Drinking water in Cozumel

[Diver Kat]

Yes exactly Kat...and (as you know) that glass of water came from a 5 gallon jug of purified water that every restaurant and home on the island has, NOT the tap.

You have to laugh if you think about it ... how many 5 gallon bottles are actually on Coz? For such a tiny place, I bet you have more than we do in the state of Texas!:11:

 

[diver 85]

Coz is not Central America ... you have to remember it's a small island that depends greatly on tourist. They don't want everyone getting sick - it's bad for business. I've had the water and ice - in a plain old glass - in any number of restaurants - even the tiny family places, and never had any trouble. My one bout of food poisoning? From the Embassy Suites in San Antonio ... go figure!

Thanks for the correction.......how long has CZM been 'safe' then???......btw, how did you know it was food poisoning, cultures confirmed it???...TIA....

 

[halocline]

It's a myth that Mexicans have some special immunity to digestive problems associated with tainted water and/or food; in fact, they get sick just like the rest of us. So, you can pretty certain that nobody there is going to produce ice meant for consumption out of unsafe water, especially in a relatively industrialized/modernized place like Cozumel.

In terms of tap water, I don't even drink it in San Antonio, so maybe my opinion is a little skewed. I have gotten sick in Mexico ( I travel there several times a year) and have ultimately concluded that I might have gotten a bad bottle of water; it does happen.

For the truly cautious/paranoid, you can invest $100 in a little hiking filter that will remove nasties from almost any water source and easily pack in your suitcase.

 

[ggunn]

read about the ice machine in that "do you eat the salsa" thread.

Doesn't sound like they are all clean or purified. (to be fair, that could happen anywhere, even the US, though if they establishment lets it go to crap).

It was probably my account that you read about my getting sick from accidentally drinking ice melt, though "ice machine" possibly implies a machine that makes ice - the one I spoke of wasn't, it was just one of those freezers that keeps ice, and it was broken and I knew it (it had about a foot of scummy green water in it). I would never have knowingly used anything I got out of it as drink ice.

There are those freezers all over the island, but the ice that they are stocked with all comes from only one or two ice plants, and the water they use to make the ice is purified. I doubt very seriously that the ice in a soda in a restaurant made you sick. It very well could have been something that got to you from somewhere else and not the restaurant at all.

 

[rje634]

...snip... It very well could have been something that got to you from somewhere else and not the restaurant at all.

I have to agree with you there Gordon. I worked as a chef for 18 years and the one thing I learned from my yearly food safety courses is that it is almost never the last meal that you ate that makes you sick! Unless you have an allergic reaction to what you've eaten, food born illness takes 24 to 48 hours to affect you. Everybody always assumes that it is the last thing that they ate.

 

[diver 85]

I have to agree with you there Gordon. I worked as a chef for 18 years and the one thing I learned from my yearly food safety courses is that it is almost never the last meal that you ate that makes you sick! Unless you have an allergic reaction to what you've eaten, food born illness takes 24 to 48 hours to affect you. Everybody always assumes that it is the last thing that they ate.

That's why I asked Diver Kat how his was dx'ed.......GEAUX TIGERS........

 

[sharky60]

I was told by a local resident that "the locals don't even drink the tap water!" that says it all for me.

all the ice is made at the ice plant from purified water

just because someone has drank from the tap and didn't get sick, that just means that they didn't pick up a bacteria when they opened the tap...I doesn't mean that you will be that lucky.

 

[mike_s]

Pancho's definitely doesn't serve tap water...so it had to have been something else...but I'm sorry you didn't enjoy your meal there. It's a Cozumel landmark with an excellent reputation.

Yup, that's Pancho's Backyard - behind Los Cinco Soles. (My favorite store.) Actually every time we've gone to Pancho's they try to sell us bottled water, and we disappoint them and say "no, just a glass of water." We've never gotten sick. So I doubt it was the water, maybe something in the food didn't agree with you ....

Christi. I'll have to take your word for it since you live there.....

The food at Pancho's was great though.... I really enjoyed my meal there. (It's just my stomach didn't enjoy it later....)

maybe it wasn't the water.... but I figure it had to be since I drank iced coke there. Anyway... nothing to worry about now since that's been several years.

I'd prob try it again on a return trip.

As for Cinco Soles, that's one of my wifes favorite stores there also.

 

[ggunn]

GEAUX TIGERS........

I second dat, me! And HOODAT, too! ;^)

 

[Diver Kat]

Thanks for the correction.......how long has CZM been 'safe' then???

Don't know ... I've been going there a lot in the last 5 years, a few times in the years previous to that, with no troubles about drinking water in restaurants. I'd guess they've been pretty serious about it for years......

btw, how did you know it was food poisoning, cultures confirmed it???...TIA....

It was confirmed ... I wasn't the only person ... apparently they used a batch of oil gone bad to do the home fries in for the breakfast buffet that morning .... It wasn't pretty!!!