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Hygiene In Mexico

You must have heard the horror stories about Mexican hygiene, especially the water. Well, they are all true, so be very careful with what you eat and drink.

Let's look at the water first of all, because it is the one issue that all tourists have been told to worry about.

The water tends to leave the purification plant in a drinkable condition. By the time it reaches you, it has past through several miles of worn-out pipes that have been tapped into by any number of people, all trying to avoid paying their water rates. In other words the water gets contaminated between the plant and your tap.

If you are staying in a decent hotel there should be a tap marked drinking water (agua potable), and you should use that. The hotel will have its own filtration system and no desire for its guests to start dancing the Mexican Two-Step.

On the street you will find any number of people selling bottled water and soft drinks - they are all safe, so drink away. If you do have to drink tap water, then you should purify it first. Most chemists, supermarkets and chain shops such as 7-11 and Oxxo sell water purification liquid. The most common is Microdyn, which comes in a 15ml bottle. Add one drop to a litre of water and wait 10 minutes.

The water you can control but the food you can't; not unless you plan to do all your own cooking, that is. Funnily enough, you tend to be safe eating at the street stalls. You watch the raw ingredients being taken out of a storage bowl, then they are cooked on a hot plate right in front of your eyes. If the food is sizzling, then it tends to be safe to eat.

Problems tend to occur in restaurants, and don't be fooled into thinking that the more you pay the more hygienic the establishment will be. The manager may very well have been trained to western standards, but he doesn't have eyes in the back of his head, and as soon as he is out of the way, the natives will revert to type. Just make sure that whatever you order arrives piping hot. If it doesn't then send it back to the kitchen. The waitress will be on your side as she wants your tip when you settle the bill. If for any reason she doesn't want to help, demand to speak to the manager. That usually does the trick.

After all that, the loo! Toilets in chain restaurants like Sanborn's and VIPs tend to be acceptable in the former and fine in the latter. The difference between them is that most of the Vips outlets are fairly new, but both are well maintained. Outside these establishments,

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