My Experiences with Tap Water and Street Food in Latin America

When I told people I was going to Guatemala last summer, most people I talked to had one of two things to say: be careful and/or don’t drink the water. Most people also didn’t know the first thing about Guatemala, including where it was. I can’t blame them. I barely knew where Guatemala was and certainly didn’t know the first thing about its history, culture, or the United States’ government’s role in their 30 year civil war, which just ended 10 years ago. So now I have learned that Guatemala is in Central America, just below Mexico and next to Belize. To the south follows El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. Alter crossing from Panama into Colombia you enter South America. Here’s a map if you’re interested.

So back to the water story. I spent 5 weeks in Guatemala brushing my teeth with bottled water for fear of swallowing just a little bit. When I ordered something with ice cubes I made sure to ask if the ice was made from agua puro. I even shaved with bottled water I was so paranoid from the stories I had heard from my gringo friends and family in the states. I was convinced something really bad would happen if the water penetrated me in any way.

As for food, I was scared after reading about the potential for all sorts of diseases from undercooked or poorly washed food after reading about the health risks in Lonely Planet. It took me 4 weeks to build up the courage to eat something from one of the street vendors, which happened to be a pupusa, a Salvadoran food that I would become much better acquainted with 8 months later in El Salvador. If you’ve never had one, it’s a small, round, fat tortilla stuffed with cheese, bean, and sometimes pork or something else, and melted on a grill or sometimes, if you’re lucky, in a brick oven. It’s one of the tastiest things I’ve had in the 3 countries I’ve been to so far, although it’s hard to match a Mexican street taco with hot sauce and lime. I had my days of diarrhea in Guatemala, but nothing too bad. I never felt sick to my stomach from anything. It’s inevitable that you’re going to pick up new germs in a new place, but I didn’t phase me as much as some others. It just want to show me how different everyone’s body is in what it can take.

So after coming back home and finishing my last social work course, I headed to Mexico with the resolve to eat off the streets, which I did with zeal. Perhaps one of my most favorite activities became eating a late night taco from the cheapest street vendor I could find. Sometimes we were even lucky enough to find those 3 for a dollar hot dog deals. They’re serious about their condiments on the hot dogs down there, which usually come with ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, tomatoes, onions, and jalapenos. I usually opted for the first two and the last. I even concocted my own 5am special when I got back to the house, a hot dog wrapped in a tortilla with the 3 condiments of choice and melted cheese as an adhesive to keep the tortilla rolled. It’s pretty sweet…don’t knock it til you try it.

Anyhow in Mexico I was still scared of the water. My friend Dan mentioned that he drank 5 glasses in Mexico when he was drunk one time, but we both agreed that the high level of alcohol must have killed the parasites because he didn’t get sick. We were, after all, studying medicine at the time and knew exactly what we were talking about. So I got up the courage to brush my teeth and shave with the faucet water, although it did have a bit of a funky smell to it. And I stopped asking if the ice cubes were made from agua puro, in Mexico called something else that I can’t remember.

I came back home for Christmas with more courage, and a theory – that it was possible to drink the water, my body just needed to become accustomed. My theory was to break my body in slowly, first taking the melted ice cube water and then working up to more. When I came to El Salvador in late January, I was still careful at first. Again, as with the last two countries, I got a little diarrhea as I was growing accustomed to the new bacteria. When I moved from San Salvador to San Francisco Chinameca in early February, I was becoming less worried about it. I ate from local places all the time. In fact, the worst diarrhea I’ve had in all three countries has come from eating at one of the American-style fast food joints. In El Salvador KFC put me on the latrine for a whole morning. In Guatemala it was the one-time trip to McDonalds and I think the same in Mexico. And I got worse diarrhea when I returned to the states and made my first meal greasy friend chicken tenders and fries from the diner. My body had apparently been accustomed to eating healthier and the Jersey grease was a shock.

So, back to my water story. I realized after a few days at the house in Chinamequita that I had been drinking the wrong Sunny D type orange drink, the one that was made with agua potable (potable water), and not the one made from agua filtrado, the “safe” kind. I even drank the refrescos made at the house with the water from the tap. This took a little getting used to, but I was never sick from it. Still, I had a theory that the reason I could drink the Sunny D potable water drinks was because they must be made with a higher standard potable water in order to sell throughout the country. Another scientific fact directly from my medical background. However, last weekend, we hiked up a volcano, which took us 5 hours to climb and another 2 and a half to descend. The view from the top was wonderful and worth the walk, but it took a lot of energy to say the least. On the way down I was parched and out of my bottled water, so I figured what the heck it was time to go for it. I took a few swigs of the potable water, which had been taken directly from the spicket in Chinamequita. A little later I drank more, maybe 15 or 20 ounces in total. I still was a little scared, but nothing happened. I have now succeeded in becoming accustomed. Of course, it’s still probably not the best water to drink, and there was a cholera outbreak in Chinamequita about 6 years ago, resulting in some deaths. But when there aren’t any other options or when I’m drinking refrescos, a juice like drink made from water and crushed fruit, I know I shouldn’t have any problems.

So, all of my talk of water and my stomach problems is to tell you about my experiences, and perhaps shed some light on the hype. Most people think you’ll outright die or get severely sick from water or food in Latin America. For many people, this indeed happens. I think I have a stronger stomach than most, probably because I don’t take as much care with washing my hands all the time before eating, vacuuming the house, or other normal US habits. It’s my theory, again, grounded in empirical medical research that I’ve become famous for in the medical community, that if you’re not overly clean in the States, you’ll build up your system a bit. Of course, I’m sure everyone’s body is different, but I think we all have the capacity to build up our systems. So when someone tells you it’s impossible to drink the water in Latin America, tell them you have a silly gringo friend named Rocky who’s been doing it for a couple months without problems. As weird as it might sound, I think this story has some consciousness-raising value. We don’t learn much about Latin America, or the rest of the world for that matter, in the States. At least, we didn’t in my K-12 experiences, and if I hadn’t studied Sociology and made an effort to read on my own, it’s possible I could have went through most of college without learning much as well. So here is one lesson, you won’t necessarily die from food on the street or water from the tap. One more stereotype we can break.