Healthy travel in Mexico

[Carol in Cal.]

A young relative of mine is planning a destination wedding in a small town in Mexico that is about an hour and a half from Guadalajara.  The town is so little that there are no inns or hotels, so those who attend will stay with various townspeople in their homes while visiting.  I assume that this also means that there is a lack of close by medical facilities.

I have asthma and allergies, and although I don't have a weak stomach, when my stomach gives way it does so very badly.  The last time I caught a stomach flu, everyone else who had it was a little sick, and I ended up in the hospital for 4 days getting IV nutrition and almost died.

So, how is the air in that area?  If it's very smokey I might end up with breathing problems.

And, are there are ways to prevent the horrid digestive diseases that often used to often plague visitors?  Shots?  Preventative medicines?  

I really want to go, but I am thinking that it might be very imprudent.  Please advise me!

[Amira]

I wouldn’t worry. We lived in Guadalajara for two years a few years ago and did lots of traveling in the region.  We ate  street food and in the fondas and never had any problems.  Just go to places that have lots of people at them if you’re worried.  Air quality shouldn’t be a problem, unless you happen to be staying with a family that uses wood or charcoal for cooking, but that’s not likely.  I knew a number of expats with asthma and allergies in Mexico and they had no problems at all.  

[sassenach]

Hmm, IDK. The main rules when we travel are do not drink anything that's not bottled. No ice. No fruit or veggies. You can get an rx antibiotic from your dr to travel with. That's a standard thing they issue for "traveler's stomach."

As for the asthma, I'm not sure if there's any way of knowing how reactive you'll be there.

[Lanny]

OP I agree with Amira. I was planning to Retire in Mexico and have been there many many times. Surprisingly, I didn't end up moving to Mexico, but what I am going to suggest to you will apply in Mexico, here in Colombia, anywhere in Latin America, and Brazil, and in most of the world. Possibly including the USA...

If you are ever in doubt about what is available to drink, buy a bottle of water or a bottle or can of a Soft Drink or a Beer. Anything from a factory will be perfect.  

I have lived here for 23 years and we eat tons of fruits and vegetables. Mostly from Colombia, but for example, the Apples I bought this morning came from Chile. You will probably see some Fruits and Vegetables in Mexico that you have not seen or eaten before unless you live where there are a lot of Latinos. Try them...

HINT: I learned this many years ago in Mexico.  If you are hungry and you do not know which restaurant to eat in, eat in a restaurant that has a lot of customers who are eating and drinking and seem to be happy and are not falling over.  You can safely go into that restaurant and eat anything you want.  The same goes with Bakeries. There are LOTS of bakeries in Latin America and they have many delicious things for you to eat. Enjoy...

The air there will probably be much cleaner than it would be in the city (Mexico D.F. in Spanish, or "Mexico City" to English speakers) or in the city of Monterrey. 

RE: Medical facilities. Hopefully you will not need any Medical care, but if you should, I guarantee you that the doctors in any (especially private) hospital in the Guadalajara area will take outstanding care of you. There are some top notch doctors there...

[Mergath]

Have you been to Mexico before? You seem to think people are going to be cooking over campfires in front of shacks, drinking water out of a creek, and that if you get sick they'll have to haul you to the hospital on a donkey. ?

Just drink bottled water and you'll be fine. You can avoid food from street vendors if it'll make you feel better, but I've eaten street food in Mexico several times and never had so much as a stomachache. 

 

[Katy]

Bottled water or something carbonated, and cooked food.  Don't brush your teeth with tap water or run water through your mouth in the shower either and you'll be fine.  The allergens and contaminates aren't likely to be remotely the same as at home, but take inhalers with you just in case.  Chances are you'll feel better than you ever have before because it takes a few years to develop allergies in a new area.

[Carol in Cal.]

1 hour ago, Mergath said:

Have you been to Mexico before? You seem to think people are going to be cooking over campfires in front of shacks, drinking water out of a creek, and that if you get sick they'll have to haul you to the hospital on a donkey. ?

Just drink bottled water and you'll be fine. You can avoid food from street vendors if it'll make you feel better, but I've eaten street food in Mexico several times and never had so much as a stomachache. 

 

You're awfully condescending.  

And creek water can be delicious.  I know this from hiking in the Sierras.  

But yeah, if I get sick they will need to haul me to the hospital in a car, and it might be some distance away.  So I don't know whether I'm physically able to go.  That's what I'm trying to figure out.  It has historically been very common for visitors to Mexico to get horribly ill from the water and produce, and what I'm poking at is whether there are treatments to avoid that now, because if I get sick like that, I could very well die.  So yeah, I'm concerned.  

[Mergath]

I'm not trying to be condescending, but your post came across rather like someone from a large city who has to travel to a small rural area and is asking if they have cars and tvs. You're traveling to Mexico, not 1750. ?  It probably won't be any more smoky than any other place, and there very well might be some kind of medical facility nearby. You'll have to google it to find out for sure.

If you're more specific about the location, people might be able to give you a better idea of what to expect.

[Carol in Cal.]

All I know is 90 minutes drive from G.

I already know and have stipulated that they have cars.

They don't have hotels or motels or hostels.

I'm not willing to bet my life on 'probably not any more smokey'.  Mexico City is known to be highly polluted, and I don't know about this area.  Sounds like nobody else does either.  It was worth a shot.

[Amira]

Mexico City does have a lot of air pollution, although it’s more like a typical big city now and nothing like when it was one of the most polluted cities in the world.  They have done a lot to improve the air quality.  Guadalajara also has typical air pollution for a city of its size, but it’s certainly not smoky.  If you’re in a small place 90 minutes from Guadalajara, it’s almost impossible that the air pollution would be bad, except in very localized areas since that’s possible anywhere in the world.  If you can find out the name of the town, it’s possible that I have been there or in the area and can tell you more specifically, but I can also tell you that I never saw a place outside the cities in Mexico that had bad air quality in general.  Some individual homes can have problems, or certain times of year depending on whether fields are burned. Lots of sugar cane is grown in some areas around Guadalajara and it’s typical to burn the fields. But overall, I wouldn’t worry at all.

Medical faciities will depend on the size of the town you’re in, or if there is a larger place nearby.  In the worst case, Guadalajara is only 90 minutes away and it sounds like the conditions you are worried about would be able to handle a 90-minute wait to get to the hospital.  There would almost certainly be something much closer too that could handle an emergency.  I spent several nights in a hospital while I was in Guadalajara for different reasons and had a better opinion of that hospital than any I’d dealt with in the US.  

The old stories about tourists in Mexico getting sick are mostly outdated now.  Infrastructure has improved and a significant amount of the produce is grown for export so instead you’re buying locally what you’d be buying later at the grocery store in the US. If you are concerned, you can easily avoid riskier foods and I’m assuming you’d drink bottled water anyway.  We ate plenty of good meals in tiny places around Guadalajara and never had a problem.  Birria is a Jalisco specialty and is delicious.  Tortas ahogadas are also from Guadalajara and shouldn’t be missed, although you’d be much less likely to find them in more rural areas.  Carne ensu jugo is also really popular and easy to find.  Tamales are always delicious. The fruit is amazing.  We’d get cut up fruit from street stands, or buy it in the markets, or from roadside stands between cities.  One of the best smoothies I ever had was with starfruit and pineapple from a roadside stand going out toward the coast.  The coconuts are wonderful.  I’d buy fresh green coconuts all year and just eat them.  So delicious.  And the mangoes are better than any other place I’ve ever lived. And the berries south of Guadalajara are quite possibly the best in the entire world.  Plus there is tons of other fruit.  The only prep I ever did was to wash our fruit in clean water. 

If you spend any time in Guadalajara, try the chicharron tacos at the stand on Vidrio and Argentina.  They’re amazing.  Or the tacos de carnitas de atun at Boca de Cielo with passion fruit limonada.  There are lots of places to get tortas ahogadas.  

Truly, Mexico is an easy place to be.

[Alice]

15 hours ago, Carol in Cal. said:

 

But yeah, if I get sick they will need to haul me to the hospital in a car, and it might be some distance away.  So I don't know whether I'm physically able to go.  That's what I'm trying to figure out.  It has historically been very common for visitors to Mexico to get horribly ill from the water and produce, and what I'm poking at is whether there are treatments to avoid that now, because if I get sick like that, I could very well die.  So yeah, I'm concerned.  

 

You can get vaccines for Hep A and Typhoid, which are two of the most common food borne bacterial diarrheal illnesses. We see them in the US also and kids are now routinely vaccinated against Hep A. They are both safe vaccines and we see very little side effects with either. 

You can also get a prophylactic antibiotic from your doctor for travel. It isn’t always given but if you have had issues in the past and you tend to get sicker it might be a good idea for you. Talk to your doctor and see if he/she would prescribe it. 

 

 

[Carol in Cal.]

5 hours ago, Alice said:

 

You can also get a prophylactic antibiotic from your doctor for travel. It isn’t always given but if you have had issues in the past and you tend to get sicker it might be a good idea for you. Talk to your doctor and see if he/she would prescribe it. 

 

 

I've read that the antibiotic they like to give is Cipro, which I can't take.  Do you happen to know if something more standard, like Amoxycillin, would work?

[Alice]

Zithromax is the usual alternative, I believe. Amoxicillin would not work for typical GI pathogens. 

And I shouldn’t have used the term prophylactic...it’s not recommended to take ahead of time to prevent illness as there is a increasing rise of resistant bugs due to travelers who do this. Instead you can have the med with you in the case of moderate to severe diarrhea. 

 

[Farrar]

I can’t quite imagine traveling somewhere and not eating any fruits or veggies the whole time. ? Do people really still do that?

I know people get worried about travel. I definitely don’t want to be condescending about it. But I really don’t think this sounds like anything you need to worry about unless you have fragile health.

[madteaparty]

1 hour ago, Farrar said:

I can’t quite imagine traveling somewhere and not eating any fruits or veggies the whole time. ? Do people really still do that?

I know people get worried about travel. I definitely don’t want to be condescending about it. But I really don’t think this sounds like anything you need to worry about unless you have fragile health.

I don’t get it either. Especially because fruits and veggies are amazing in these climates, better than I would ever get at home (and I grow some of my own!).

maybe get things you can peel? I’ve travelled 5 months now and the kids and I have never got sick from food. Food, even in poorest countries has been far superior to what I get at home, and I refused to disclose my food budget in that thread ?

Re abx, I put DS and self on antimalarials (DD too young) while in parts of Indonesia. I chose Doxy and it was approx 100 times (really) cheaper to buy there. Should have brought some home bc Lyme here and price is insane. It was for nothing and I got more mosquito bites eating gelato in Rome last week?. But I’m glad I did it.

edited to add that with the asthma, I’d check on burning season. I don’t know if they do agricultural burning there but it was all over parts SE Asia, even some of the popular tourist areas

[shawthorne44]

 

To defend the OP, from the description 'fragile health' does seem to describe her.  And, as someone on the sturdy side, it still sucks to have Montezuma's revenge even in a plush hotel room.   Although don't let my getting it scare you, I was dumb.   I should have gotten a clue when the street vendor didn't charge because I was his first foreigner.   

It is the water/ice you have to avoid.   Even then, the water/ice is often fine, but if the penalty for being wrong is hospital then just assume all water/ice is contaminated.   Since your stay will be short, don't even use tap water for tooth-brushing.  

 

[J-rap]

If you want to be extra cautious, you can drink bottled water (or pop) or hot beverages like coffee or tea.  Stay away from fresh fruits and vegetables unless it has a peel that you remove.  Don't ask for ice cubes in your drinks.  You can stay away from street vendors.  Can you cook your own food?  Things like tortillas and bread and rice should be safe!  I'd feel pretty comfortable about traveling there and just eating what I see everyone else eating, but I get that you have extra issues to consider and you don't want to be worrying about it either.  The last time we traveled to Damascus, many tourists were getting quite sick.  I was so worried that I ate only Maria cookies and hot tea for four days.  (And I didn't get sick!)  

We have traveled to several countries where we've all gotten food poisoning and my ds ended up in the hospital because of it once, but I've never had food poisoning in the USA from eating out.  So, I do think there is a higher likelihood (even if it is very small) in some other countries.  Ever since the last time I had food poisoning abroad, I've carried antibiotics with me when I travel to some countries.  I'm sure you can get some.  However, I'm certain you can take precautions that will pretty much guarantee that you won't get sick from the food or water.

As far as the asthma, bring your inhaler and whatever else you do.  My sister-in-law lived in that area for years with asthma, but never had problems.

I hope you go and have a wonderful time!

 

[Jaybee]

For any fresh fruit and vegetables in places that are rampant with parasites or other bacteria, etc.--buy a small bottle of bleach from a local store and soak the fruit in a bowl of water with a couple of drops of bleach for 10-20 minutes, then rinse with clean (bottled) water. (Cheap plastic bowls are probably readily available, if needed.) For me, no fresh fruit would be the hard part, if I were in an area for several days. Vegetables are usually cooked in some form in the restaurants, so you wouldn't have to worry about those, but avoid salads. If you do want raw vegetables because you feel you aren't getting what you need nutritionally, soak some cucumbers, tomatoes, etc., like the above. Do what others have suggested and only drink bottled water/other drinks, and brush your teeth with it as well. I've lived in several countries where precautions like these were common (yes, even these days). I don't know particularly about this part of Mexico, but if you are wanting to be more cautious due to your health issues, these should help. Personally, I have had more issues with airplane food...but I did get a waterborne bacteria one time that wreaked havoc on me (not in Mexico).

[Katy]

To be clear, I'm not medically fragile and I would eat raw fruits I could peel, as well as anything cooked.  But in the OP's case if avoiding raw fruit is going to help avoid stomach bugs, so be it.