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GENERAL HEALTH: Most day-to-day Mazatlan health problems are easily preventable, and fall into four categories: Water, Food Preparation, Spices, and Alcohol.
WATER: The water treatment systems in Mazatlan produce water that meets most modern world standards for purity and cleanliness. However, those ratings are for water as it leaves the plant…the pipes in-between the plant and your house may be old and highly suspect. Everybody (gringos and Mexicans alike) drink bottled water, and restaurants universally serve purified water from the standard 5-gallon (18 liters) containers and serve ice delivered from an ice company that uses purified water as well. Bottled water is also available at every grocery store, from the largest to the tiniest, in ½, 1, and 1-1/2 liter bottles. If you stick to bottled water, you’ll never have a problem.
FOOD PREPARATION: Most everybody cleans their food with water treated with Microdyn, an anti-microb agent mixed with water (it purifies drinking water as well, so use tap water with Microdyn rather than bottled water). You can find Microdyn in nearly any grocery store in Mazatlan. Add 8 drops to each liter of water, and soak your fruits and vegetables in the mixture for 10 minutes. You only need to treat produce that is going to be eaten un-cooked whole or with the skin…for example treat celery and tomatoes, but there’s no need to treat melon. Produce with lots of ‘wrinkles’ is most important to treat…for example, lettuce and cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, strawberries, etc.
Basic conditions of cleanliness should be observed before eating at street carts. Watch to see that the hands that handle the money are covered in plastic gloves or bags, or that the person handling the money is not handling food. We’re aware of many guidebooks that advise against eating from the food carts on the basis of health and sanitation reasons, but feel that their views are a tad over paranoid. All the carts are regularly inspected for sanitation, and carts serving poor quality food don’t stay in business long. There are a few things you might want to do if you’re concerned. Squeeze some lime (“limon”) on your tacos before eating them…every cart has limes, and the juice is a natural anti-bacterial, and adds a flavorful ‘zing’ to your food. Also, if your stomach tends to be sensitive, take some Pepto-Bismal before your meal.
SPICES: Mexicans LOVE chili…a visit to any supermarket will reveal an entire section of canned chilis and an antire section of fresh and dried chilis in the produce department. They’re used to it, but YOUR stomach is probably NOT. Go easy on the salsas, at least for starters. Ask for your food “no picante” (not spicy”) or with “salsa picante a lado” (spicy salsa on the side). Again, Pepto-Bismal is good protection for sensitive (or possibly-sensitive) stomachs.
ALCOHOL: In our opinion (and we can personally testify to this), excess consumption of alcohol is probably the number-one cause of “Montezuna’s Revenge”. When on vacation, people tend to ‘cut loose’ and imbibe in considerably larger quantities of tequila, beer, and other booze than their system is familiar with. If you’re only here for a week, well, we’re sure you can justify it when you get back to normal back home.
If you’re moving here, it can be all too easy to slip into a routine of daily happy hours, sunset parties, and other social gatherings which revolve around alcoholic beverages. Monitor yourself, and know that AA meetings and support are available in Mazatlan if you start to slide down the slippery path of alcoholism.
SAFETY: Is Mexico safe? Is Mazatlan safer than where I live now? The answer to the first question is “Yes, but it’s not perfect”. The answer to the second question is “Yes, probably much more so, but it’s not perfect”. Mexico is a VERY different country, MUCH more so than, say, the difference between the U.S. and Canada. Tourism is a huge industry for Mexico, the third largest generator of revenue in fact (behind oil and foreign remittances by Mexicans living abroad), so the country in general and the towns of Mazatlan in particular are very protective of tourists (even those ‘tourists’ who live here year-‘round). You will see army and police personnel with machine guns occasionally. This doesn’t mean there’s a gang of bandits about…it’s merely a sign that Mexico intends to protect a valuable asset – tourists.
Are there ‘banditos’ here? I’ve never seen any, except for the timeshare hustlers, but that’s not to say they don’t exist. Your chance of a first-hand experience with violent crime here are drastically less than in Canada, even more so than in the U.S. While this is true in most of Mexico, it is particularly valid here in Mazatlan where tourism is virtually the ONLY industry, and therefore the focal point of the government’s protective stance.
Taking normal precautions, just like you would at home, will keep you safe: Avoid walking unlighted streets at night, keep your money safe, don’t flaunt expensive jewelry in unfamiliar surroundings. Your safety is not likely to be compromised by a criminal, but more often by other hazards which you might not even have imagined...read on:
TRAFFIC: Mexicans are aggressive drivers. This, however, seems to be the norm as opposed to ‘the States’ or Canada where you have a mix of overly-aggressive and overly-cautious drivers and everything in between, which is the base cause of accidents. As it is, since EVERYBODY drives aggressively here, it all seems to flow very smoothly (though not quietly…Mexicans love to communicate with their car horns). Indeed, most gringos are amazed at the considerable LACK of road accidents here, compared with their daily experiences back home.
Driving at night outside of the city is widely recognized as something to avoid if at all possible. This is not due to gangs of banditos setting up roadblocks to rape and kill, but because stray cows and other farm animals tend to be attracted to a nice warm stretch of asphalt as a place on which to sleep (an even more serious ‘roadblock’). Of course there’s also always the question of how sober the other guy coming at you might be.
The real danger from traffic is when you are a pedestrian. Here, the pedestrian does NOT have the right-of-way. It’s important to recognize this immediately, and wait for large breaks in traffic before crossing a street, and to check BEHIND YOU before crossing for vehicles which intend to turn the corner across your path.
SIDEWALKS: How dangerous can a sidewalk be? The answer lies in the wonderful lack of lawyers and the legal difficulty in filing liability lawsuits. Amazingly, in Mexico, a person is actually LIABLE for their OWN MISTAKES! So forget about suing the restaurant that served you the steaming hot coffee you ordered and then spilled on yourself, causing 3rd-degree burns. No lawyer in the city, state, or country will take your case.
What’s this all have to do with sidewalks? Well, in Mazatlan, they are not always level, even, or flat. Sometimes they’ve got little holes in them where the cover for the water access has been removed, or they’ve simply settled and cracked. In older parts of town, one section of sidewalk was built first, but later land-owners on either side decided to make their sidewalks a little higher, or lower. Sometimes the sidewalks suddenly become ramps or driveways. Curbs can be a few inches high or as high as your knee, maybe with steps and maybe without.
We know that especially when you first arrive, your tendency is to be looking up and around, not at your feet. Try to do BOTH: WATCH YOUR STEP!
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