Traveler's Revenge
 

Has anyone had issues this TR at Wilderness or Santuary Camps.
According to the travel clinic's advise we should not eat raw vegtables, salads or leafy greens which really bums me out. I know everyones system is different but is this just standard travel advise.
Also, what about ice ??
FYI, I have had TR everytime I have been in Mexico ... just my bad luck, even being careful!
31 days and counting...
Brenda

Next time you feel your "tummy" may be in danger, try chewing Pepto Bismol tablets 3-4 times a day. This advice was given to me by a pharmacist and it worked for 4 of us in Mexico and also for a friend who went to Egypt. Something about coating the stomach lining long enough that the "bad guys" can't get in!!

Any food provided for guests at reputable camps such as Wilderness or Sanctuary is safe to consume. I have never had a problem eating at any camp. And I eat at least part of everything put in front of me.

In Mexico you may have eaten at a wider range of establishments that were not as concerned with catering to foreign visitors unfamiliar with local bacteria.

I agree on the Pepto tablets, even the Walgreen's equivalents, are trip savers.

Your observation that this is "standard advice" is correct, I believe. I would adhere to it in hostels, open markets, local restaurants and similar.

Enjoy your trip!

Thnks for your advise ..my TA responded with this advice:

Hi Brenda,

Eat everything at the camps - ice is even purified. Use bottled water
for brushing your teeth. More people end up with sunburns than upset
stomachs...Factually more travelers get sick visiting Australia than
South Africa...interesting hey?

We carried multiple stomach remedies on our trip last year, and the travel clinic at Johns' Hopkins even gave us an Rx for Cipro -- told us to use that as a last resort if Immodium or such didn't work. We never had to use any of it.

With the exception of maybe remote areas in South Africa, their water is perfectly fine to drink and use for whatever.

Can't be certain re Botswana, but stick with bottled water and you should be fine. You'll find that purified water is used for ice, cooking, cleaning/washing veggies, so you shouldn't have any problems. You may, however, in all places, overdose on desserts.

But, always remember to have tummy meds, just in case (regardless where you travel), but like uhoh_busted, we've traveled with Cipro and have never had to use any of these.

Thanks for all the feedback. Our docs have given us an arsenal of meds which I hope to not have to use.
With the exception to an overdose of dessert...
29 days and counting,
Brenda

I'm a vegetarian, so I concentrate on the salads and vegetables in the safari camps and have never been sick...except for the time I got food poisoning from a fast food place in Johannesburg...but that could happen in any big city anywhere in the world. So take a few remedies, but don't obsess, I think it's healthier to be out in the bush than back home in the US!

And at each camp, they will tell you if you can drink/brush teeth with tap water or not, it varies from camp to camp. And you can pretty much trust their advice.

I recently spent 2 weeks in Egypt and prior to the trip the travel clinic advised me to get a script for antibiotic from my doc so I got a script for Sumycin. I started taking it 2 days before the trip and took it every day during the trip and had no problem with TR and I ate just about everything. I had absolutely no side effects from taking it. The only annoying thing was having to take it at least 30 minutes before lying down...was hard to remember some nights. Some people told me to get Cipro but after doing some research on it, I really didn't feel comfortable with it...plus a friend took it on a trip to South Africa and said the side effects were worse than the side effects of the Yellow Fever shot.