child in Sierra Leone we only drank boiled water (It was kept in the fridge in gin bottles). All other water - washing, cooking etc was untreated. Newcomers would generally get “the runs” for a while and then adapt. When we went back to the UK on leave, we would often get upset tummies. Heat stroke, sunburn and VD were by far the worst problems.
Americans suffered worse than us unhygienic Brits. This was especially true I am told, in India.
My cousin was in Mexico with the Peace Corps (San Luis Potosi). She said that everybody gets sick in Mexico, including people who are born there. We were fine, but we were careful - she was careful too but after a few months she did catch something awful that lasted about a week.
I’ve spent about five months in Mexico in several visits and never had any stomach troubles. No pills, just avoiding tap water and using lemon like it was going to be made illegal. Norteños’ idea of “it’s not hot”, on the other hand…
Not relevant to the OP, but I’m failing at figuring out exactly what this means. Apparently, someone told you something wasn’t hot, but you thought it was, but the who and what are a mystery to me. (Norteño = Yankee? Gang member?, hot = caliente like food or hot = calor like weather?)
Which bugs me because I love generic international gossip like this.