Job Discussion Forums

[dsherter]

After a lot of fussing over where...I'm headed towards the D.F. very excited and happy.

However, I'm a HUGE water drinker (1 - 2 gallons, daily, I s you not) and am wondering if dysentary is an inevitable rite of passage.

So how have you all dealt with this issue? Or should I say tissue?

[jfurgers]

I'm heading to the DF on Tuesday and I used to live there off and on. I always get the big bottles of water when in Mexico and I never had any problems. I'm a big water drinker like you. I drink between 10 to 12 glasses per day to replace what my body uses to live.
Just buy the big bottles and you should be fine. I never drink tap water in the States either so I'm used to drinking water from bottles. I like the fact that in Mexico I can buy the water in a glass not plastic.
They were talking on the news a couple of months ago about how some water that comes from the tap may have trace amounts of prescription medications in it and many other terrible things.
Disgusting. The water in the States is full of chemicals just like anywhere. I believe you can get distilled water in the DF.

[notamiss]

There was a little discussion about water back last year http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=56102.

Most people here buy bottled water. The bigger the bottle, the cheaper. Some boil water.

Chemicals aside, the problem isn't so much the purity of the water supply, but the storage tanks on the roofs that provide water pressure to individual houses and apartment buildings. The water may come into them safe for drinking, but it's hard to keep the tanks clean enough to guarantee that the water stored in them stays potable.

Speaking personally, since we live in an area where the pressure is high, we have one direct tap from our input line delivering water that hasn't passed through our tank. We used to just put purifying drops in that water but 2 or 3 months ago, our water started having huge amounts of chlorine. I'm sure it won't give us dysentry but the smell is very unpalatable, so now we are buying bottles of water for drinking and cooking.

[MO39]

For those interested in good dental hygiene, while I always drink bottled water, I brush my teeth with water from the tap and have never had any problems.

[mapache]

There was an outbreak of salmonella or some other type of intestinal disease in the colonia where I live. Since I don't eat street food, I suspect it was from brushing my teeth with tap water. No problem since but I think tap water is potentially dangerous

[TheLongWayHome]

Yes, a bout of the hershey squirts upon arrival in Mexico is pretty much par for the course - the tap water, especially in gallonous quantities may not help.

Saying that, my parents (naively) drink it when they come. They boil it and just take it to be like Spain or France. They have never been sick here.

[guatetaliana]

I wouldn't drink the tap water (Monterrey is where I spend my time). I find big 5 liter or larger bottles of purified water for less than 10 pesos at the mega supermarkets, and just repeatedly refill my little water bottle from these.

I, like several of the other posters, use tap water when brushing my teeth. 8 months in Mexico and never a problem yet.

...knock on wood...

[dsherter]

Thanks for all responses so far -

Curious about experiences with "alternative" preventions and cures:

acidophilis (sp?)
grapefruit seed oil

etc.....

[MELEE]

pro-biotics are very important after a bout of intestinal problems, but they are not 1)a cure, nor 2) a way to KEEP from getting sick. But they are a must for quickly returning to good health and not developing other problems (like latose intollerance) after a course of antiboitics.

A daily Yakult is worth the cost, for overall good health.

[Phil_K]

For the record, I always drank tap water in England, and have been drinking tap water (asit comes) for nearly 7 years in Mexico, with no ill effects. I'm not going to pay $28 a time for a garraf�n when I pay $40 every 2 months for perfectly good water. I leave that to my wife, who being Mexican, is obsessed by those things. I think it comes down to 2 things:

1) Mexicans always think what happens in their country is much worse than anywhere else.

2) Those people who are obsessed all their life that this is bad, that is bad, I'll catch this or that etc, finish up with ****ed immune systems, so everything is bad for them.

[Jetgirly]

We saw that our neighbours got Santorini delivered, so we bought two of the twenty-litre bottles from the minisuper across the street and when the neighbours get their new bottles we get ours swapped too. Because we started with "our own" bottles from the minisuper, we didn't sign a contract. However, we can't get a third bottle from the delivery guy unless we sign a contract. We pay twenty-one pesos each time we swap bottles, and we usually tip the guy twenty pesos for carrying a bottle or two up to our apartment and conveniently ignoring the fact that we don't have a contract (I'm not totally sure if you need a contract or not, but I think you are supposed to have one). I say forty peso for twenty litres of water is a steal, considering I happily pay $2.04 (that's dollars) for 600ml of Dasani or Aquafina at my Canadian university. Why the four cents, I'll never know.

[MikeySaid]

I've never had a problem in Mexico in the North or South and I drink the water any and everywhere. I'm sure it will eventually get me.

[MELEE]

Wow. My garrafons cost me 12 pesos. (No tips expected, carrying them into the house is included in the price) And the water guys give their customers a gift at Christmas time.

[Phil_K]

[dixie]

One thing to be aware of is that not all bottled water, is distilled. Sometimes the bottles are reused, filled with the very stuff you are trying to avoid drinking, and then sold.

Never had this happen to me (that I am aware of anyways!) but have been warned about it by others who claim to have had the experience.