Montezuma's Revenge

I know better than to order a salad at a restaurant in Mexico - with lettuce, tomatoes and other veggies that would be very hard to wash with bottled water - but I let down my guard yesterday when the nice waiter said, "si, agua purificado".

I have noticed a certain attitude when I ask about whether the water is bottled. I get the feeling that the locals here don't take seriously that gringos can't drink the local water.  One woman seemed kind of insulted, like I was disrespecting her ice cone stand. Another man seemed to imply that it is non-sense, that we just need to toughen up.

I am not saying that they want us to get sick, as the name "Montezuma's Revenge" implies. Another name for it is the "Aztec two step", which removes the connotation, but I am not sure I "get it" (does it refer to the dash to the bathroom?). In other countries it is called by other names - in India it's the Dehli Belly -  in Turkey it's the Turkey Trots. No hint of malice there.

But to be fair to the idea that we need to toughen up, in a sense they are right. My guess (and it's just that) is that in the U. S. the chlorine and fluoride in the water kills off some of the biology in our gut. When we go to Mexico, where (again, I am guessing) they don't use chlorine or fluoride in their tap water, we get exposed to things we are not used to.

This will all be worth it if I do build up a tolerance to the foreign microbes. Until then, I'll just lay low.